Breakdown of Nie lubię chemii, wolę biologię.
nie
no / not
lubić
to like
woleć
to prefer
chemia
chemistry
biologia
biology
Questions & Answers about Nie lubię chemii, wolę biologię.
Why is it chemii instead of chemię in the first part of the sentence?
The verb lubić normally takes the Accusative case (so you would say lubię chemię). However, when you negate a verb that takes the Accusative, the direct object changes to the Genitive case. This is called the Genitive of negation. Therefore, nie lubię must be followed by the Genitive form, chemii.
Why does biologia become biologię in the second part?
The verb woleć (to prefer) takes the Accusative case for its direct object. Since this part of the sentence is positive and not negated, the noun biologia takes its regular Accusative singular ending -ę, becoming biologię.
Why does chemia end with a double 'i' in the Genitive form (chemii)?
Feminine nouns ending in -ia take a double -ii in the Genitive case if they are of foreign origin. Because chemia (chemistry) is an imported word, it changes to chemii. For comparison, a native Polish word ending in -mia like ziemia (earth) only takes a single 'i' (ziemi).
How would I combine these to say 'I prefer biology to chemistry'?
To express preferring one thing over another with the verb woleć, you use the preposition od (from/than) followed by the Genitive case. You would say: Wolę biologię od chemii.
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