UK, Ireland / polish identity card and work in england [15]

my bad, you're right, Wroclaw, I'm afraid I'm getting senile and my weak memory is playing tricks on me :(

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]


if someone is interested, the correct form of Michał in Vocative case (Wołacz) is Michale (I guess "h" instead of "ch" was a typo)

Dzięki, Michale!


no, I wouldn't put it that way. I really can't tell you any rule, but I don't think the auxiliary verb ("musieć" or other) has an influence on the infinitive verb aspect. Maybe someone with fresh linguistic knowledge (mine is very rusty) can explain it better. Just stick to the comments/examples of z_darius in this thread.

But if you want to read my rambling, here are another examples to illustrate how it depends on the context, not on the grammar.

I had to exercise my back muscles - Musiałem/musiałam ćwiczyć mięśnie grzbietu - imperfective.
Muszę pisać ręcznie, ponieważ przez komputer robię coraz więcej błędów. - I have to write by hand, because computer-typing makes me commit more and more spelling errors. - imperfective.

in the second example "pisać" refers to repetitve actions, hence the imperfective form, the same goes for the first sentence (if something repeats itself, it's logically still incomplete, imperfective, from the narrative point of view even though you may refer to a period in the past, so gramatically it's finished - like in the first example, with the past tense).

I remember, studying languages many years ago, that one method was useful to me to learn (or at least to comprehend) the correct use of tenses in English, German, Italian etc. - you have to project two axles - one is referred to the time - hence the decision on using past, present, future tenses, the other axle is more connected with logic, which is different in every language, placing the narrator in a specific point respectively to the action the verb describes. That's why the context is usually so important.

Musiałem wtedy coś brać, bo nie pamiętam ani bólu, ani cierpienia. - I must have been doing some drugs then, because I can't remember the pain and the suffering. - You place yourself, as the narrator, in the middle of that period, when you were doing drugs. (also repetitive)

Musiałem wtedy coś wziąć, bo nie pamiętam ani bólu, ani cierpienia. I must have taken some drugs/pills then, because I can't remember the pain and the suffering. - You place yourself, as the narrator, after one specific event, when you took some drugs/pills.

I'm not sure if my English translations gives correctly the meaning, but I felt that I have to use 2 different expressions (do drugs/take drugs) in English, because here comes another factor in the mix: some actions are naturally perfective or imperfective (like "do drugs"), so the verbs that describe those actions tend to be mostly used in one specific aspect (like in my first example, "Musiałem/musiałam ćwiczyć mięśnie grzbietu" - exercising your muscles is a process, lasting in time, requiring repetitions, so it naturally comes with an imperfective verb, the end result of those exercises can be a well developped muscle, so to describe this effect you'd have to use perfective verb: Rozwinąłem silny biceps - I've developped a strong biceps brachii).

UK, Ireland / polish identity card and work in england [15]

exactly, your signature on the new ID card is to be made in the presence of an office employee, so you must be there in person.

Life / New Polish I.D. card. [Dowód Osobisty] - big fine if you don't apply [55]

angel, I see you're pretty lost in this topic, so here are some general informations for you:
- Polish citizens needed an ID card (dowód osobisty) for many years, an ID card was issued (after you were 18 years old) with no time limit, so it could serve you for the whole life, but you usually needed to exchange it once or twice in a lifetime (it got deterirated, lost, stolen, the photo of you being 18 y.o. completely didn't match your current look, your personal data changed).

- it was announced several years ago that everbody has to exchange their old "dowód osobisty" (book type, with 20 pages) to the new type - two-sided plastic card (valid for 10 years).

- 2007 was the last year to complete the exchange, but only about half of the people did it in the previous years, so now there's a little mess at the offices.

- I never worked abroad, but I figure a passport is enough for this, so your friend could come to England anyway, if he has a passport, I guess

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]

brać - wziąć
nosić - nieść
iść - pójść
wodzić - wieść
dawać - dać
nazywać - nazwać
wzywać - wezwać (phonetic reasons for this additional "e")
lecieć - polecieć
jechać - pojechać


the correct pair:
zakochiwać się - zakochać się

Genealogy / Boczek-Dynow-family search [7]

actually the surname Boczek (bacon) isn't that rare in Poland, definitely more common than Buczyk.

Language / What's the difference (verbs question)? [14]


and you should start learning it ASAP, because most verbs in Polish exist in pairs perfective/imperfective :)

Genealogy / Searching for surname - Hawryluk [12]


it's not "B" in the middle, I guess, it's double "s"
Eheschließung (Eheschliessung in modern spelling)
(ehe = marriage)
it means "marriage [ceremony]"
"am:" probably followed by a date, isn't it?, so it's just to indicate the day of the marriage (for example: Eheschließung am: 20. Juni 1932 = Married 20th June 1932)

Law / Using Allegro in Poland - payment / transfer / rules / fees [18]

if you prefer to pay with your Visa/masterCard you may use "Płatności Allegro" (credit card or wire transfer), unfortunatelly not many sellers accept this form of payment (because they have to pay to Allegro about 3% of the transaction value, for the buyer, on the other hand, there are no extra fees).

But under "Formy płatności" you may see the link "Poproś o udostępnienie Płatności Allegro" (Ask [the buyer] for the possibility of Allegro Payment), I guess it sends your request via e-mail to the buyer, and if he agrees (I assume he would transfer on you those extra 3% fees), you could pay with credit card.

Of course your Allegro account must be fully activated:


I'm afraid it's only if you asked for it.
The letter is sent by snail mail, I think, to the address you gave in your registration form, and its purpose is to confirm that you actually live where you claim to (in case you break the law and they need to track you down by the police).

However, the full activation is only an option, you may give them fake personal data and don't ask for the full activation of your account, as long as you pay for the things you buy, but in this case you can't use some features of the service (including Allegro Payments).

Genealogy / Polish Schneiders from Lwow [6]

Schneider could be as well a Jewish surname (because Germans weren't very clever when they decided they had to name all the Polish Jews, you were a tailor [= "Der Schneider" in German], a profession not uncommon among Jews, you got yourself the name Schneider :)

With the name Adam he could have been any ethnical group

Language / Common mistakes made by foreigners in Polish [90]

too many to name at once :)

Genealogy / Searching for surname - Hawryluk [12]

agreed on the possibly Ukrainian origin of the name, it maybe from £emkowszczyzna in Bieszczady mountains (after the WWII people from this area were forced to move to other regions of Poland, mostly Lower Silesia, Dolny Śląsk, even though their homes were still in Poland, unlike people from Lwów and surroundings who found themselves in the Soviet Union)

Life / Old Polish/east european song title [7]

btw, the file on rapidshare contains 20 songs in mp3 format (128 kb/s), I was hoping it was just the one in a good (lossless) quality. The file is encrypted, the password is marog (like the username of the person who posted the link on some forum). The songs are sung by Mieczysław Fogg (the performer of the original version from 1935), if you need the Russian version, you have to do some search.


====SPOILER ALERT========
if you want to find it in Threee Colours: White by yourself don't read :)

I'm not 100% sure, but I vaguely remember Zbigniew Zamachowski playing it (on a comb wrapped in paper)

Language / Useful and the most common words in Polish [50]

and in Polish it's Teheran, in case you didn't know

Life / Old Polish/east european song title [7]


it's "To ostatnia niedziela" (1935) [the title can be very often seen as "Ta ostatnia niedziela"] - it's credited in the movie, but I guess you're not fluent in Russian :)

composer: Jerzy Petersburski
Russian lyrics: Josif Alvek (1937) - the title of the Russian translation "Утомленное солнце" became, after a little modification, also the original title of Nikita Mikhalkov's movie Burnt by the Sun [Utomlyonnye solntsem])

Another great hit by Petersburski was Tango milonga (known in the West as Oh, Donna Clara)

English Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta_ostatnia_niedziela
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Petersburski

you can download the song (65 MB) from:
rapid share/files/19398365/mieczyslaw_fogg_-_ta_ostatnia_nie dziela.rar.html

WARNING - the file is compressed, so I can't guarantee it really contains the song, but I'm downloading it right now, so in a few minutes I'll know if it's a real thing or a fake

Language / i / a what is the difference? [12]

there was a thread about it, the discussion was short, but I hope it could be at least a little helpful:

https://polishforums.com/archives/2005-2009/language/use-12217/

Life / A couple, mid 30's considering retiring in Poland. [19]


so it's just about high time to start learning Polish :)

and it's really hard to predict what the prices will be in Poland in 20 years, assuming we keep up with the economic growth, they might be similar to the so called rich countries, maybe not G-7, but at least something like today's Portugal or Greece.

So Poland probably won't be cheap, but I'm only guessing, some people call us third world country, so they'll tell you otherwise

Life / What if it's not possible to see the "little star" to start PL Christmas? [11]

well, the tradition (at least the version I know) doesn't say you actually have to see the star beofre you can start the Christmas' Eve dinner/supper - so you may just make some observation of the sky in the previous days (if the sky is clean) to figure out at what time the first star shows, I think it's around 5.30-6.00 PM, and to be prepared for an "emergency" (i.e. cloudy sky on the special day)

Language / How long to get fluent in Polish? [41]

and don't get discouraged if you can't talk too soon, the natural process is that first you gain the passive knowledge (understanding of what you hear/read) the active knowledge (ability to speak and write) comes always later.

Life / Polish Radios that play good Polish music and English rock music? [19]

I don't like radio, but that's what my brother is listening (Antyradio Warszawa):

213.251.138.121:7000

(a link to paste in Winamp, VideoLan (VLC) or some other player, but it doesn't work in WMP 9, maybe fault of my settings)

I don't really recommend this to you, because I have no idea what they are playing (I only know there's much of Polish rock from the 80's during the night-time, but right now there's some program about alcohol addicts, with reading letters from the listeners etc.)

Food / practical way to reheat pierogi [12]

- I use 2 methods (we always boil them before freezing):
- putting them (unfrozen) in boiling, salted water just for 1-2 minutes (longer if you put them still frozen), and then they are like fresh. But don't keep them as long as during cooking - just keep checking how they look and if they are hot, after a few tries you'll figure out how long to keep in the water.

- unfreeze and fry on oil/butter (real butter, with ~80% milk fat is usually better than oil or vegetable fats like margarine), use slow fire (or however you say it in English, I mean don't give too much power to the oven)

(frying frozen pierogi in a pan is not a good idea, because you have to be really careful: often you either burn the outside or take them out of the pan when the inside (filling) is still cold or even a little frozen.

Life / Is there Christmas shopping madness in Poland? [8]

of course there's a shopping madness in December, many shops have 25-40% of their annual turnover in December, but it's not as bad "visually" as in the richer countries.

Life / Place to download Polish music? [28]


damn, that's quite a number, maybe it was some collectors edition (very limited or signed by the singer?)

anyway, I recently bought a 10 tracks CD with Dżem singles and piad for it 11 PLN, so about £2,00.

Language / Polish Sentence With The Letter S Lots Of Times [13]

well, if you need words with many phonetical "s" don't forget the "z" in the voiceless positions, this way you'll get more options (like in the example below, don't ask about the sense of thissentence).

Bezsensowne spostrzeżenia saksofonistki Stanisławy Rozkwitalskiej, mistycystki, o subsydiach dla starostw.

Food / Looking for yummy Makowiec [7]

what are you guys talking about?
1/ makowiec (baked pastry with lots of poppy seed mixed with other ingridients inside plus some sugar icing)
2/ chleb z makiem (normal bread with poppy seeds over it)

Language / Feminine nouns ending in 'c' [9]

[quote=gosiaczek] męskość (masculinity) - now, that's a crime against logic and common sense :)

btw, noc may be feminine because of Latin (nox, noctis), but it's only a guess, I'm not even 100% sure the ethymology is Latin (maybe preindoeuropean, because it's feminine (and related) in many European languages that kept the noun genders: French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Nynorsk - in the opposition to the day that is masculine in all of those languages)

Language / Ciebie <-> tobie [22]

cię/ciebie = Accusative case (Biernik)
ci/tobie = Dative case (Celownik)

You simply have to know in which situations Dative/Accusative are required. The noun/pronoun/adjective case depends basically on the verb and/or preposition used before it.

Language / Confused about the Polish Imperative [15]


no, in the combination of two verbs (like in your example "przestań narzekać") the first is imperative, the second infinitive.

but the imperative gets different forms for different persons:

Sing.
1. -
2. Przestań narzekać (Stop complaining)
3. Niech (on/ona) przestanie narzekać (Let him/her stop complaining)

Plural
1. Przestańmy narzekać (Let's stop complaining)
2. Przestańcie narzekać (Stop complaining)
3. Niech (oni/one) przestaną narzekać (Let them stop complaining)

3rd person isn't technically imperative, but I forgot what it is, but it has the same function.

Life / "Naomi" name - on Polish calendar of names [5]

this name didn't make it to Poland, so we don't have a Name Day for you, sorry :(
BUT there's hope, our Name Days are based on Catholic/Christian calenders, so if there's a saint patron in other Catholic calender/country, you can use it.

(according to Italian Wikipedia) it exists in Italian (as Noemi, with the variant Naomi) coming from Hebraic Noam (= "pleasure")

and the most important:
there's a Name Day (even 2 possibilities)
4 June (together with Saint Ruth, Naomi's daughter-in-law)
According to other sources: 14 December

Language / conjugation of verb wspiąć się [39]


well, my limited knowledge of English doesn't allow me to be 100% sure (and I have no idea about USA/UK differences), but I think that:

grabarz = gravedigger
undertaker = przedsiębiorca pogrzebowy (boss/owner of a company that prepares the body and arranges everything for the funeral)