Life / Easter weekend in Poland - does everything Close? [11]


it could be - in the summer
but with March/April weather (sometimes really cold) it can be dangerous, some people don't know the measure. And noone is safe, not even men :)

But I loved it as a kid (actually longer, till I was 20-23 yeras old)

Study / Is foreign (second) language required in Polish schools? [9]

There has always been some kind of obbligatory foreign language in Polish schools, but before 1989 it was always Russian, starting from your 5th grade (11 years of age), in total 4 years in elementary school, if you continued your education in a "liceum" (4 years of school - starting when you were 15 y.o.) 2 languages were obbligatory (1st = Russian for advanced, the second foreign language was mostly German, sometimes English, some schools had French, even less had Italian or Spanish, I never heard of any other languages being taught at Polish schools before 1989).


talking generally not about Poland:
I meet/hear of people who can't do some basic (in my opinion) math, and they are even proud of it :)
Yet, they learned math in schools for many years.
Many people can't spell correctly after 12 years of learning their own native language in schools.
And I can't say the difference between a mushroom and a bird (I know the basics: shrooms ain't animals :), because I never liked biology, so I just learned as little as possible to get by.

Language / What is the meaning of the prefixal 'z'? [8]


in these examples, like Michal said, "z" changes the imperfective verb into a perfective one, the subject of perfective/imperfective has been discussed quite a lot on these forums in the last months, maybe you should look for some older threads (although it may be too early for you to bother with this, so bookmark them for a future reference).

Language / Correct Polish spelling [69]

and
I know (that) you would like to ... - Wiem, że chciałbyś / chciałabyś ... [talking to a male / female]

a quick overview of conditional forms
I / you / he would like to ... - chciałbym / chciałbyś / chciałby
we / you / they would like to ... - chcielibyśmy / chcielibyście / chcieliby
(when the subject is female, you change "chciał" to "chciała", "chcieli" to "chciały" and the -by endings behave still like for masculine gender: for example she would like to ... - chciałaby)

Language / Jak sie masz -> niezle, doskonale. Wyglada ladnie - grammar questions [45]


I bet you have skipped my long post (I'd have done the same if I were you), so just a short explanation:


Q: Jak wygląda Zofia? (Jak - adverbs)
A: Zofia wygląda ładnie (hence the adverb)


and my point was that it [any language] works the other way around - no more need for some forms, constructions etc., so they disappear, but I'm guessing I'm completely wrong, because I don't know the Old English, so I can't say if an adjectival form of "stone" ever existed :)

Language / The only polish word a foreigner won't ever say correctly :P [113]


that's why the Japanese don't bother with r/l distinction :)
they have only one sound for it (r, I think)

red rorry, yerrow rorry

Language / Jak sie masz -> niezle, doskonale. Wyglada ladnie - grammar questions [45]

First of all - in Polish "jak" serves to ask for an adverb, "jaki/jaka/jakie" - for an adjective, so I see no problem in the logic of the answer (with the use of an adverb). As mentioned by others, you can't literally translate most things (although it's done often for educational purposes), because if you intend to become fluent in a foreing language, you have to

1/ accept, then
2/ try to understand and finally
3/ to reproduce (imitate)
its logic (sounds almost like marriage plans).
Of course, when you're not serious about it, you can skip all of this and try to carbon copy as much from your native language(s) or from a foreign language you know relatively well, but such relationship won't be succesful.


well, apparently you can :)


OK, I may be completely out of my league (English has always been a hobby for me, never studied it seriously with all this grammar), but I'm with Mufasa (or her first intuitive response, because later she was lured by Sajmon to believe differently)

I think the root of the problem is that the English language is messed up a little (because of its evolution) in terms of grammar.

One word can be different parts of speech depending on it's position - the most common is a 2 nouns combination where the first noun becomes adjective without changing its grammatical form

1/ He threw a stone. (stone = a noun)
2/ He hit against a stone wall. (for me an adjective, but you may argue that it's still a noun, since the wall is made of stones, but then shouldn't it be "stones wall"?)

3/ The pavement has a stone look. (looks like stone, but can be made of plastic or other materials).

Why isn't a "real" adjective used in any of those sentences? Because the English grammar, thanks to its structure, doesn't have such need. You can have a similar construction in German, but you usually make one word of the two nouns (Stein = stone, Mauer = wall, so stone wall = Steinmauer).

Language / Which case for adjectives? [47]


confirmed :)


this question is very old, but since it's still unanswered and I've just seen it:
yes, the dictionary gives the instrumental form (masculine, singular) with the infinitive, because that's how you say it.
To be sad - Być smutnym; To become famous - Stawać się sławnym etc.; however, when the auxiliary verb (być, stawać się and similar) is conjugated, you use nominative (feminine or masculine, singular or plural).

Jest smutny. Stała się sławna po zagraniu u Spielberga.

Life / Currency format, date format, time format in Poland [5]


if you choose this option, we rather use DD.MM.YYYY format (so 29.12.1999 for 29th of December 1999)

Language / Kupować vs Kupić [27]

Honestly, I'm not sure :)
even "być" has an imperfective form ("bywać")

To dziecko jest urocze - To dziecko bywa czasami urocze (This kid is lovely - This kid can sometimes be lovely)

Language / Kupować vs Kupić [27]


I can't answer why, but at least the rule is simple: perfective verbs form future tense by "normal" conjugation (kupię), imperfective with the auxiliary verb "być" (będę + kupować).

It's like asking why (in English) you make past tense of some verbs without the auxiliary ones (Did you buy/see/go ? etc., but Could you? Were you? etc., you can't say "Did you can?" nor "Did you be?")

Language / Context of 'Mów dalej' [13]


this word alone wouldn't be too polite, it would be rather insisting, hurrying someone, with a verb it loses its rudeness and becomes (like your teacher said) "go on", "please continue"

USA, Canada / NO VISAS to Canada for Poles in the near future [62]

So do I need a passport for this or is an ID card enough?
I have no idea why I should go to Canada (maybe Niagara Falls, but I'm not sure if I would need to cross the US border?), but I've never been over the Big Water so it's somehow tempting (I'm simply not very keen of flying, besides with all those problems US makes when applying for their visa I nevr considered such a move), just want to know, because I don't intend to apply for a passport anytime soon :)

Life / Polish Tirówki [9]

from PWN online dictionary:
tirówka pogard. «prostytutka szukająca klientów wśród kierowców TIR-ów» [pejorative «a prostitute looking for clients among TIR drivers»
TIR = "Transports Internationaux Routiers" ("International Road Transport") are simply those big trucks, whose drivers spend hours (or days) in the car and tirówka (easy to find at the most important roads, highways, parkings or motels) provide them with some "entartainment"

Language / Kupować vs Kupić [27]


Now I'm lost :)
Are you saying that "kupuję" etc. ara forms of "kupić"? Of course they are NOT.
It's like Mufasa wrote ("kupować" in present tense)

"kupić" in future tense (since it's perfective, so it doesn't have present tense):
kupię
kupisz
kupi
kupimy
kupicie
kupią

UK, Ireland / Polak moving to north-west England [56]


it's sentences that count :)
you don't communicate with words only (normally)

An attacking player is standing in the goal - Napastnik stoi na bramce.
(ENG: 36 characters - POL: 21 znaków)

Language / 'Uwierzyłem w kłamstwa te' - Confusion [15]


(it's from your profile) - if you mean "I've been learnig/studying Polish for 5 years" - then you have to use the Present tense in Polish: uczę się języka polskiego od 5 lat

I hope you don't mind this remark :)

UK, Ireland / Catholic church experience for Poles in England [22]


A bullet in your head, sooner or later?

Language / Polish Proficiency Test [14]


it's rather new skool :)
the Vocative case in common language is not always used, it becomes often replaced with Nominative.
And I agree that the test has some mistakes (kto - kim, gdzie - dokąd etc.), but they are really common among native speakers, so I assume the authors simply wanted to present rather a colloquial version of our language, not the ubercorrect schoolbooks forms, but they should mention it somewhere.

Language / Polish Proficiency Test [14]

LOL, I made it, how weird is that?

You scored 150 points out of 150.
You scored 100% overall.

now give me an English test like this and I'll score 10-20%, I'm afraid

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]


potrafić / móc are simply 2 different verbs (with sometimes similar meaning), both imperfective.
pójść / chodzić, actually the perf./impf. pair is pójść / iść.
chodzić = "to walk" or "to go" (but in the meaning of "to frequent" - chodzić do szkoły, do pracy etc.)

umrzeć/ umierać = perf./impf. 'to die'
(no such word as zamierzeć, only zamierzać = to intend)

Polonia / Dubai-any Polish Associations? Polish speakers? Need some help... [15]

to find Polish people in Dubai go to the women tennis tournament this weekend (and next week), Agnieszka Radwanska will be playing in qualification, so hopefully some Polish residents (if there are any) show up to support her :)

Language / Dokonany/Niedokonany - Perfective/Imperfective [46]



this verb simply has no infinitive form in Polish

btw, I've just noticed that there's a quite long Wikipedia article on this subject, I can't verify if all they say is true, but it's a good start (there are also some interesting links below that article)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_aspect
essayscam.org/forum/gt/grammarly-review-user-content-ownership-licensing-6266/

Language / Capital Letters at the start of Polish words. [26]


actually, the rules are similar to English in this case.
Ares to starogrecki bóg wojny - Ares is the ancient Greek god of warfare.

Language / Capital Letters at the start of Polish words. [26]

book/movies titles - like normal sentences (only first word and porper names capitalized), unless the author decides otherwise. Adjectives (polski, angielski - not capitalized; pronouns (ty, ciebie, was) - small letter unless directly addressing to a person in a letter (still not obligatory). Nationalities (or ethnic groups) - capital letter.

examples:
Wczoraj obejrzałem film Andrzeja Wajdy "Popiół i diament" o walkach Polaków z niemieckim okupantem a później z polskimi komunistami.
Owczarek podhalański jest popularną rasą na Podhalu, hodują go głównie Cyganie (Romowie).

Żyd - Jew as nationality
żyd - religion (like katolik, protestant, prawosławny - not capitalized)

Language / Polish verbs are conjugated with a separate ending for all six persons: I, you, he, she, it, we, you [29]


maybe it was a process and in 1945 they officially considered it complete, that's what you do, you write new grammatical (or spelling, phonetics) rules sometimes in order to reflect the new state of things.

it also had a symbolic meaning, in 1945 they wanted to underline the the non-communist Past hadn't been Perfect :)
but why the hell didn't they introduce Perfect Present?

Life / Poles in Poland: How did you learn your English? [60]

Besides, in here there's the written English, it's always easier to write than to speak a foreign language (unless you're raised among native speakers).

Me for example, I'm capable of writing a correct and coherent English sentence from time to time (when I really care I even check up words in a dictionary), but if you'd hear me speaking ... :(

Genealogy / Cupiał - a Polish surname? [19]

I'm not into genealogy so I can't help you, I just wanted to inform you that Bgdan Cupiał, one of the richest Poles, is the owner of Wisła Kraków (best Polish soccer team in last years), and he was born in Śląskie voivodship, so maybe he's your 1.5 billion $ relative :)

Life / Why is Poland so slow; it takes a lot of time to arrange anything here [53]


And today, I just read an interview with a Polish volleyball player and she was saying the same thing about ... Italians, she also complains she had to install the satelite dish by herself, because she had been waiting too long :)

Language / What does "czy" mean? [37]


that's an example (somehow neglected so far in this thread) that the word "czy" can be skipped (quite often, in fact) and the sentence looks like an affirmative statement, but the question is represented by the question mark (in written) and by the intonation (in speech), for example:

Byłeś w szkole. - You were at school.
Byłeś w szkole? - Have you been at school? [Were you at school?]
Czy byłeś w szkole? - Have you been at school? [Were you at school?]
in composed sentences the "czy" has to appear:
Spytałem nauczycielkę, czy byłeś w szkole. (I asked your teacher whether/if you had been at school)