Breakdown of Właściciel surowo zabrania nieletnim kupować alkohol.
kupować
to buy
zabraniać
to forbid
właściciel
owner
alkohol
alcohol
Questions & Answers about Właściciel surowo zabrania nieletnim kupować alkohol.
Why is nieletnim in the Dative case here?
The verb zabraniać (to forbid) requires the Dative case for the person being forbidden from doing something. You can think of it as forbidding an action to someone.
Doesn't zabraniać usually take the Genitive case? Why is alkohol in the Accusative?
Yes, if you forbid a noun directly, it takes the Genitive case. However, in this sentence the target of zabraniać is the action kupować. The word alkohol is the direct object of kupować. Since kupować itself is not grammatically negated with the word nie, it takes its normal Accusative case.
Why use the imperfective verb kupować instead of the perfective kupić?
This sentence describes a general, ongoing rule rather than a single, specific event. When talking about general policies, habits, or repeated actions, Polish prefers the imperfective aspect.