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

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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

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I'm looking for water	q2\|Szukam wody

He is looking for a bank	q2\|On szuka banku

She is looking for a good hotel	q2\|Ona szuka dobrego hotelu

Are you are looking for wine?	q2\|Czy szukasz wina?

Are you looking for a laptop?	q2\|Czy szukasz laptopa?

He is looking for a car	q2\|On szuka samochodu

She is looking for a good radio	q2\|Ona szuka dobrego radia

I'm looking for good food	q2\|Szukam dobrego jedzenia

Are you looking for a new house?	q2\|Czy szukasz nowego domu?

I'm looking for Adam	q2\|Szukam Adama

Are you looking for Aneta?	q2\|Czy szukasz Anety?

I'm looking for ecological wine	q2\|Szukam ekologicznego wina

She is looking for a specific color	q2\|Ona szuka specificznego koloru

I think that he is looking for good water	q2\|Myślę, że on szuka dobrej wody

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) q3\|Dlaczego szukasz piwa?

Why is she looking for Adam?	q3\|Dlaczego ona szuka Adama?

Why is he looking for Ewa?	q3\|Dlaczego on szuka Ewy?

Why are you looking for a hotel?	q3\|Dlaczego szukasz hotelu?

Why is she looking for a boyfriend?	q3\|Dlaczego ona szuka chłopaka?

Why are you looking for a shirt?	(koszula) q3\|Dlaczego szukasz koszuly?

Why are you looking for ecological wine?	q3\|Dlaczego szukasz ekologicznego wina?

Why are you looking for a new laptop	q3\|Dlaczego szukasz nowego laptopa?

Why is she looking for a bank?	q3\|Dlaczego ona szuka banku?

Why is she looking for a new house?	q3\|Dlaczego ona szuka nowego domu?

Why is he looking for a doctor?	(lekarz) q3\|Dlaczego on szuka lekarza?

Why are you looking for a/the cat?	q3\|Dlaczego szukasz kota?

Why is he looking for food?	q3\|Dlaczego on szuka jedzenia?