# How + adjective + of + pronoun + infinitive



## 涼宮

Good evening! 


What would be the equivalent for the structure how + adjective + of + pronoun + infinitive in Polish?

For instance:


A) How nice of you to write me a letter!

B) How sweet of you to help her.

C) How cruel of you to say that!

and so forth.

I don't know if you say it sort of literally by using jak + adjective, or another different formula. 

Z góry dziękuję!


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## dreamlike

Hi Suzumiya

I'm afraid there's no fixed formula, not that I know of at least, for translating such sentences. I'd translate every single one of them differently, if I wanted them to sound natural. 
a) Jak miło z twojej strony, że do mnie napisałeś.
b) To słodkie z twojej strony, że jej pomagasz.
c) To okrutne, co mówisz. 

As you can readily see, I used the construction similar to the English one only in the first sentence.


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## LilianaB

Hi, Suzumiya. There is no such structure in Polish -- it is a typically English structure (it may appear is some other Germanaic languages as well, or possibly Romance). Each sentence has to be treated separately. The first one will be:Miło mi że napisałes (list) -- _the letter _is redundant, though. _It is nice_ can be translated in most cases as _miło mi że verb_. Howewer, this structure does not work with the other sentences. I have no idea how to translate the second sentence -- it does not translate well into Polish, and would have to be replaced with something close to convey the same idea. The word _sweet_ is not used the same way as in English. The last one, maybe: Jak okrutnie  (with the rest left out), but it sounds somehow strange. It would be better if you said: _How could you say it. It is so cruel_. Jak mogłes tak powiedziec. To na prawdę okrutne. (it is really cruel).


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## dreamlike

LilianaB said:


> The word _sweet_ is not used the same way as in English.


What makes you believe that? People use it that way reasonably often, and dictionaries too make mention of this usage. 
The other night I heard my sister say "Ale on ma słodki uśmiech" about some actor, so it's in common use...



> 4. «wywołujący miłe uczucie»
> 5. «mający łagodny charakter; też: będący objawem czyjejś łagodności, czułości lub czyjegoś przesadnego ugrzecznienia»
> słownik PWN



"To słodkie z twojej strony" sounds prefectly natural to me, but perhaps there is a better way to translate it, I can't think of one just now.


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## LilianaB

It might be just something new Dreamlike -- nobody who learned Polish at least 30 years ago speaks like that. Yes, I have definitely noticed some new tendencies in the Polish language which mostly come as calques. 

I might agree with the last part of your definition -- przesadnego ugrzecznienia. _Jak slodko z Pana strony Panie dyrektorze_. It might just be good for a comedy show. There was something similar to that I think, a Polish comedy program using words like that.


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## dreamlike

Well, given my age I don't know if people used it this way 30 years ago, and there's no one around to ask, but I would never use the word in this sense, be it in Polish or English.

I just find it to be typical of overly affectionate teenage girls, as is my younger sister.  "Ohh, look how sweet he is", "Ohhh, how sweet of you my dear". I always cringe when I hear things like this.


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## LilianaB

People born at least 30 years ago, not how it was used 30 years ago. It could be also something regional -- I think I know one woman from Kielce area who says słodko a lot, I just remembered. You could perhaps say to a child who gives you a flower - a wild flower: "O jak słodko", but I am not even sure of that. I cannot imagine any teenage girls talk like that, but maybe -- this can be a new trend. After all most girls use even diminutive forms of their names -- Paulinka, Justynka even as grown-up people. I also bought once some Polish cookies which had something like that on the package: Ciasteczka slodziutkie pyszniutkie -- I thought I was imagining this first, but it turned out to be real.


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## dreamlike

I have a hard time imaginging a man say "Oh, how sweet of you to...", unless coming from a very effeminate male. That's why I regard it as typical of female speech, especially that of teenage girls, who tend to use this word. I think it's true both for Polish and English, at least in my experience.


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## BezierCurve

Hi Suzumiya.

In fact in each case you can use "Jak ..." or go for more poetic  "Jakże " with a suitable adverb or adjective:

Jak miło... / Jak słodko... / Jak okrutne jest to...

However, it is hard to define when you can use an adverb and when an adjective; I guess some expressions will just sound more natural with an adverb than an adjective... I'd risk a theory that adjectives are safer. As the adjective will always need an extra "to", the construction will differ:

Jak miło [z twojej strony], że do mnie napisałeś/-łaś. 
Jak miłe [z twojej strony] *jest/było* *to*, że do mnie napisałeś/-łaś. 

Of course, in some cases a native speaker would go for another frequently used phrase, as pointed out in earlier posts.


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## dreamlike

I don't agree with the bit about adjectives being safer. I think it's _safe _to assume that the versions using adverb sound more idiomatic/natural to the most of Polish native speakers. 
_Jak miłe z twojej strony jest to, ze do mnie napisałeś _sounds very grand, if not odd, whereas the register of the original English sentences strikes me as informal.

You made a good point about "_z twojej strony"_ being optional, though.


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## LilianaB

After all, I agree with Dreamlike about the adjectives -- they sound totally weird in this context. As to sweet in English, it is not as sweet and childlike in English, as it is in Polish, in my opinion.


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## dreamlike

Even if it's not, I think it's best avoided by men. Being one, I'd never use it, unless ironically


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## LilianaB

Some American men say it. Even one lawyer -- when people gave him Christmas presents, he used to keep saying: how sweet.


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## BezierCurve

> _Jak miłe z twojej strony jest to, ze do mnie napisałeś sounds very grand, if not odd,_



Yes, because naturally we'd use the adverb (miło) here. However, it is still valid in terms of grammar, that's why I'd call that option "safe". And if we put it into past tense (było) that sentence wouldn't sound that odd, would it?


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## 涼宮

LilianaB said:


> Hi, Suzumiya. There is no such structure in Polish -- it is a typically English structure (it may appear is some other Germanaic languages as well, or possibly Romance)



Yes, in Romance languages you have that very structure, but we use an extra word for that, at least it is like that in French, Spanish and Portuguese. How cruel of you to say that= ¡qué cruel de tu parte decir eso! (how cruel of your part to say that)



LilianaB said:


> It might be just something new Dreamlike -- nobody who learned Polish at least 30 years ago speaks like that. Yes, I have definitely noticed some new tendencies in the Polish language which mostly come as calques.



Well, dear, you'd be amazed at how much a language can undergo even in 5 years, if you haven't stepped foot in Poland for 2 decades, I think you could find very surprising how much the language has changed, that happens with any language unless they live in a very isolated area.

And thank you everybody again for your great help!


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## LilianaB

Hi, Suzumiya. I have a lot of exposure to the Polish spoken in New York by different people: lawyers, businessmen, witnesses, construction workers, artists, consulate workers, any other people that have some cases in court. I don't have that much contact with colloquial Polish, though. I don't know any contemporary books in Polish -- the last one I read was Henryk Sienkiewicz.


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## kknd

looking on above examples it seems that closest approximant to the structure "how + adjective + of + pronoun + infinitive" is _to przymiotnik z zaimek strony, że czasownik_ with suitable forms; as it was mentioned before, in many cases it can be seen as a poor style, though…


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