# On/ona wgląda na ...



## LeTasmanien

He/she looks... (followed by an adjective)
I am a bit confused by the case of adjective in this expression which seems to change depending on whether the subect is male or female.

For example:
On wygląda na zmęczonego.  (seemingly genitive)
Ona wygląda na zmęczoną.    (seems to be instrumental or locative?)

Two native speakers have assured me that the two sentences above are correct but can't explain why.
Can anyone explain this apparent oddity?


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## ewesor

Hello! 
Yes, the examples are gramatically correct. Both accusatives; nominative would be ending with -ny (masc.) and -na (fem.)
N: zmęczony (m) zmęczona (f)
G: zmęczonego (m) zmęczonej (f)
D: zmęczonemu (m) zmęczonej (f)
A: zmęczonego (m) zmęczoną (f)

So, imho, what you have here is a past participle accusative in masculine and feminine. Of course plurals, as well as neuter produce different endings. 
neuter: N: zmęczone (same as in Pl fem  G: zmęczonego D: zmęczonemu A: zmęczone and so on.


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## Karton Realista

LeTasmanien said:


> Can anyone explain this apparent oddity?


There's nothing odd here. Both are accusatives. The accusative of zmęczona is the same as its instrumental, and zmęczony's accusative is the same as its genitive.
Locative of zmęczona is zmęczonej.


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## LeTasmanien

Thanks both above for clarifying.
Yes of course it's accusative m & f.
I got confused by seeing the preposition 'na' and managed to convince myself that it must be some other case as in e.g.
Cleb jest na stole.


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## Karton Realista

LeTasmanien said:


> I got confused by seeing the preposition 'na' and managed to convince myself that it must be some other case as in e.g.
> Chleb jest na stole.


In the sentence above na takes the meaning "on top", and just like English on it can have different meanings, as in "turn on the TV".
When you hear that phrase you don't step on your TV and turn left or right on its display, do you?


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## Thomas1

For what it's worth: the neutral accusative of the type of adjectives discussed in this thread equals the nominative in form:
_Wygląda na porządne (radio)/ciekawe (muzeum)._

Same goes for the plural, except for masculine personal adjectives which are the same as the genetive in form:
_Wyglądają na zmęczonych. _[Masculine personal.]
_Wyglądają na zmęczone. _[Feminine.]
_Wyglądają na biedne (dzieci). _[Neutral.]
_Wyglądają na silne (konie)/szybkie (samochody). _ [Masculine non-personal.]


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## LeTasmanien

Thanks very much for these details which are a great help.
Pitt University online dictionary gives the table under:




I didn't understand the entry "=N/G" in the Masc. Acc. cell of the table. Now thanks to your explanation I do.

Źródło: University of Pittsburgh - Polish <-> English Dictionary


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## tom877

OMG, Im polish boy, and when I look of this example i dont know how to explain good. 
Polish is difficult as it is not your native language...


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## jasio

Thomas1 said:


> _Wyglądają na zmęczone. _[Feminine.]
> _Wyglądają na biedne (dzieci). _[Neutral.]
> _Wyglądają na silne (konie)/szybkie (samochody). _ [Masculine non-personal.]


Non-masculine-personal: rodzaj niemęskoosobowy - definicja, synonimy, przykłady użycia


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## jasio

LeTasmanien said:


> View attachment 19353
> I didn't understand the entry "=N/G" in the Masc. Acc. cell of the table. Now thanks to your explanation I do.


It looks like a reference to the masculine animate and masculine non-animate distinction in accusative. In case of the former, the same form as genitive is used, while in case of the latter - the same as nominative. 
I'm not sure if an inanimate object can be tired, but assuming that it could, we have:


> Widzę zmęczonego człowieka.
> Widzę zmęczonego psa.
> Widzę zmęczony materiał.


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