To have or not to have?
Feb 27
Tags: accusative, cases, genitive, verbs
The verb mieć – to have – is more tricky than it seems. You probably already know that you have to inflect the noun following it – your direct object – since it would be a shame if the richness of Polish cases went to waste. The case used, however, will differ depending on whether your statement is a positive or a negative one.
If you do have something, you put the noun in the Accusative case. Now, remember that Polish inflects pretty much everything, so if you adorn your noun with any modifiers – adjectives, possesive pronouns or numerals, for example – you put them in the Accusative as well. Together with the noun, these extras constitute a noun phrase, and should be treated equally – in the fancy linguistic jargon it’s called agreement. Easy, right?
To jest książka.This is a book. Nominative case, so that you can see the basic form of the noun.Mam książkę.I have a book. Accusative case.
To jest twoja nowa, interesująca książka.This is your new, interesting book. Nominative case.Mam twoją nową, interesującą książkę.I have your new, interesting book. Accusative case.Note how the modifiers – even the prounoun twoja – have changed. It’s not every day you encounter a language which does that to pronouns.
What about not having something? The same general rule applies, but you’ll use another case – the Genitive. Don’t ask why. Just inflect your noun phrase accordingly.
Nie mam książki.I don’t have a book. Genitive case.Nie mam twojej nowej, interesującej książki.I don’t have your new, interesting book. Genitive case.
Now, this distinction between the two cases, the Accusative and the Genitive, is something you’ll encounter very often. In short, if in a positive statement the object takes the Accusative, in a negative statement it takes the Genitive:
Piszę książkę.I’m writing a book.Nie piszę książki.I’m not writing a book.
Lubię tę stronę.I like this site.Nie lubię tej strony.I don’t like this site.
Czytam ten nowy, gruby, polski słownik.I’m reading this new, thick Polish dictionary.Nie czytam tego nowego, grubego, polskiego słownika.I’m not reading this new, thick Polish dictionary.
Lubimy polską gramatykę i ortografię.We like Polish grammar and orthography.Nie lubimy polskiej gramatyki i ortografii.We don’t like Polish grammar and orthography.
The correct answer to the question in the title is, obviously: it depends on which grammatical case you’re more comfortable using.
May 27 at 18:55
Memorizing all the Polish cases and the different ending of the nouns on a table is not a big problem, but knowing when to use each case is becoming a nightmare for me. I wish it was much simpler… just saying!