# pilnować/opiekować się



## westhartford

Hi! I would like to know if there's any remarkable difference between pilnowac and opiekowac sie. I've always used opiekowac sie + Instrumental meaning take care of, but apparently there's another verb for that meaning: pilnowac.
1)What's the difference between those two verbs?
2) Is pilnowac followed by accusative?

Thanks!


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## mcibor

You can
pilnować kogoś - kogo/co (accusative)
but
opiekować się kimś - kim/czym (intrumentative)

pilnować means in general to guard, only opiekować się it's fully "to look after"
however in Polish pilnować is often used in meaning of look after.

Regards
Michał


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## westhartford

Dziękuję


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## Ben Jamin

mcibor said:


> You can
> pilnować kogoś - kogo/co (accusative)
> but
> opiekować się kimś - kim/czym (intrumentative)
> 
> pilnować means in general to guard, only opiekować się it's fully "to look after"
> however in Polish pilnować is often used in meaning of look after.
> 
> Regards
> Michał


Opiekować się is more than just "look after", it is "take care of" and "protect". It is used mostly about persons and living beings, and it has a very positive connotation of emotional involvement.
Opiekować się dzieckiem. (To take care of a child/baby)
Opiekować się starymi rodzicami. (To take care of old parents).
Opiekować się chorymi i biednymi. (To take care of the sick and the poor).
Also: Opiekować się czyimś mieszkaniem. (To take care of someone's apartment). 

Pilnować is neutral, and means "guard", "watch", basically without the element of protection. Pilnować więźnia (To guard a prisoner), pilnować ognia (to guard the fire), pilnować zegarka (to watch the clock) a colloquialism. 
Pilnować dziecka (To babysit) is a colloquialism


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## jazyk

> You can
> pilnować kogoś - kogo/co (accusative)


Shouldn't it be pilnować kogoś - kogo/czego (genitive). Note also that all Benjamin's examples have that case, not the accusative.


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## westhartford

That's rather confusing, I agree with Jazyk


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## Ben Jamin

More about pilnować: "pilnować się" means "to beware, to be on guard".
Here is an example:
Opiekować się psem - To take care of the dog
Pilnować psa: Guard the dog. or Watch the dog.
Pilnuj się psa! Beware of the dog!


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## Ben Jamin

jazyk said:


> Shouldn't it be pilnować kogoś - kogo/czego (genitive). Note also that all Benjamin's examples have that case, not the accusative.


In Polish genitive and accusative have often the same ending for masculine animate nouns. It is easy to confuse the two and by extrapolation use the accusative for other genders. I think I might have heard pilnować + accusative with feminine nouns: "pilnować siostrę".
I mean that genitive is correct, although not rigorously used. 
The Polish language is often confusing, but so are other langauges too.


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## jazyk

> In Polish genitive and accusative have often the same ending for masculine animate nouns.


You don't need to tell me that. 



> It is easy to confuse the two


I don't think so. Also note that you used pilnować ognia, inanimate, and not ogień, and pilnować zegarka, not zegarek, which in my book would be wrong. So I insist, I think it is pilnować kogo/czego (genitive).


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## kknd

Moim zdaniem w razie wątpliwości powinniśmy jak najczęściej zaglądać do słowników (niestety nie mam żadnego pod ręką, więc nie pomogę). Rozumiem, ale wydaje mi się nieco podejrzane „pilnuj się psa” – prawdopodobnie nie ma go już we współczesnych słownikach; boję się, że tego rodzaju rekcja mogła pojawić się w XIX w. pozycjach! Ktoś ma więcej informacji na ten temat?


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## Ben Jamin

jazyk said:


> You don't need to tell me that.


 
The answer was for everybody, not all people reading this thread know that. 
Even native Polish speakers do not usually reflect which case they use, and there where the endings are the same many are confused. 



jazyk said:


> I don't think so. Also note that you used pilnować ognia, inanimate, and not ogień, and pilnować zegarka, not zegarek, which in my book would be wrong. So I insist, I think it is pilnować kogo/czego (genitive).


 You are located in Czech Republic, how often and how long do you stay in Poland? Yes, the confusion exists.

You do not have to break up open doors. I have written that the grammatically correct expression is pilnować + genitive, but errors/deviations occur.


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## jazyk

> I have written that the grammatically correct expression is pilnować + genitive, but errors/deviations occur.


Cool! That's exactly what I wanted to hear.


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## westhartford

Thanks, guys!


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## symbolt

Ben Jamin said:


> In Polish genitive and accusative have often the same ending for masculine animate nouns. It is easy to confuse the two and by extrapolation use the accusative for other genders. I think I might have heard pilnować + accusative with feminine nouns: "pilnować siostrę".
> I mean that genitive is correct, although not rigorously used.



I would personally say that it IS rigorously used with this verb. I've heard "pilnuj ją", but I would never say that, and I am no grammar Nazi at all. This seems to be "attested" with everyday casual speech, usually pronouns and words for family members (pilnuj tatę), but really casual. The genitive is used almost all the time with this verb.

Note that this is consistent with using the genitive for something that may be gone (something there may be very little/none of), as in monitoring somebody to make sure they're not gone (they don't disappear). Other examples: szukać kogoś (there's little to none of them ), wyglądać kogoś (keep an eye out for someone).


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## argothiel

As I've found, the genitive is the only correct form for the verb "pilnować":
portalwiedzy.onet.pl/141039,,,,pilnowac,haslo.html

And there is also another similar word - "strzec" or "strzec się". "Beware the dog!" is the modern Polish "Strzeż się psa!"

I would say:
"pilnować kogoś/czegoś" means "to pay attention on what is happening with something/someone"
"strzec" is generally "protect" and can be used also with inanimate forms. ("Tego zamku strzegą potężne mury.")
"strzec się" is "beware"
and "opiekować się" is "take care"
There is also "pilnować się (kogoś)", which is an ugly form for "pilnować (kogoś)" and "pilnować się" as a separate verb which means "to be on one's guard".


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## symbolt

I am not sure that "pilnować się kogoś" means the same as "pilnować kogoś" at all. "Pilnować się kogoś" means "do not let go of them" (metaphorically), and this can be used with inanimate objects as well, e.g.:

"a co do szkiców: są całkiem fajne; masz taką fajną "żywą" i nie zmechanizowaną jeszcze kreskę. _pilnuj sie jej"
_*http://tinyurl.com/3y49zpf

*"A tak w ogóle, dziecko, skoro już wchodzisz na forum to zapoznaj się z jego regulaminem i _pilnuj się go_."
*http://tinyurl.com/39vs2bn

*In that last example, it can be translated as "follow" (obey). I would say that this is an obsolete/literary expression ("pilnować się kogoś/czegoś"), more than an "ugly form."


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## Ben Jamin

symbolt said:


> I would personally say that it IS rigorously used with this verb. I've heard "pilnuj ją", but I would never say that, and I am no grammar Nazi at all. This seems to be "attested" with everyday casual speech, usually pronouns and words for family members (pilnuj tatę), but really casual. The genitive is used almost all the time with this verb.


You say basically the same as I did, only using other words: you admit that the use of pilnować+accusative occurs occasionally. I do not think that any research on this matter has been carried out, so it is impossible to say how much it is used.
I have also a vague feeling, that the use of pilnować+accusative may have a little different meaning:
pilnuj jej: protect her
pilnuj ją: do not let her do anything stupid.


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## symbolt

Sure, I'm just giving out my native speaker judgments, i.e. I never use it. But you can also do a Google search to see that pilnować + ACC is much, much less common. To me, it sounds completely wrong, and is limited to words referring to family members and personal pronouns. I also have no feeling of the distinction you mentioned (i.e. pilnować +GEN/ACC would mean the same to me).


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## arturolczykowski

I agree. Pilnuj jej might mean both: protect her against harm done by others or herself or do not let her do anything stupid (protect her from doing something stupid)

It's basically the same thing.


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