Language /
Difference between Polish Imperf. and Perf. forms "pierdolic" [58]
I tried to answer the first question but got completely lost so I'll just try the second one ;)
Your dictionary is not lying to you - "stchórzyć" is in its perfective form - you have a prefix s- added to the root "tchórzyć", which is a non-perfective term for "chicken out". The word "stepować" is not perfective because the "s" is not a prefix here and there is no such word as "tepować"!
The best answer to the third question you'll find in the article below... :D
Actually, you won't find it because I somehow can't attach the file and I don't know why. Still, I'll type it just by myself cause i find it really hilarious :)One of the most amazing things about the Polish language is that you can stick prefixes onto nearly everything. Except furniture. You can add them to one vulgar word in particular and create a whole bunch of completely different (but still rude) verbs. This type of language is useful to know, if only to recognize it’s being used in your presence.
First, look at Polish prefixes of which there are boatloads: od-, prze-, przy-, na-, po-, za-, etc. (the list is long). You can take a verb like jechać (to go, to drive) and glue on some prefixes and wind up with different words: przyjechać (to arrive) or odjechać (to leave). Consider this extensive system of prefixation as economic linguistic recycling.
One particular Polish word has prefixation possibilities galore. It’s vulgar but we’re all adults (
are we??? ;)) so let’s treat his clinically. The Polish verb pierdolić (to fuck) has super-semantic flexibility. It’s also considered more vulgar than its English equivalent which has a few recycling capabilities too. For example, the English f-word is an interjection but also a verb. The –ing or –ed forms are used as adjectives. Prepositional particles render different meanings like “fucked up” or “fucked over.” Yes, terribly coarse and downright offensive but the point is that we can squeeze several uses out of different forms of one word (for a less offensive example, check out the verb “to put” in the dictionary).
But we don’t add prefixes to the f-word so actually the Polish p-word makes the English f-word look pretty sorry when it comes to different forms and meanings. For example, add the prefix w- to the Polish form for wpierdolić (komuś), which means to beat someone up. But wpierdolić can also mean to scarf something as in chowing down. Substitute the prefix za- and you’ve got zapierdolić which means to steal something. Podpierdolić also means to steal, or to report on someone in a nasty backstabbing way.
And then there’s na-: add that to the Polish p-word and it has the sense of filling up or putting in too much of something. For example, if a waiter serves you a cutlet the size of bean and a mountain of potatoes, he “napierdolił ci ziemniaków”. That is, he screwed you over with potatoes – the proportions just aren’t right. If someone “napierdolił mi farmazonów” it means he’s telling me all kinds of lies, filling me up with unlikely impossible stories (farmazony is slang for “stories” in the sense that they’re not true).
And then this vulgar word can be used like the very ordinary English word “to put”. “Pierdolnij mi to na stół” would be like saying, “Fuckin’ put that here on the table for me.” Here’s my favourite: “Pierdolnąć obrazek na ścianę” would be “to hand a picture on the wall” – in less than casual terms, that is.
