# Czy pani pali?



## Russianer

A phrase: Czy pani pali?
Czy- what is  meaning of the word? Is it "why"? Or it is "do you"?

Czy pani pali?= Pani, do you smoke? (??)
Czy pani pali?= Pani, why you smoke? (??)
How to translate this phrase, help, please.


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## LilianaB

It just means: do you smoke (used to a woman you don't know, someone who did not let you to call her by ty). Czy is just an asking particle not an axillary verb, like ar in Lithuanian.


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## Oletta

Indeed, it goes:

Do you smoke?

... 'you'  stands for 'Pani'.


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## MateuszMoś

Hi,

In English, there is no such an equivalent of Polish "*czy"* at the beginning of the sentences. Lady/woman/mistress, why do you smoke?-it sounds strange in English. *YOU* is an equivalent of* Pani* when you asking the particular person. 

I would like to know whether you smoke? Then, *whether *works as *czy*: Chciałbym wiedzieć, *czy* palisz/pani pali?


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## Ben Jamin

The word 'czy' has two different meanings in Polish:
1. Question marker.
It can be translated as "is it really so that ...?"
It has rather few equivalents in other languages, but here are some: French 'est-ce que' at the beginning of a sentence, Finnish 'ko' and Japanese 'ka' at the end of a sentence. Spanish has a reversed question mark at the beginning of written interrogative sentences (no marker in speech).
In Russian ‘разве’  is used as a question marker when a negative answer is expected (In Polish = czyżby?).


2. A relative pronoun, eqivalent of English "whether" and Russian 'verb+- ли’


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## majlo

MateuszMoś said:


> Hi,
> 
> In English, there is no such an equivalent of Polish "*czy"* at the beginning of the sentrnces[/UOTE]that's not true. There's such an equivalent. It's 'whether '.


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## LilianaB

Czy does not correspond to разве in Russian in this kind of construction. It corresponds more or less to ar in Lithuanian and ma in Chinese.


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## Ben Jamin

LilianaB said:


> Czy does not correspond to разве in Russian in this kind of construction. It corresponds more or less to ar in Lithuanian and ma in Chinese.



Who said that it does?


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## LilianaB

Ben Jamin said:


> The word 'czy' has two different meanings in Polish:
> 
> In Russian ‘разве’  is used as a question marker when a negative answer is expected (In Polish = czyżby?).
> 
> 
> 2. A relative pronoun, eqivalent of English "whether" and Russian 'verb+- ли’



This is not entirely true, and not as simple. You can ask this question in the Russian forum, because I do not want to discuss it here.


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## Denis555

Ben Jamin said:


> The word 'czy' has two different meanings in Polish:
> 1. Question marker.
> It can be translated as "is it really so that ...?"
> It has rather few equivalents in other languages, but here are some: French 'est-ce que' at the beginning of a sentence, Finnish 'ko' and Japanese 'ka' at the end of a sentence. Spanish has a reversed question mark at the beginning of written interrogative sentences (no marker in speech).
> In Russian ‘разве’ is used as a question marker when a negative answer is expected (In Polish = czyżby?).
> 
> 
> 2. A relative pronoun, eqivalent of English "whether" and Russian 'verb+- ли’



And a third meaning 
3. Czy (conjuction) = *or* in English.
Tak czy nie? = Yes or no?


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## Ben Jamin

Denis555 said:


> And a third meaning
> 3. Czy (conjuction) = *or* in English.
> Tak czy nie? = Yes or no?



Yes, you are right, of course. I forgot about that.


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