Language / Dokonany/Niedokonany - Perfective/Imperfective [46]

Whoops, guys! Clean forgot "powinnem" has no infinitive form (bezokolicznik!!).

Muchos apologies - - -:):)

Language / Dokonany/Niedokonany - Perfective/Imperfective [46]

Witaj, Wyśpiańsko!

Wiem. Poprawny jest 'powinniam', nie prawda?

Language / Dokonany/Niedokonany - Perfective/Imperfective [46]

Dzięki!

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]

mine too (drip....drip...... LOL!!): brać/wziąć = perf./impf. 'to take'
potrafić/móc = perf./impf. 'to be able to, can
pójść/chodzić = perf./impf. 'to go'/'come'
umrzeć/zamierzeć = perf./impf. 'to die'
etc.
What's worse, those buggers tend to be fairly common verbs!!!!

Powodzenia,

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]

Cześć, Krzysztof!

Dzięki. Tak, 'umierać' jest innym czasownikem za parę 'umrzeć'/'umierać'. Zapomniałem!! - - :)

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]

Michał, such verbs are often even trickier for foreigners, since they seem so much alike (...but, of course, aren't!!), whereas the other ones mentioned are easier to detect as different forms of the same idea, therefore are easier to distinguish, e.g. the paired verbs 'brać' vs. 'wziąć' for English single verb 'to take'.

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]

malen/mahlen (identical pronunciation: the first meaning 'to paint', the second 'to grind'

Lachen lachen (the first plural form with a long a, meaning 'puddles', the second with a short a, meaning 'to laugh'

......the list goes on and on, true enough, Michał

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]

Michał, this is one the alleged reasons for the fallacious argument used by speakers of supposedly 'difficult' languages which seems to run along the lines that because English is 'so much easier', in this case than German, all German speakers know excellent English since the latter is not as 'hard' as German, thereby making the need for knowing German superfluous.

What b_ _ _ _ _ _t, people! Just because someone spends years and years in school learning something, does this necessarily equate with competence??
I studied math (as compulsory here in the States as English abroad) from 9 until 14, and am today still poor at it. Would I ever say that a person needn't bother to learn math because everybody of my generation had to learn it in school?? If someone can do something much better that I can, by all means then, be my guest!

I'll admit too, German, like Polish, has its challenges, as I've said by now countless times in this forum.

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]

Surely Russians would quite logically have an easier time learning Polish than Americans, Brits or French, for example.

English is of course linguistically closer to German than Polish, however, precisely because English is sooooo much more omnipresent in daily life than Polish,Russian or almost any other tongue I can think of, it tends to seem as though it were a sort of "everymans' " language, to be fractured and mutilated at will.

Noone seems to mind when, say Germans or whoever, butcher the English language. Yet, if we English native speakers make audible mistakes in pronunciation or grammar, many Germans almost immediately try switching to English (after all, language switching is practically the same as code switching!), whereupon the Germans' English is usually not all that much better than the Yank's German. The difference is merely in the cache

and status associated with speaking English, nowadays, more often US-English.

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]

Useless?? Why is Polish a useless language when dealing with Poland, especially since we've already established in this very forum that Poland has become an even more significant country/economy thanks to the euro currency?

What other language are we going to use when dealing with Poland? For that matter, what other language other than German is used when doing serious business with Germany, Russian with Russia, English with North America etc....?

Remember: The most important language in the world is the language the customer speaks!

Language / Share Perfective and Imperfective Polish verbs [105]

Jones,
True enough. I think it valuable as well to mention in addition to those other languages you named, that all too often the double-standard of 'practicing' vs. 'speaking' a language rears its head. Frequently, in certain countries, e.g. Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands etc., the inhabitants will rarely give a non-native, even if fluent in their language, as much as a chance to speak, yet will instantly switch to English. When this happened to yours truly, I responded "Oh, fine! So, you'd like to practice your English as well?", I was met with a smug, cold irritation: "Practice?! I think I speak English quite well, thank you very much!"

My answer: "Yes, and you seem to be a majority of one." The person was speechless.

Language / Context of 'Mów dalej' [13]

....or perhaps even "Proszę dalej!" = Please go on!, without even using "Mów.." in the phrase.

Language / The only polish word a foreigner won't ever say correctly :P [113]

Many of my fellow learners of Polish shed 'tears' over writing/pronouncing 'łzy' correctly. - - :):)!!! LOL

Some of these Polish consonant clusters rival the palatalized groupings of equally simple, everyday words in Russian, e.g. 'dver' (drzwi).

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

In English 'No' means 'Nie', in Polish 'No' means 'Well?', 'So, uh..' e.g. 'No, co słychać?' = So, what's up?

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

'No' in Polish is actually almost identical to 'Na' in German, even 'Naa' in Danish: Na, wie geht's?, Naa, hvordan gaar det? = No, co słychać? = So/Well, so what's up?

Language / Sit down - mogę usiąć? [6]

Dzięki wszystkim za pomóc!!

Language / Sit down - mogę usiąć? [6]

Wiem, wiem Krzysztof! Pośpieszałem się dopisać zdanie a zrobiłem błąd.

Znowu ślicznie dziękuję za poprawienie.
Wesołych Świąt Wielkanoc!!

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

Apropos this topic thread, 'noga' means 'leg' in Polish, but 'Noga' (capital N) is a Hebrew female first name, of biblical origin, named after an Old Testament king, or something.

How's that for an odd coincedence?!

Language / (part 2) Polish Language Pronunciation - Sample Words and Phrases [311]

Urszula.

I heard some people once from Zakopane and their '£' sounded deceptively like a Russian 'dark l', f. ex. in 'golodniy' (Polish 'głodny').

Warsovians and Krakovians seem to pronounce it in more of the standard way we foreigners learn it!

News / What you think about the Polish President, Kaczynski? [53]

Thread attached on merging:
Polish Opinion of President Kaczynski

Curious as to the general public opinion regarding Mr. Kaczyński's statements with respect to homosexuality in Poland and the Lisbon Treaty!

Responses in both Polish or English greatly welcomed.

Thank you in advance!!

Language / How Many of you love the Polish Language? [79]

Compared with Russian, Polish sounds rather excitable, almost feverishly upbeat in comparison with that of a viscous, slow-moving river which Russian often resembles, whereby every syllable seems drawn out for ultimate weight of meaning.

I was recently watching Eisenstein's 'Alexander Nevsky' with the late great Nikolai Tscherkassov as Nevsky. He was practically declaming each line of each phrase for rhetorical emphasis.

Polish actors appear to do this far less.

I find Polish especially beautiful however!

Language / How Many of you love the Polish Language? [79]

Check out the poetry of Iwaszkiewicz or Julian Tuwim. Hearing it read aloud by the likes of a Hanna Stankówna or an Andrzej £apicki, great 50's acting star of Wajda film fame, is truly an experience!

Language / How Many of you love the Polish Language? [79]

Osiol,

Go to your local library or order cassettes and digitally remastered CDs of these actors/actresses reading the works of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Julian Tuwim etc.

They're not that hard to find!

Language / Most-used Polish verbs (and every-day sentences) [37]

Jaszczolt,

Jeg anbefaler ogsaa '301 Polish Verbs'. Maaske tilsvarer den til en haandbog paa dansk!

I can recommend '301 Polish Verbs' as well and thought perhaps it might correspond to a Danish-language guide on the same topic.

Til lykke! Powodzenia!

Language / How Many of you love the Polish Language? [79]

Unless you're referring to Hollywood-German, German as a language isn't harsh at all! You have but to hear German poetry read by a great German actor, like Will Quadflieg reading Goethe etc. in order to experience the transluscent beauty of the German language.

Language / How Many of you love the Polish Language? [79]

Kamil,

Jeszcze język polski NIE zginąl!

Language / How Many of you love the Polish Language? [79]

Germans, moreso than the Austrians or even the German Swiss, often require a super long 'thawing out' period! I too found their aloofness rather offputting at first. To be sure, I associated Germany as a country populated by blond, blue-eyed, methodical, rather plodding giants, square jawed and implaccable.

Quite recently in fact, I could have sworn I was seeing a group of Northern German tourists at the museum......when it turned out to be Poles!!! -:) LOL

One can never be too careful, I guess.

Okgirl66!

I don't know where exactly in Germany you were, but I pity you your lamentable experiences with the German language. While I grew up here in the States, having lived for a time in Germany, I had the advantage of being raised almost bilingual, I therefore may hear the language differently from someone who was exposed to it for the first time as an adult.

While I also appreciate your comments regarding German, I do respectfully disagree!
As regards Polish, yer "a-preachin' to the choir" on this end. Have long since been a "convert" to the Polish language and find its poetry as captivating as German, but for slightly different reasons!

Language / Polish language problems (orthography) [47]

Maggi,

Greg is correct about this "English is more logical" fallacy! English orthography is perhaps the most chaotic of any known tongue. Indeed, the fact that regrettably, most Americans (but not necessarily most English speakers, take bilingual Brits and many Canadians, even outside French-speaking areas) are monilingual only reinforces the thinking that their language is the one which makes the most sense. HOW CAN THEY COMPARE??

Frankly, it's a tiresome fallacy at this stage. It also supports the need for Americans to use English-speaking foreigners abroad, frequently as a crutch for their own linguistic laziness, even concerning their mother language of American English.

Many US-tourists report back how either "everybody in Europe speaks fluent English!", or, "I thought more people would speak better English." This forum is a perfect example; English-speaking Poles make dozens of errors in their English, yet English-speaking Polish learners don't speak up. Is it that rude to bring up politely someone's mistakes, although the other person is trying to help you to learn their language?

Language / Polish language problems (orthography) [47]

.......Furthermore, Polish is the only extant (surviving) Slavic language with the nasals 'ą' and 'ę'. Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Czech have all lost this peculiarity of modern Polish.

The problem with Slavic languages, is essentially the same as for any languages from related families, for instance Danish and Norwegian, German and Dutch; false friends, i.e. lexical senemes whose meaning appears similar to identical, but has another, even opposite, meaning e.g. 'ogród' (garden) in Polish whose root 'gród' is related to the proto-Slavic 'gorod', later 'grad' as in Russian place names 'StalinGRAD', 'LeninGRAD' etc., or 'pismo' in Polish vs. 'pismo' in Russian.

In terms of syntax however, knowing one Slavic language will certainly help in learning another. The numbering system is pretty close too.