Language / PRONOUNCING NASAL VOWEL "Ę" IN FINAL POSITION? [11]


I have read stuff here before about where to and where not to pronounce the nasal vowels. I believe that in the final position in a word, they are not pronounced, although if someone is explaining a word, as one of my colleagues was today, it can be pronounced nasally so that the correct spelling can be known.

Language / PRONOUNCING NASAL VOWEL "Ę" IN FINAL POSITION? [11]

Languages change. It's normal. It can be a bit sad when a distinctive sound stops being used in any language.


I had noticed that it is either absent or fully pronounced. If someone is speaking normally, -ę will be -e, but in careful speech, it will be pronounced as -ę rather than some half-hearted attempt somewhere between the two. I heard it today when someone was trying to teach me a new word (which I have since forgotten).


It's not really for me to pass judgment, but I'd prefer it to stay.

News / Will Poland become green? [122]

Was I supposed to pay attention during that video? I did put it on, but I must have drifted off to sleep. Was there anything about the impending green invasion of Poland by the evil Britih [sic]?

Language / Help! can someone help me change polish to english for firefox?! [9]

Could be worse - you could accidentally switch it all into Arabic. But still at least then you'd still recognise the numbers. So if you're going to do that, do it with your phone instead.

My Mozilla thingy has a spelling checker. I don't like it because it seems to be set for American English, so it doesn't like British spelling or any foreign words (cześćwyszyscy), therefore any of the words I've italicised. I don't suppose it would be particularly difficult to change it, but I just haven't bothered looking, so the answer may be:

Don't change Mozilla - learn Polish.

Language / Help! can someone help me change polish to english for firefox?! [9]

That might mean going into the control panel and uninstalling it from there. I'm no computer expert, so I don't know. Had it been nicked off someone Polish?

History / Why official Poland attacked Serbians in 1999? Was it worth? [49]

How many wrongs does it take to make a right, Crow?

Life / IS IT MY NAME DAY IN POLAND TODAY....? [73]

They say every dog has its day.

Life / IS IT MY NAME DAY IN POLAND TODAY....? [73]


Seeing as this is a Christian thing and that most animals are excluded from mainstream religion, I assume probably not. I, however, have been confirmed, although I feel a bit left out because I didn't get a new name at my confirmation. I only got a new name when I joined PF.

Life / IS IT MY NAME DAY IN POLAND TODAY....? [73]


I thought you were going away for a while. To whom must you confess?

I might think about having a name day. People do call me by the Polish equivalent of my name ("Donkek?" I hear you ask.) My name is a secret here on PF. Only me and about two dozen other members know what it is, and I might have been lying to them as well... time to confess, eh?

Life / POLISH XMAS-TREE LIGHTS IN AMERICA? [5]

Do you want to go playing with electrics? There are so many possibilities with such a hobby. You could make fire with electricity - a modern answer to one of humankind's most ancient of persuits. You could make your own ECT kit. Perhaps even just use the power of electrons to make a gherkin glow in the dark.

Don't be a cheapskate. Buy the proper electrical appliances for the country you are in. Always read the instructions.

Travel / Is anybody driving to Poland (Poznan) over the Xmas holiday from England? [9]

A bit like hurting. If someone in Britain is hurting, the question that immediately springs to mind is "who or what is being hurt by them".

Everybody hurts... now wait a minute, Mr. Stipe. Not everyone's a sadist like you with your dreary, deadly earnest pop songs!

Damonek, you're a cheapskate. Good on you!

It's a long drive, but it's far better by car than coach or flying. Last New Year, I booked a flight a couple of weeks before travelling. It was expensive because of the time of year and because of how late I left it. I could go back again over the coming holiday, but I don't know if I'll be able to afford anything until after I get paid at the end of this month, so...

if anyone's getting a minibus to Poland...

Language / Why Polish people use so many words to describe a situation? [122]


Serendipity.

A very unwordy response.

Life / Możdżer Danielsson Fresco [12]

It's great to see that Polish jazz is alive and well.

Language / Whats with the Polish word: Po? [12]

Despite my fear of upsetting children, old people, religious types and those with weak constitutions, which of the previously mentioned definitions of po- is going on in the word pojebany?

There is a major river in Italy called the Po. Is Po Po po polsku?

Life / Do Poles do hand shaking EVERY TIME they see friends? [30]


I'm going to be deliberately argumentative. Kind of.

I remember when I was a student (your screen should go all wibbly-wobbly now as we reach back into the past and your computer morphs itself into a Commodore 64), many of the other students I hung around with would shake hands quite a lot. This doesn't happen nearly so much these days, but with any friends I haven't seen for a long time, we will shake hands. Unless we're talking about a lady I haven't seen for a long time, in which case there will probably/hopefully be a kiss on the cheek, maybe a hug.

* donkey feels it's about time he had a hug, shaking hands will suffice though! *


Good for you.

Life / Do Poles do hand shaking EVERY TIME they see friends? [30]

Sometimes, I shake hands with my Polish workmates, usually after a good day's work, sometimes at the start of the day (just before I lead them into battle) and even more occasionally when they are bribing me with cigarettes.

Language / Why Polish people use so many words to describe a situation? [122]


I'm lost now. I think I need more directions. But I think that was what one of my colleague was doing with my question about saying where the plants were to go.

I know some people who just like talking. If there is an opportunity to talk, they will. Others are much more terse with their words. I don't know if Poles tend to be more inclined to one type or the other.


C'est tres facile, n'est-ce pas?

That's the last of the French I learnt at school. The rest of it has all been evicted from my brain by the Polish I have learnt more recently.

USA, Canada / The 2nd Amendment (USA), the right to own guns [261]

Switzerland has plenty of guns and gun laws very different to those in most European countries. It also has a very low rate of gun crime. The Swiss are European, but Switzerland is not an EU member. Current attitudes to guns across Europe are not, however, coincidental with EU membership.

USA, Canada / The 2nd Amendment (USA), the right to own guns [261]


Which changes? I notice that some changes on PF are almost universally disliked, whether in Europe, North America, possibly Australia, Southeast Asia, perhaps even Antarctica.

USA, Canada / The 2nd Amendment (USA), the right to own guns [261]


Europe is keeping itself to itself, just as you recommended. Possibly.

Life / Polish Work Ethics: One guy working, 5 others watching? [19]

Cardno85, I agree, but the point I was making was that it is less to do with work ethics than it is to do with outmoded practices in some sectors in Poland.


Thanks (assuming you mean mine!) Yours hasn't changed for a while. You're still looking alert and distinguished as always.

USA, Canada / The 2nd Amendment (USA), the right to own guns [261]


You haven't only just noticed this, have you? Not all Americans poke their noses into other countries' business, but some who do still go for this apparent set of double standards.

Working, as I do, in the countryside, there are people I see on a day-to-day basis who use guns. They aren't a particularly effective way of controlling the rabbit population because rabbits breed like um... anyway, nobody I know who has a gun suggests anything to do with self-defence about them. They are purely for shooting small furry animals or more occasionally, for sport shooting non-furry, non-animal targets.

There should be controls on who can have or use guns and how they are used. It seems that even in America there are controls. I don't think in America these controls are strict enough (I know someone has posted a load of stuff about this that I haven't fully digested), but in the UK these controls may be a little on the strong side. Criminals still have guns over here.

Life / Polish Work Ethics: One guy working, 5 others watching? [19]

If Polish work efficiency is so low, how come the chaps I work with put in as much effort as they do? They work hard, are focussed on the work and often look for more efficient ways of getting the job done. Not always - there are people who do things in a more difficult way than they have to (a kind of "I know best even when I don't" attitude, but that doesn't seem to be a Polish thing). I think low efficiency in Poland is far more likely to be a hangover from the practises of the olden days than anything intrinsically Polish.

History / UPA barbarian murders on Polish and Jewish neighbors during WW2 [150]


Many of your cmments here have been about "bigotry in Europe", yet you haven't checked out where many of the posters you are talking about are from.

Language / Why Polish people use so many words to describe a situation? [122]


I spent ages on Friday trying to find out how to say something quite simple in Polish.

"The one metre twenty five to one metre fifty centimetre high Crataegus monogyna go in the same trench as the one metre seventy five to two metre high Fagus sylvatica."

That's not complicated, surely! Okay, so it may look tricky, but seeing as I already know the numbers (not grammatically very well, but enough to convey a message), the names of the plants (Crataegus is głóg and Fagus is buk), the same is almost the same in Polish (how difficult is to samo?) and trench seems to be something like rów (I've not seen it written down, but I imagine it with an ó rather than an u).

Anyway, my Polish colleague immediately became very ungelpful. After loads of suggestions from them that each consisted of one or two words (the ones I have already listed), one of them gave me a five minute long spiel that may or may not have been the answer I was looking for.

Feedback / How come we can not delete our own posts ? And other questions... [26]


I'm not letting everyone and anyone have a go with my time machine, partly because it's an expensive piece of kit and I don't want it to get scratched, but mostly because you could wipe out the entire universe by mistake.


As you can see by what I have just typed, unfortunately it is still possible to post useless messages.

Feedback / How come we can not delete our own posts ? And other questions... [26]


I suppose one reason could be so that you can't cause something to happen - an argument, a provocation, maybe even an insult, then walk away as if nothing had happened. Okay, so it is possible to edit, but at least then, some evidence may remain.

You can ask Admin or a mod to move a redundant post to Random Chat, from whence it will be disposed of in due course.

UK, Ireland / Working as an au-pair in UK and leaving the host family. Is it legal? [60]


mea culpa!

^ laugh at my Latin if you want.

Language / Numbers in Polish - two different ways? [44]


Numerical mistakes, grammatical mistakes or both?

UK, Ireland / Working as an au-pair in UK and leaving the host family. Is it legal? [60]


Cambridge isn't usually thought of as a cultural backwater. It is full of posh, drunk students going on pub crawls with their legs tied together, wearing colourful wigs and saying "ra" repeatedly until they collapse in the gutter.