Breakdown of Nie oddajemy pieniędzy biednym ludziom.
nie
no / not
ludzie
people
pieniądze
money
oddawać
to give back / to return (an object, imperfective)
biedny
poor
Questions & Answers about Nie oddajemy pieniędzy biednym ludziom.
Why do we use biednym ludziom (poor people) in this sentence?
The verb oddawać (to give back) takes the Dative case for the person receiving the action ('to whom' you are giving). In the Dative plural, adjectives take the ending -ym or -im (like biednym), and nouns of all genders take the extremely reliable ending -om (like ludziom).
I thought 'money' as a direct object would be pieniądze. Why is it pieniędzy here?
This is because of the Genitive of negation. In a positive sentence, you would use the Accusative case for the direct object: Oddajemy pieniądze. But when you add nie to negate the verb, the direct object must change to the Genitive case, which is pieniędzy.
What does the prefix od- do in the verb oddajemy?
The base verb is dawać (to give), and dajemy means 'we give'. Adding the prefix od- changes the direction of the action to mean 'back' or 'away'. Therefore, oddawać means 'to give back' or 'to return'.
Is ludziom a regular noun form?
The ending -om is perfectly regular, as almost every noun in Polish uses it for the Dative plural. However, the base word is a famous exception: ludzie (people) is the irregular plural of człowiek (human/person).
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