Word
Nie patrzę na tę bezcelową manipulację.
Meaning
I am not looking at this pointless manipulation.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Nie patrzę na tę bezcelową manipulację.
nie
no / not
ten
this (m)
na
on, at / to (motion toward) / for (a meal) / for (waiting for)
patrzeć
to look
Questions & Answers about Nie patrzę na tę bezcelową manipulację.
Why is tę bezcelową manipulację in the accusative case here, even though the verb is negated?
This is the core rule of the prepositional constraint on the Genitive of Negation. When a negated verb connects to its object via a preposition (like na here), the Genitive of Negation does not apply. The noun simply takes whatever case the preposition demands. Because patrzeć na requires the accusative case, tę bezcelową manipulację stays accusative.
Could I say na tą bezcelową manipulację instead of tę?
In everyday spoken Polish, yes, you will often hear native speakers use tą. However, tę is the strictly correct accusative form of the feminine pronoun ta, while tą is the instrumental form. At a B2 level, you should aim to use tę in writing and careful speech.
How does the word bezcelową get its meaning of pointless?
It is built from the prefix bez- (without) and the noun root cel (goal, purpose). Adding the adjective suffix -owy creates bezcelowy, meaning aimless or pointless. In this sentence, it takes the feminine accusative ending -ą to agree with manipulację.
Does patrzeć always take the preposition na?