Hi all,
I am trying to get my head around Polish declensions. Knowing a bit of Russian, I believed myself cleverer than I actually am. After all, I already understand the difference between animate and inanimate words, right?
Then Duo had me translate "The children see cats." This would need accusative plural, and since "kot" is animate and masculine in Polish, I assumed that the accusative plural would be equal to the genitive plural, and the right answer should be "Dzieci widzą kotów."
This turns out to be wrong, and the correct answer is "Dzieci widzą koty."
After consulting my newly bought grammar book, I assume that the rule is like this: Accusative plural words that are masculine behave like genitive plural if they are persons (say, "Dzieci widzą professorów"), but are identical to the nominative case, but not persons (such as cats, hence "Dzieci widzą koty."). And animate words that are not persons only leave animals, or am I overlooking something?
It would be great if some of the native speakers could confirm, elaborate or correct this.