Language / Polish Language Pronunciation - Example Words and Phrases [178]


yes but my point is not that English words are difficult, more that it is hard to know when using words of English origin in Polish whether they have been polonised or not, and if so, to what degree....

Life / Does Marriage with Non EU citizen cause loosing health İnsurance for polish ? [6]


Probably because your post is not very clear, I am not sure I understand exactly what you are asking. You haven't made it clear (at least to me) if your fiancee's insurance is private insurance or through ZUS.

Life / Does Marriage with Non EU citizen cause loosing health İnsurance for polish ? [6]

I am self-employed and pay my own ZUS contributions. I added my wife and child to my ZUS insurance for no extra charge.

I don't think she would lose her ZUS automatically just because she got married but I think you or her should go to your local ZUS office to check.

Life / Applying for EU passport... [51]


About one year plus or minus 6 months. I have heard it can take up to 2 years.

I have already been waiting one year, and every 3 months I get a letter which reads along the lines of 'due to the complicated nature of the matter it's taking longer than expected'.

But you can always ask whoever is in charge of your application what the status is.

UK, Ireland / Buying a used car from a private seller in UK. What is the law if... [18]


Actually it's not. My Mum's taken people to the Small Claims Court twice and won, it's quite straight forward and not expensive.

But as terri has said they have no legal case anyway so this wouldn't help unfortunately....

Life / Can a non-EU student studying in Poland apply for the EHIC card? [5]

[quote]But I need to travel around Europe
Even if you did pay ZUS contributions and were entitled to the EHIC card (or in Polish EKUZ) I wouldn't bother getting it because the process is a joke:

britishinpoland.com/blog/2008/12/european-health-insurance-cards-ehic/

Life / Looking forward to move to Poland in September, but I have some questions. [12]


Yeah I still remember how long it took me to rewire everything when I moved here - hours and hours. Polish plugs are much more fiddly to wire up than UK ones in my experience.

Life / Looking forward to move to Poland in September, but I have some questions. [12]


yeah I did that for my computer stuff, TV, plus all my electrical tools.

Nice trick is that you can force a Polish plug into a UK socket if necessary and it works fine.

Language / The Dative Case [62]


Yes you are right but I think you mean "direct object" not "indirect object":

direct object - accusative
indirect object - usually dative.

Language / Verbs and vocabulary around squatting [5]


Are you talking about squat in the sense of staying overnight somewhere or in the sense of squatting as a physical position (i.e. like kneeling, sitting etc..)?

Language / misleading differences between Polish and English languages [92]


as opposed to what? I'm Britsh and we happen to use "I'm" in the UK too... ????

Language / misleading differences between Polish and English languages [92]

I don't understand what you are talking about or what point you are trying to make.


It's an example of English, used in America, Britain, everywhere, so I don't understand what point you are trying to make to Mafketis, apart from that it looks to be an attempt at sarcasm.

Law / Questions about gaining a Polish citizenship and the process of getting one. [29]


so they probably left Poland before 1918, in which case you can't inherit Polish citizenship from them as Harry says.

Life / Driving License - B1 that allows 16 year old to drive light vehicles? [27]


I don't think there is an engine size restriction. According to https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prawo_jazdy category B1 is just a "...3 or 4 wheeled vehicle with a mass not exceeding 550 kilos...". It does not mention anything about an engine size restriction such as on category A1 (small motorcycles). I had a quick look on some other websites and didn't see anything there about engine size restrictions either.


your understanding seems correct to me - 16 years old and less than 550kg. You need to have done 30 hours of theory training and 30 hours of practical training according to that wikipedia link.


No, motorcycles are a different category (category A) so you can't mix and match them.


I have a suzuki gsf 1200 bandit which is not a small bike and that weighs about 220 kilos. Surely even a Harley wouldn't top more than 300 kilos?

edit - response to wildrover

Life / Driving License - B1 that allows 16 year old to drive light vehicles? [27]


Yes I believe you're right.

Language / Formal "you" and Informal "you" : which is which? [46]


Yes. This style of using a 3rd person construction as a substitute for the 2nd person takes a bit of getting used to.

It's similar to the way Pan/Pani is used to avoid talking informally using the 2nd person form of "ty".

This is possible too in English (albeit very rarely) - e.g. in a super-posh restaurant the waiter might say "would sir care for some wine?" instead of "would you care for some wine?" even though he is talking to you and not about somebody else.

Language / Formal "you" and Informal "you" : which is which? [46]


if you are talking about using the plural form when talking to 1 person then yes absolutely - "we are not amused!" is a famous example.

I was referring more to the use of the 3rd person singular form when talking to 1 person.

Real Estate / How to locate records of land owned75 years ago in Poland? [16]


I am sure he meant to type "plain robbery"

USA, Canada / Dual Citizenship: American and Polish? [53]


probably not because your great great grandfather most likely left Poland before modern Poland existed. I think the cut off year was around 1918. If you do some searching on this site and google you will find this has been asked many many times before.

Language / Example sentences for different cases. [42]


If you are using it to mean "that" then yes:

ta kobieta - that woman

But "to jest..." is a fixed phrase which doesn't change:

To jest kobieta - "this" is a woman

Does that make sense?

Life / Can you keep a right hand drive car in Poland? [57]


have a read through this thread - consensus seems to be that you can't.

UK, Ireland / Car Shipment from Poland to the UK [19]

Took me about 26 hours doing Krakow to London in an old van that wouldn't do more than 60mph and with regular breaks to rest. I recommend the Dover-Dunkirk crossing with NorfolkLine ferries - much cheaper than the Dover-Calais route in my experience.

If I had been doing that run in a car I reckon I could have done it in about 18 hours.

UK, Ireland / Car Shipment from Poland to the UK [19]

actually I have done that route about 5 times now (return journeys) and sometimes I change the route a little bit but basically there are 2 main routes.

There is the one that goes through Germany via Berlin as per ViaMichelin.com or you can do a similar route but go via Dresden instead.

Language / Polish websites for a beginner reader [5]

are you based in Poland? If so I recommend going to the local library and getting childrens' books. My first book was called "Iwonka bez ogonka" and I was very pleased with myself when I cracked it!

Language / wysłać SMS-a / SMS-y [15]


Is it not just because Polish people think of gol as being animate? i.e. a gol has some type of animate quality?

Life / Parking on the sidewalks in Poland - why is it allowed? [8]

v10.pl/prawo/Parkowanie,na,chodniku,316.html
according to this website you are allowed to park on the pavement if the vehicle is less than 2.5 tonnes subject to there being no "no parking" or "no stopping" signs. You have to leave at least 1.5 metres of space for pedestrians and not obstruct the flow of traffic.

I think that in reality in most towns the parking rules are simply not enforced. As a driver, for me personally, this is great :-) However when I am pushing the buggy around and have to circumnavigate blocked pavements it's annoying :-(

USA, Canada / Born in Poland came to Canada as Child -- Polish Passport questions [9]


You don't have to worry about that nowadays - now that Poland has open borders I can't see how they can prevent you from leaving Poland.

Work / Mechanical design engineer, no Polish, will company like GE hire me? [59]


Tell me you're joking? The UK has no urząd skarbowy in every town, there is no USC, there is no zameldowanie, there is no having to queue up and personally go to some office to simply register a car...

In the UK I applied for my passport via the internet and received it by post. Can I do that in Poland? Of course not! I can't even do a VAT return online in Poland...


Ha ha ha. Tell me another one... :-)

Work / Mechanical design engineer, no Polish, will company like GE hire me? [59]


It's not, it's great that you can go and see someone if you want to. I just don't like being forced to go to the Urząd Skarbowy in person between 0800 and 1500 because I can't deal with simple things via post or the web. I hope that in time this will change....


Yes you're right. My wife waited over 18 months to get her tax returned to her from the Inland Revenue. Months of calling offices in Scotland with people who had no idea what was going on and nobody taking responsibility. But then that reminds me of the time I tried to get a telephone line from TP....

Work / Mechanical design engineer, no Polish, will company like GE hire me? [59]


I may well do so in future, but for the first year or two of running my company I want to do everything myself just to make sure I know what to do and how to do it all. Currently I go to an accountant periodically to check I am not messing up too much along the way.