In Polish, when you give something to someone, you typically use the Dative case for the recipient and the Accusative case for the object. However, when you deny or deprive someone of something, the object switches to the Genitive case. The person being denied remains in the Dative.
Denying Access and Privileges
The most common verbs for denying or refusing are odmawiać (imperfective) and odmówić (perfective). Put the person in the Dative and the revoked privilege or restricted item in the Genitive.
| The boss denied them this privilege and the new authorization. | Szef odmówił im tego przywileju i nowego uprawnienia. |
This structure is highly useful in professional or bureaucratic settings when dealing with passes, licenses, or general admission.
| The manager denies the employee the pass to the office and forbids him admission. | Kierownik odmawia pracownikowi przepustki do biura i zabrania mu wstępu. |
Skimping and Begrudging
The verbs skąpić (to skimp on) and its perfective counterpart poskąpić (to begrudge) follow the exact same double-object rule. By being stingy, you are essentially denying someone a resource.
| Why do you skimp on freedom for your employees? | Dlaczego skąpisz swobody swoim pracownikom? |
| In the end, the authorities begrudged the citizens these privileges. | W końcu władza poskąpiła obywatelom tych przywilejów. |
Sparing Someone the Trouble
Interestingly, you also use the Dative + Genitive combination when doing someone a favor by "sparing" them from something negative. The verb oszczędzić (to spare) takes the Dative for the person being spared, and the Genitive for the unpleasant thing they are avoiding.
| Spare me the details and the stress. | Oszczędź mi szczegółów i stresu. |
Because these verbs of denying, skimping, and sparing share the same grammatical government, you can easily use them together:
| We are not skimping on money for you, but we want to spare you the risk. | Nie skąpimy ci pieniędzy, ale chcemy ci oszczędzić ryzyka. |