Language / PROPER INFLECTION OF RZECZPOSPOLITA [13]


Fortunatelly there are very few nouns (composed of noun + adjective) that behave like that. Rzeczpospolita, Białystok, Krasnystaw (a town of 20,000 inhabitants in the Lubelskie voivodship, between Chełm and Zamość) are the main examples.

Btw, do you do you know how to create an adjective of those city names? It's białostocki and krasnostawski (so still according the rule for composed adjectives, like biały + czerwony = białoczerwony).

Some other examples from the dictionary:
so.pwn.pl/zasady.php?id=629457 Słownik ortograficzny PWN online

When the first part is NOT inflected (the biggest group):
swawola, swawoli, swawolę; (originally from swa wola = own will)
mysikrólik, mysikrólika, mysikrólikiem;
lwipyszczek, lwipyszczka, lwipyszczkiem;
żabiściek, żabiścieku, żabiściekiem;
maminsynek, maminsynka, maminsynkiem;

When the first part IS inflected:
woleoczko, wolegooczka, wolimoczkiem;
dwudziestkapiątka, dwudziestkipiątki, dwudziestąpiątką;

When the first part CAN be inflected OR NOT:
Wielkanoc, Wielkanocy, Wielkanocą,
rzeczpospolita, rzeczpospolitej, rzeczpospolitą
or:
Wielkanoc, Wielkiejnocy, Wielkąnocą;
rzeczpospolita, rzeczypospolitej, rzecząpospolitą.

Also the separated spelling is allowed:
Wielka Noc, np. w czasie świąt Wielkiej Nocy.

Language / WHY "HIGH FEE" for HIFI in Polish? [12]


No, what I meant was that Polish people, knowing that Hi-Fi comes from High Fidelity, applied the natural abbreviation of those 2 words, pronouncing Hi-Fi as a truncated version of Hi[gh] Fi[delity], so leaving the 2 different sounds represented in English by the letter "i" ("aj" in high, "i" in fidelity)

Law / umowa o dzielo z prawami autorskimi [10]

Just try to avoid "umowa o dzieło", because I think it's "half legal" (to not say worse) in the case of teaching, it's just a managers' way to pay less taxes (especially no ZUS) and more to the teacher.

If you can't [don't want to] sign a permanent work contract (umowa o pracę), usually preceded by a 3-months trial period, get at least "umowa zlecenie" in your next job.

Life / Lebanese willing to Move to Poland. [18]

Ad. 3
Standard 2 years contract with the main Polish Telecom (Telekomunikacja Polska SA)
1024kbps download and 128kbps upload (maybe 256kbps, but I'm not sure), no Download limit, an e-mail address in the domain @neostrada.pl with 50 MB of space for your mailbox (you may also divide those 50 MB between your mailbox and internet site) = 62 PLN/month (one year contracts are rather expensive, while 3-year only a litte cheaper, about 52 PLN/month instead of 62 PLN). I just mentioned this 1Mbps connection because it's what I'm using right now, I think you can get a 2Mbps for about 80-90 PLN/month, but I'm not sure.

UPC is a cable TV provider, they also offer internet, so if you buy the whole package the price will be more attractive than with TP SA (Telekomunikacja Polska SA).

Ad. 4
Kraków's main university (Uniwersytet Jagielloński) is the oldest (founded in 14th century) and the most prestigious in Poland, of course some people from Warsaw would argue about the prestige :)

I'm sure they have some master degrees in English, but I don't have any exact info, search their site and see.
Generally in Poland an university is for humanist sciences (law, languages, literature, theoretical physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics etc.). When you want to study applied sciences you should rather choose a "politechnika" (engineering, architecture, IT - computer science, biochemistry etc.) or an "akademia medyczna" (medicine doctors) or an "akademia ekonomiczna" (economics, marketing etc.).

As for technical universities in Kraków, there are at least 2 of them: Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza (AGH) and Politechnika Krakowska, I don't know which one is better, you'd have to make more research (maybe someone on this forum would know too - but you'd probably have to start a new thread with more specific title, about studying engineering in Kraków).

P.S. Don't mind people like noimmigration (I usually ignore him) - he's some crazy kid (from Scotland) who hates Poles and post only negative comments on this forum (he was recently suspended, so he has some accumulated venom to spill).

Language / How do people mispronounce your Polish names? [60]


Most first names and surnames mentioned in this thread are normal, some of them rare (like Trzop), some very common (Grzegorz, Krawczyk)

Brzęczyszczykiewicz is a movie example (from a famous WWII commedy - Jak rozpętałem drugą wojnę światową, How I started the World War II) used by a fugitive prisoner to embarass a German officer, who can't spell this name. I don't know people with such a surname, but it's not hard to pronounce for a Pole:

Movie fragment on you tube (67 seconds)

But foreigners seem to have a problem with it:

Language / How do people mispronounce your Polish names? [60]


No, they're not, but when a foreigner (without any basic knowledge of Polish, which is rather common in the world) sees a 10-15 letters long name s/he panics thinking it will be too hard to pronounce, then even very simple names (like for example Nowakowski - pronounced quite smoothly) scare the speaker.

Other thing is that people try to apply their own language rules for Polish spelling, or what is even worse - English rules, this way with a name built of sounds common (or similar) in many popular languages, people make an useless hassle for themselves.

Let's take for example Polish "rz" and "ż" (pronounced like French and Portuguese "j" and similar to the English sound in the ending -sure in treasure, leisure etc.) - but most people will try to pronounce it as "r+z", "r" or "z".

Same with Polish "sz" (close to "sh" in English, "ch" in French, "sci" (without the "i") in Italian, "sch" in German) - many foreigners try to say it as 2 separate sounds (s+z) which is hardly doable.

or "drz" and "dż" - similar to English "j/g" (in John/George), French "dj" (maybe not an official sound, but even said as "d+j" is still close to Polish, besides most people heard of jazz music, so they know the sound), Italian "g" before "e/i" (gettare/giocare).

There are only a few sounds (soft consonants "ć", "ś", "ź", "dź" that may be problematic, because many people don't hear the difference in those pairs "ć-cz", "ś-sz", "ź-ż/rz", "dź=dż/drz"). Other serious trouble may be the consonant clusters, more common in Polish than in English (Szczakiel = sh + ch + akyel, but people try to make it harder, s+z+c+z - I couldn't pronounce it either :)

The fact that we use "w" for the sound represented with "v" in many languages creates another problem (at least not for the Germans who also chose "w" for the Latin "v").

Life / How to wire a plug in Poland? [16]


I know you weren't, but I added this explanation just in case, before someone could have thought it :)
So aren't the wires (in your house) in plastic tubes?

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


Unfortunatelly, Polonius3 is participating in a competition for a biggest numbers of new threads with capital letters in the title of the thread, so browsing older posts is no option for him.

He rarely even answers his initial "pseudo-questions".

Language / POLISH LANGUAGE POLICE? [9]

Language / WILL "TĄ" REPLACE "TĘ" SOON? [14]


You certainly meant biernik (accusative), because in gentive case (dopełniacz) it's "tej"

Life / WHAT ABOUT THANKSGIVING (ŚWIĘTO DZIĘKCZYNIENIA) IN POLAND? [52]


Just because it's not on an American holiday it doesn't mean we celebrate all the time.
Everytime I want to call to the USA, they're still sleeping, lazy bums :)

Language / WHY "HIGH FEE" for HIFI in Polish? [12]


Wrong assumption. Not having much contacts with spoken English language people tended to "rationalize" the pronounciation of the abbreviation read in foreign magazines, "i" in high is pronounced "aj" (in Polish transcription), while in in "fidelity" it's just an "i" (again in Polish transcription).

Btw, do foreign visitors to Poland travelling by train even care how we pronounce for example "PKP" (peh - kah - peh), or do they read it in their own language (or in English, as pee-kay-pee)?

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


Oh, don't be so modest, go for the full package. Jan's Name Days according to Wikipedia:

Life / WHAT ABOUT THANKSGIVING (ŚWIĘTO DZIĘKCZYNIENIA) IN POLAND? [52]

So how many days off (in your opinion) do we have in Poland?
And how long is a working week in your country (in Poland it's still 42 hours/week, if I'm not mistaken)?

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

I think most people in Poland celebrate Jan's Name Day on June, 24th (because some links to John the Baptist celebrations in the Church), so that's probably when you can expect "wszystkiego najlepszego" wishes from other people.

Language / AMERICA'S "ONE-FINGER SALUTE" IN POLISH? [4]

I also saw the polonized spelling of "fucka" (faka)

Life / How to wire a plug in Poland? [16]


In my case I meant the sockets in different points (for example in my kitchen a double socket plate by the oven has both sockets where the live wire is on the left side, while the plate at the window has live wires on the right side).

btw, all the electric works and installations in my house were made by my father (a professional electrician), so it wasn't a fault of some lazy workers.

those double (upper + lower) socket plates will also be replaced with single sockets because of the EU regulations in the future, I'm not sure if double paltes will be allowed in the horizontal lay-out (one at the side of the other, not above, like today)

History / History of Poland before, during and after World War II [16]

This thread is going in the wrong direction :(


Anyway, I don't like history, but Norman Davies is known for his several books on Poland's history (he's a Brit, so you can find his books in English and also translated to Polish).

The most comprehensive book seems to be the
God's Playground. A History of Poland. (1981)
(Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795, Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present.)

Life / How to wire a plug in Poland? [16]



Correct, but read the remarks at the bottom of my post.


As far as I know it doesn't matter for electric devices. I'm no electrician, but I can ask one tomorrow, just to be sure.

Anyway I just checked in my house and sometimes the live wire is on the left side and sometimes on the right side :)
You can also buy a "próbnik napięcia" (a screwdriver-like tool with neon lamp inside - at the right side of this picture:




Take a look at this post (



It's universal, which will be important in some near future, because, according to the EU regulations, Poland will change the earthing method, instead of the pin used now in the sockets, it will be like this:

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


none, I suppose.


Nie, Po po polsku to Pad.

Life / Can you think of any famous Polish personalities? [147]


Yes, he rather is.


Only in the 10th episode. But he was also starring in Kieślowski's Three Colors: White.
After that he made some commercials (probably not even used in Poland) for a Belgian beer company, so he had his "five minutes of fame", but I'm not sure if he's recognized outside of Poland anymore.

And one of my favorite films with Zamachowski is Pułkownik Kwiatkowski (with the leading part of Marek Kondrat).


Well, I usually check projects being in production at this site:
imdb.com/name/nm0952498

Language / wysłać SMS-a / SMS-y [15]


You simply use it before the endings added to acronyms:
(Nom) SMS, (Gen) SMS-a, (Dat) SMS-owi, (Acc) SMS or SMS-a, (Inst) SMS-ie, (Loc) SMS-em. Also in plural (SMS-y, SMS-ów and so on).
If you choose the other spelling (esemes), which is correct according to dictionaries, but (for now) less common, you don't need the "myślnik" (esemes, esemesa, esemesowi, esemes or esemesa, esemesie, esemesem, Plural esemesy, esemesów etc.), because in Polish you don't use this graphic sign (-) in normal declension.

On a side note, there are two forms (in singular) possible:
Wysłać SMS
Wysłać SMS-a
the first one (SMS) is "more correct" according to the historical declension rules for non-animate male nouns (*), but the second one (SMS-a) is stronger in the modern language, where newly introduced male nouns (SMS or esemes, e-mail or mail) and some a little older (gem, set, but not mecz!) assume the declension of the animate male nouns, and things get pretty ugly here, because they also change the grammatical form required for an adjective! (**)

(*) Accusative case (biernik) of male nouns is typically identical
1/ with the Nominative case (mianownik), so no additional ending, for non-animate nouns, for example:
widzę/słyszę/kupuję/wysyłam (and many, many other verbs) stół, komputer, telefon, tapczan, list, żyrandol, dywan etc.
2/ with the Genitive case (dopełniacz), so usually -a ending, for animate nouns, for example:
widzę/słyszę/kupuję/odwiedzam ... ojca, syna, brata, studenta, psychologa, lekarza, psa, konia, kota, ślimaka, pierwotniaka, wirusa etc.

(**) Examples with adjectives
Accusative male noun + adjective
(animate nouns, "młody pies" = "young dog")
Widzę młodego psa.
(non-animate nouns, "nowy dom" = "new house")
Widzę nowy dom.

If you decide to use the historically correct declension:
Wysyłam długi e-mail, SMS, list.
Venus Williams przegrała pierwszy set 5-7, po czym wygrała morderczy tie-break (18-16) w drugim secie.
If you choose the declension prevailing in the modern language:
Wysyłam długiego e-maila, SMS-a (you can't use it with "list").
Venus Williams przegrała pierwszego seta 5-7, po czym wygrała morderczego tie-breaka (18-16) w drugim secie.

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


Translating prepositions (za, po, do, od, przed, u, w etc.) between languages is quite complicated and little useful, because every language has many exceptions (the fields of meanings are never identically correspondent).

Those words actually don't have much meaning if they stand alone, they acquire the flavour of their neighbours (i.e. of other words with stronger meaning, especially verbs, nouns and often out of the context).

Just remember the most important usage of them (start with the main usage of "po" = after, in regards to the time, so one thing happened after an other), in all other cases you'd rather have to learn to think in Polish, and you'll gradually comprehend more and more situations when a certain preposition is required.

News / Poland's Most Quoted [22]

Nie pożądaj żony bliźniego swego nadaremno.

Language / When to use Ręka / Dłoń [14]

Polish foot (stopa) is almost not used, we call everything "noga" (leg). I think that "stopa" is even less common than "dłoń" in everyday speech (of course except for medical or anatomical contexts)

There are some fixed phrases with stopa or dłoń, where it would sound odd to use noga/ręka, but not many.

serce na dłoni (heart on the hand - about a cordial person)
pomocna dłoń (helping hand)

stopa życiowa (living conditions)
and generally stopa in the meaning of "level"
na równej stopie (on equal terms, so it can be included into the "level" category - all parts are on the same level = noone is higher in the hierarchy)

Life / Polish movie title needed [5]

It's based on a true story, but it's a good film, not like some crap TV movies based on facts.

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

btw, there was a thread about it, a few months ago, I think we had some problems with establishing how to write (in letters) or say "with 1256 [etc.] people" (and similar).

Language / When to use Ręka / Dłoń [14]


Here is your answer, POLONIUS3, it's a lyrical song, it's like he was singing about kissing this lady's eye, feet or any other body parts, but in normal speech we use "całować kogoś w rękę" (to kiss somebody's hand, a traditional greeting, still present among older generations, normally only women are kissed by men, except for religious figures like the Pope - but it's a different kiss, not a greeting, but gratitude), not "całować czyjąś rękę".

There's also a figurative expression "całować kogoś po rękach" = to be very grateful/thankful to someone.

Generally in Polish 'ręka' is often used where in English you'd say 'hand' or 'arm'.

Here's the medical (anatomical) description
bark, (shoulder)
ramię, (arm)
łokieć, (elbow)
przedramię, (forearm)
ręka, (hand)
ręka (hand) is divided in:
- nadgarstek (wrist) - which is often considered a separate body part, between the forearm and the hand,
- dłoń (palm), inner part of the hand (I'm not sure how the outer part of the hand is called in Polish, because it's not used too often),

- palce (fingers, including the thumb)

In colloquial language, however, the word forearm is almost not used (we say 'ręka' for it), and the word 'ramię' [plural: ramiona] is quite often used not for the 'arm', but for the 'shoulder', unless you need to be specific for the medical reasons.

EDIT: While I was editing my post z_darius wrote something similar in a shorter way :)

Language / Affectionate endings to Polish girls' names.... [30]


I've heard Weronka

Food / Help with pudding directions: 0,5 minuty = 5 minutes or half a minute? [9]

Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet (Fanfare)
I hope the budyń was a full success, although Lori's long silence makes me worringly anxious about her:

Username: Lori
Member Since: Mar 17, 08
Last Post: Yesterday, 18:01