About the absense of (in)definite articles

Since Polish has no definite or indefinite articles, how would you differentiate if both are said in a sentence?

Example: "He is not 'a' man but 'the' man"

it's a foreign concept in PL language. read - non existant. you just have to use the proper words to get the proper meaing across.

Hmm... What if you are talking about like a person..

If there are many people named the same name, let's say Joe... but there is one really famous person called Joe. How would you say, that is not just a Joe but 'the Joe'?

More specific example:
Like if someone said, "Hey that looks like Elvis."
and his friend said back to him, "That is not just any Elvis, but THE Elvis."
(Elvis is dead BTW... just trying to make an example and sorry for the very American theme)

as above; you would probably have to say something like "nie jest tylko panem, ale Wielkim Panem", I expect, to emphasise the importance of "the" in "the man".

I understood all the other words... but what is 'Wielkim'?

large, huge

you could refer to the "ordinary" Elvis as zwykły, and "The" Elvis as wyjątkowy, originalny, or unikalny.

Hm.. I'm not sure if that is the correct meaning of what I was trying to say.

I'm trying to bring out the superiority/exception/uniqueness of one thing compared to many of the same other things.

Edit: ok the above post might've answered some of it. I was trying to see if there was a way to say it without using any specific adjectives

yeah, like here in south London, we would say "that man's big, u get me?"... because they are THE man. ;)

it doesn't mean he's 6'10". :)

Ok that is definitely not what I meant. Lol

To nie JAKIś Elvis, ale TEN Elvis.

but that brings you back to the first reply... we just don't speak like that in Polish :)

What does that mean in literal terms?



When I meant specific, I meant some kind of a word that defines something among the same group as different or special..

but this can't always be done when translating between languages, like e.g. trying to translate phrases like nigdy nie ma into English; it doesn't quite work, grammatically, if you try and translate it exactly, you have to use different words to get your point across. though oddly enough, you can do it in London inner-city slang, e.g. I'm never on no long ting (I'm never doing/having anything dull, lol) but not in correct English as far as I can see, haha.

jakis = some

ten = the one or this/that

This is not any Elvis, but THE Elvis

In Polish, sometimes for 'the', the Polish word for 'this' is used instead(ta/ten/to) but if not, sometimes there is no difference between 'a' or 'the'

Is this absence of a/the only in Polish or in other Slavic languages as well? I wonder how a/the couldn't be used!?

**in culture shock** not really..

I don't think any Slavic languages use a/the. I guess it all the depends on the context of what is said.

yeah, no such concept in Polish as well as other non latin based languages. it's almost completely unnecessary most Poles/Slaves would tell you. english is actually rather too wordy, in general. we don't use as many but boy do we love our runs of consonants. :D

There is the Polish word jakiś that is used for this purpose in both spoken and written Polish.

believe me, Poles wonder how a/the can be used:)

Yes, it is a big head ache for any nationality that is not used to these words.