Word
To jest dla nich.
Meaning
This is for them.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about To jest dla nich.
I've learned that "them" is usually ich. Why is it nich here?
In Polish, when certain pronouns start with a vowel (like ich) and come directly after a preposition (like dla), an n- is added to the beginning. This makes it easier to say. So, ich becomes nich after a preposition.
Which grammatical case does the preposition dla require?
The word dla (for) always forces the following pronoun into the Genitive case. The base word for "they" changes into its Genitive form (ich), which then takes the extra n- because it follows a preposition.
Does nich refer to a group of men, women, or objects?
It could be any of them. Polish has two words for "they" as a subject: oni (groups with at least one male) and one (all females, animals, or objects). However, in the Genitive case used here, both forms merge into the exact same word: ich (and therefore nich after a preposition).
Does the word to change depending on what we are pointing at?
Not in this structure! When you use the phrase To jest... (This is... / It is...), the word to acts as a fixed, unchanging pointer. You don't need to match it to the gender or number of the things you are talking about.