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Rosetta Stone program - couple of clarifications requested [15]
I am also using the Rosetta Stone, and the exact same issues confused the hell out of me.
The difference between "Oni płyną and On płwają" really threw me to start with, and I ended up having to consult my grammar book, which basically said they are part of a determinate/indeterminate pair of verbs. If I understand it correctly, then it says something like this:
"Oni płyną" is a determinate action, in Rosetta Stone everyone is swimming in the same direction, you know what/when it is happening.
"Oni płwają" is an indeterminate action, in Rosetta Stone everyone is swimming in different directions. It is used to say things "I often go swimming". You can't determine when the swimming action is happening.
You will find similar differences with "idzie/chodzi" and "biegną/biegają".
"Teraz idę do kina" -> I am going to the cinema
now. (Determinate action)
"Często chodzę do kina" -> I
often go to the cinema. (Indeterminate action)
The Rosetta Stone is great for learning vocabulary, but it is really bad when it comes to the grammar. The later units get worse, I remember in the unit that deals with numbers, anything after the number 5 has a different word ending and uses "is" instead of "are". I later found out, that after the number 5, you use the genitive case and treat it as a single collection of items, e.g.
"Tu są trzy samochody" -> Here are 3 cars (Notice the są (are))
"Tu jest pięć samochodów" -> Here are 5 cars. (Notice the jest (is) and word ending has changing for samochod).
I would highly recommend that you use additional materials along with Rosetta Stone, otherwise, you will get very frustrated. It is is designed/supposed to teach you without having to translate back into English, but Polish grammar is so difficult at times and different that it needs to be explained.
Hope this helps
