Search from various English teachers...
United States flagEd_K
"to" meaning "the" In the sentences, "Ewa urządza mieśkanie. Ciągle coś przestawa, presuwa, to szafę, to stół--cały dzień się krząta." why is it not tą szafę? When "to" is used as the article "the" does it not need to reflect the gender of the noun it precedes?

Answers · 7

0
Thanks Ludzik.
0
Since the question is not resolved yet: This "to..., to..." construct is used to put emphasis on the number of items of interest, or the scale of a process, etc ; it's not used often now, but you can still meet it in literature, among several other variants: "(a) to deszcz, (a) to śnieg" "(a) to deszcz, (a) to (znów) śnieg" "to deszcz, to śnieg, (a) to (znowu) mgła" Sometimes "czy" is employed in this way too: "czy to maciek, czy (to) piotrek, czy ja, czy mama, on nigdy nie ma czasu". The bottom line is you get the impression of someone probably being irated with it, so it could be translated along the lines of: "She's constantly moving things over, the wardrobe, the table, even her cat got lost eventually".
0
przestawia (i was missing) pRZesuwa simply this "to" refers to the verbs not to szafa. It may be a bit too complicated for first 2 weeks of learning. you could say "to przestawia tę szafę" (by the way try not to say "tą" and never write "tą" although you may hear it quite often, "tę" is proper)
0
Thanks Marzenna. I do realize that there are no articles in Polish. However, I was trying to figure out why "to" was being used for "this" and not the proper feminine declension. I didn't stop to think that to...to could mean something entirely different, like czy...czy, being either...or. Thanks for correcting my spelling as well. I've only been reviewing Polish for about 2 weeks now.
0
Sorry, one more thing: Ewa urządza mieSZkanie

Still haven’t found your answers?

Write down your questions and let the native speakers help you!

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn a language from the comfort of your own home. Browse our selection of experienced language tutors and enroll in your first lesson now!

Start Learning Today