Breakdown of On nie tylko śpiewa, ale także tańczy.
on
he / it (m)
tańczyć
to dance
śpiewać
to sing
nie tylko
not only (nie tylko..., ale także...)
ale także
but also
Questions & Answers about On nie tylko śpiewa, ale także tańczy.
Is nie tylko... ale także... a fixed phrase for "not only... but also..."?
Yes! This is a very common pairing in Polish. You can use it exactly like its English equivalent to connect two related actions, traits, or objects.
Could I use też instead of także here?
Why does śpiewa end in -a but tańczy ends in -y for the "he" form?
They belong to different verb conjugation groups. Śpiewać belongs to the -am/-asz group, so the third-person form just drops the -m to become śpiewa. Tańczyć belongs to the -ę/-ysz group, so its third-person form ends in -y.
Can I drop the pronoun on since the verb endings already tell us who is doing the action?
You can drop it if the context of who you are talking about is already established, but keeping on is very natural here. When you have a longer sentence contrasting two actions, keeping the pronoun at the start helps anchor the subject clearly before introducing the complex conjunction.
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