# Moich pięć sióstr jest zadowolonych



## 涼宮

Dobry wieczór! 

I have a little doubt which confuses me. Why the genitive is used in zadowolon*ych *in Moich pięć sióstr jest zadowolonych? I thought that the phrase is just saying that my five sisters are satisfied. One could use the nominative or the instrumental, but I do not grasp why the genitive.  Could anyone explain to me?



Dziękuję z góry!


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## inter1908

Moja siostra jest zadowolona. (1)
Moje dwie/trzy/cztery siostry są zadowolone. (2, 3, 4)
Moich pięć/sześć/sto/milion sióstr jest zadowolonych. (5, 6, 100, 1000000)

 Compare this. 5 and anything above 5 takes the genitive in this case.

You can make other sentences basing on this:
Jedna osoba jest zadowolona. (One person is satisfied.)
Dwie/trzy/cztery osoby są zadowolone. (Two/three/four persons are satified.)
Pięć/sześć/sto/milion osób jest zadowolonych. (Five/six/one hundred/million persons are satisfied.)

 Have fun with learning it


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## 涼宮

Thank you!   I did not know that above 5 an adjective uses the genitive. Is this used generally with most adjectives or just a few of them?


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## inter1908

To be honest each word I can think of applies to the rules above. I don't think there are exceptions.


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## 涼宮

Dziękuję za pomoc! jest teraz jasny


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## inter1908

Fue un placer. BTW:



> *wszystko* jest teraz jasne



Something has to be before "jest", it can't be like this. I've added wszystko _n_ (everything) as an example, when you use it you can ommit "jest teraz", like "wszystko jasne". Wszystko, nic, coś, cokolwiek, etc. are all neuter, remember  It can be quite hard for you, because you have only 2 genders in your native language. I'm sure you'll do good! Take care.


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## 涼宮

inter1908 said:


> Something has to be before "jest", it can't be like this. I've added wszystko _n_ (everything) as an example, when you use it you can ommit "jest teraz", like "wszystko jasne". Wszystko, nic, coś, cokolwiek, etc. are all neuter, remember  It can be quite hard for you, because you have only 2 genders in your native language. I'm sure you'll do good! Take care.



I thought I could leave ''jest'' alone since in Polish one seems not to use ''it'' that much as English does  As regard to genders, I am used to 3 genders because of German, Norwegian and Russian indeed, I am quite fond of them  Thank you again and take care!


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## BezierCurve

Just a little note: those damn numerals are a tad trickier (above 5 I mean):

1: moja zadowolona siostra
2-4: moje zdowolone siostry
5-21: moich zadowolonych sióstr (gen.)

BUT:

anything above that with 2, 3 or 4 at the end (excluding -teens, like 2*12*, 76*14* etc.) goes just like 2-4:

72*2* zadowolone siostry, 1477*3* zadowolone siostry etc.


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## inter1908

Yes! That's what I forgot. Sorry about that.


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## 涼宮

Thank you! That surely makes it complicated. I wonder who made Polish be like that


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## kknd

that was me−excuses!  (p.s. numerals are quite a hard nut! most problematic are female and neuter forms declinated!…)


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## francisgranada

I don't know if following explanation will help you, but this genitive plural can be even "undersood" :

In the Slavic languages, the numerals starting with 5,  for etymological reasons, behave grammatically as *nouns*, so the litteral translation of "_pięć sióstr_" would be in English "_five of sisters_". Constructions with genitive plural are possible also in English with words like _plenty_, _amount _... e.g. "_a plenty of money_".


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## ymar

francisgranada said:


> I don't know if following explanation will help you, but this genitive plural can be even "undersood" :
> 
> In the Slavic languages, the numerals starting with 5,  for etymological reasons, behave grammatically as *nouns*, so the litteral translation of "_pięć sióstr_" would be in English "_five of sisters_". Constructions with genitive plural are possible also in English with words like _plenty_, _amount _... e.g. "_a plenty of money_".


This is true. In Polish, we don't say "five sisters". We say "a five of sisters", like "a group of sisters". However, you should be aware that most Poles aren't aware of this. No Pole would tell you that "pięć" is a noun. We have forgotten this.


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## 涼宮

I see! That makes it really helpful with numbers! Even though I hate numbers (That's why I love languagues)I have to study them too and deal with them! Numbers chase me! Thank you for adding that


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