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"someday" / "kiedys" - Confirming some spelling and forms


posts: 11

eberhartThreads: 10
Posts: 64
Joined: Mar 31, 11 ♂ 		 Aug 11, 11, 10:42    #1
Can someone confirm a couple of words for me?

The first is "someday" as if someone asked you when and you said "Someday"....is "kiedyś" correct?

The second is "Sunday" which I believe is just "niedziela" but does it change form is used as an answer to the above "when" question?

Thanks to all.
peter_olsztynThreads: 8
Posts: 760
Joined: Apr 18, 07  Pictures: 1 ♂ 		 Aug 11, 11, 16:18    #2
"Someday"....is "kiedyś" correct?

ok. Kiedyś będę bogaty.

does it change form is used as an answer to the above "when" question?

W niedzielę będę w Gdańsku a w poniedziałek w Olsztynie.
eberhartThreads: 10
Posts: 64
Joined: Mar 31, 11 ♂ 		 Aug 12, 11, 09:57    #3
So if you wanted to say So if someone asked me when and I want to say "Someday" it is "kiedyś będę bogaty"? Not just "kiedyś"

And regarding Sunday I would just reply with "Sunday" not an entire sentence about where and when...so is the form still as your example sentence when the word is alone?
ZiemowitThreads: 10
Posts: 1,063
Joined: May 8, 09 ♂ 		 Aug 12, 11, 10:51    #4
Peter O. was just giving you "extended" examples. "Some day" alone would be "pewnego dnia" or "kiedyś"; "Sunday" as an answer to the "when" question would be "w niedzielę" (accusative case).
eberhartThreads: 10
Posts: 64
Joined: Mar 31, 11 ♂ 		 Aug 12, 11, 10:57    #5
Thanks...just wasn't sure if stand alone words changed form compared to being used in a sentence. You never know with Polish ;)

Which of those two "somedays" is more common or better?
ZiemowitThreads: 10
Posts: 1,063
Joined: May 8, 09 ♂ 		 Aug 12, 11, 11:12    #6
I'd say 'kiedyś' is more common and less specific, while 'pewnego dnia' is more "poetic" so to speak, or elegant ... plus beau pour moi!
SeanusThreads: 22
Posts: 30,158
Joined: Dec 25, 07 ♂ 		 Aug 13, 11, 11:42    #7
Kiedyś is more general. It's just 'sometime'. Pewnego dnia is where you have some romantic allusion :)
NightgladeThreads: 9
Posts: 49
Joined: Sep 25, 10 ♂ 		 Aug 25, 11, 00:30    #8
"Sunday" as an answer to the "when" question would be "w niedzielę" (accusative case).


Sorry for the slight necro. But may I ask why it would be "w niedziełę" and accusative? (I know that you're correct, I just don't understand why) I thought when followed by the preposition w(in) something must become locative? even if it's a response to the question "when" I.e, "Kiedy będziesz napić? " - "W Wrocławiu"
cinekThreads: 1
Posts: 264
Joined: Nov 16, 07 ♂ 		Edited by: cinek  Aug 25, 11, 08:40    #9
But may I ask why it would be "w niedziełę" and accusative?

It's hard to explain. Just think of it as a rule that must be obeyed when talking about week days. The same question you could ask about English, why one must use 'on' before weekdays and 'in' before years...? It's just how the language works.

Cinek
NightgladeThreads: 9
Posts: 49
Joined: Sep 25, 10 ♂ 		 Aug 25, 11, 08:45    #10
Thank you,

Is it only weekdays that become accusative following that prep in response to "when"?
ZiemowitThreads: 10
Posts: 1,063
Joined: May 8, 09 ♂ 		 Aug 25, 11, 10:15    #11
Why 'w' + 'day of the week' needs the accusative? I think it might be explained by the fact that such a name tends to be seen as a sort of "target" by the language. So by saying 'w niedzielę' you act as if you were pointing at/targeting something - at one of the seven days of the week; the verb describing targeting uses the accusative: "celować w coś". In contrast to that, you do not "point at a month" in Polish, the time span of a month is perhaps too "broad" for that, so the language treats the month as place that "you are within" and puts the name of a month in locative which reflects the idea of "being within something".

Prepositions with time are always difficult in any language. For example, in Polish you would say "o godzinie czwartej", employing nevertheless the locative case for the span of time (or even a point in time!) much shorter than the whole day. I think such a usage may originate from the time when clocks and watches as we know them today did not exist in everyday life, and telling the hour was more often vague than precise; the use of the preposition 'o' with the hour seems to corroborate it. Yet the exact hour might be seen as a target in which case you employ the accusative, as this fragment of the Rosary shows:

Święta Maryjo, Matko Boża, módl się za nami grzesznymi
teraz i w godzinę śmierci naszej. Amen

[Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen]


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