What is missing? / looking for ...
If we use the Genetive case in 'situations when something is missing' then surely we should use it after 'I want' / 'you want'. If we want something it is missing .... ?
This seems to make sense . In reality you will see 'to want' being followed by both accusitive and genetive forms.
- Chcę wodę (Accusative)
- Chcę wody (Genetive)
So what is going on? It's a question of context. Do you want the water right now because you are thirsty? Then it is missing and you use Genetive. If you want water the next time you go to the supermarket then it is not really missing right now so you use Accusative.
This is not something to get hung up about. Use either case. Just be aware of it as you will see and hear the different cases in use.
However there are some verbs where you are showing that something is definitely missing. The most common is:
- I'm looking for ... - Szukam ...
- I'm looking for water - Szukam wody
We saw with 'I have' that we could get 'you have' by replacing the last 'm' with 'sz' - Mam -> Masz. This is true of almost all Polish verbs including 'Szukam'. So what is 'you are looking for'?. Press the play button to check.
- You are looking for ... -
We also saw in a previous lesson how you could get the 'he/she/it form' of a verb if we know the 'you form'
- He/she/it is looking for ... -
What are you looking for?
In previous lessons we've seen:
- What do you think? - Co myślisz?
- What do you like? - Co lubisz?
- What do you have? - Co masz?
- What do you want? - Co chcesz?
'Co' means 'what' but only in the Nominative and Accusative cases. In the Genetive case (as we mentioned in the last lesson):
- What - Czego
So how would you say 'What are you looking for?' Press the play button to check you got it right.
- What are you looking for?
I forms and you forms of verbs
Sort these into the I form and you form of verbs
Drag and drop all the dark blue boxes to their correct locations
Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
Think out the Polish
Remember all nouns and adjectives are Genetive when we are looking for things
Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
I'm looking for water | |
He is looking for a bank | |
She is looking for a good hotel | |
Are you are looking for wine? | |
Are you looking for a laptop? | |
He is looking for a car | |
She is looking for a good radio | |
I'm looking for good food | |
Are you looking for a new house? | |
I'm looking for Adam | |
Are you looking for Aneta? | |
I'm looking for ecological wine | |
She is looking for a specific color | |
I think that he is looking for mineral water | |
Changing nouns to genetive
In the last lesson we saw that 'why' is 'dlaczego'
In this exercise we'll include nouns you might not know but to practice changing them into genetive form while asking 'why' questions.
For example, the first sentence is 'Why are you looking for beer?'. The Polish for 'beer' is 'piwo' so the correct answer is 'Dlaczego szukasz piwa?'Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
Why are you looking for beer? | (piwo)
|
Why is she looking for Adam? | |
Why is he looking for Ewa? | |
Why are you looking for a hotel? | |
Why is she looking for a boyfriend? | |
Why are you looking for a shirt? | (koszula)
|
Why are you looking for ecological wine? | |
Why are you looking for a new laptop | |
Why is she looking for a bank? | |
Why is she looking for a new house? | |
Why is he looking for a doctor? | (lekarz)
|
Why are you looking for a/the cat? | |
Why is he looking for food? | |
Refresher
Revise earlier words and phrases to keep them fresh! Match the Polish and Engish below
Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
Nouns
Tick all of the sentences which are gramatically wrong.
Tick all of the boxes you believe are correct