Language / ich/nich/ych [10]

I posted a PDF document on the web, which I made myself when learning Polish. I picked everything I could find in books and at Polish classes into a file which is more convenient to access.

fouillen.net/pl/polonais_declinaisons.pdf

This file contains complete declension tables of adjectives and pronouns. There are explanations in French in it. Sorry about French but I did it primarily for my own purpose some time ago. However it may be useful for those of you who understand without a big explanation, or who understand a bit of French. One day, I will take the time to translate those explanations in English for the sake of everyone here on PF. I'm also currently finishing a file for declension of nouns, including proper nouns and rules for foreign names, acronyms etc...

It takes time but I realized that learning half the rules form one book, the other half from another book and the exceptions from Polish classes or a web forum isn't always particularly convenient either. So, better put everything together in a file.

Language / ich/nich/ych [10]

As dagenhamdave said, you use "nich" instead of "ich" when using a preposition. This modification also occurs with the following pronouns:

go -> niego
mu -> niemu
jej -> niej
ją -> nią
je -> nie
im -> nim

Real Estate / Is it normal to pay 22% tax on renting a flat? [15]

Thanks for your replies.

Before I went to the agency this morning, my accountant confirmed me that if the owner was a company, I would have to pay VAT, but if it was a physical person, there would not be VAT.

Actually I just got back from the estate agency to sign the contract and everything is OK. There is no VAT indeed on the rent I will pay monthly to the owner, as it is a contract between two physical persons.

In fact, the agency charged me the equivalent of 1 month of rent as a commission for their service. As the agency is a company, they apply 22% VAT. They gave me a receipt for it and I will put their invoice in my professional expenses. It was my misunderstanding, for at first I had thought that the requested amount with VAT was due for paying the rent of January.

Real Estate / Is it normal to pay 22% tax on renting a flat? [15]

jonni / convex
I'm renting from a company. And from the further informations I got after long conversations on Skype with my 2 contacts, it appears that I'm definitely supposed to pay this 22% tax.

As I'm coming from a country where the tax is supposed to be included on the displayed price (just like cars and groceries), I was surprised. I've run a business for 12 years so I'm used to seeing prices announced without tax, but I didn't expect it to occur in Poland, especially with estate. But apparently I'm wrong. It can happen, and I was just not aware of it.

BrutalButcher
Yeah, I had the time to view your posted image. Don't worry, I was not offended. I saw the joke ;-)

Real Estate / Is it normal to pay 22% tax on renting a flat? [15]

It's OK. The issue was fixed. Two persons (my Polish accountant + another Belgian who settled in Poland a few years ago) confirmed that it's normal to pay VAT on housing (even private). It was just my ignorance of the fact.

Real Estate / Is it normal to pay 22% tax on renting a flat? [15]

No, it's not for office. It's private. The cost was announced 1600 PLN + czynsz 200 PLN if I remember correctly + media. I must go to the agency tomorrow morning to sign the contract which will have been translated in English for me and I'm asked to bring 1952 PLN for the first month, described as 1600 PLN + 22% tax. The agency is Volker, ul. Karmelicka, Kraków.

Language / The Dative Case [62]

"kotu" is correct. There is already a thread on PF [polishforums.com/grammar-usage-18/celownik-34983/] - here in which I listed names ending in -u.

Language / Dostał buta - genitive / accusative [25]


It's in genitive in this case because it is used with "trochę", a quantity adverb. With quantity adverbs, there are two rules to follow in Polish:

1. The elements must be in genitive (so we have "trochę chleba")
2. The verb must be in singular
(for example: "a few students go to the cinema" => "kilku studentów idzie do kina")


It's possible. I don't know. I didn't have the opportunity to read Polish texts with technology names other than mail and SMS. So I just believed the explanation I was given...

Language / Dostał buta - genitive / accusative [25]


Names of technologies are another example: "mail", "SMS".
=> Dostał maila... Dostał SMS-a...

From what I have learnt, masculine names of fruits, vegetables, vehicles, currencies, games, dances, tobaccoes and technologies get the declension of animate masculine at the biernik case.

Food / Eating Healthy in Poland [18]

From my experience it's very easy to eat healthy in Poland. I often go to the simple and inexpensive "milk bars" for a quick lunch, where I eat a salad or "pierogi ruskie" with a good fresh vegetable or fruit juice. As a foreigner I was also surprised to see that there aren't so many fried dishes in Polish cooking. Actually I never saw any. However Polish cooking can be somewhat fat but it is not the general rule.

USA, Canada / Happy Thanksgiving Day to all Polish Americans! [24]

Yep! Happy Thanksgiving to all the American fellow PF'ers here ;-)

UK, Ireland / Poles returning to the UK [33]

Maybe it's just the English ex-boyfriends and girlfriends of Polish immigrants who returned to Poland. They converted to Polish food during their relationships, and found out that it could be pretty good. Now they can't spend a week without their bigos, gołąbki, parówki and pierogi. All fed by unavoidable nostalgia ;-)...

Work / Staying beyond 3 months as Sp. z o.o founder and manager [22]

Thank you for your replies.

Work / Staying beyond 3 months as Sp. z o.o founder and manager [22]

I think it's last December that SeanBM (or Seanus) posted something on PF to propose members who are in Krakow to meet for a drink. I wanted to reply because I was going to be in Krakow at that time but eventually never had time, as I spent the holiday with my girlfriend and we had plenty of activities scheduled full-time.

Now it's different. We broke up. I have another female friend (just friends) but no other acquaintances so I'll be quite lonely at the beginning. I'll be happy to meet with new people for a drink, and male ones for a change.

Do zobaczenia ;-)

Work / Staying beyond 3 months as Sp. z o.o founder and manager [22]

Thanks McCoy ;-)

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

"ć" and "ci" are definitely not the same. Could you imagine the Monty Python saying "We are the knights who say ń " ?

Love / All Polish girls are like that? If you were her would you do the same? [62]

shaziluk

You say that you are ready to sacrifice your religious rules for the love of this girl. Considering your presentation of the story in your first post, I believe you are sincere. But it won't work. You say that because you are so desperate to lose her, still under the emotional shock of losing your first love, and first sex. You're suffering and we all can understand it.

However sacrificing your religious beliefs basically means renouncing your culture! How can you do that? It's your identity, it's what shapes your behaviour in life, and how you consider many things in society including relationship to the spouse. You come from a extremely traditional background (arranged marriages etc...). You won't be able to adapt. It's too big a change. It's a radical change that nobody could succesfully and entirely handle.

Imagine for a second that she changes her mind and accepts to come back to you because you promised to change and adapt to our European and Christian way of considering and doing things. You can make an effort at the beginning but very soon you will be frustrated. You will not be able to be yourself. In the long term you will not be happy. And your relationship will fail anyway.

So, even if it hurts, better do what everyone does after a first breakup: get over it. be courageous, accept the fact that there is more than one fish in the sea, and try meeting a new girl. And meet one coming from your culture. If you want to escape the excessively traditionalist environment where you come from, why not try another Muslim country, less traditional, but still in the overall culture that fits yours.

You know, even relationships between a European Christian girl and a Muslim man who was born or grew up in Europe (meaning he's been used to grow up with both cultures in parallel) isn't easy. It fails in most cases. And, well, even between us Europeans there are differences: Slavs, Latins, Scandinavians... cultural differences are there, and often bigger than we think.

Regards.

Life / Social networking sites used by teens in Poland? [13]

Polskiej_Dumy
Please Roman. Stop!

Life / Where can i get a real good piece of juicy steak in Warsaw....? [15]


I never batton meat. It crushes the meat fiber, then it feels different when you bite it. Not as tasty, I find. ;-)

Life / Where can i get a real good piece of juicy steak in Warsaw....? [15]

I wanted to cook veal scalops (the Italian way) for my gf in Krakow last year but couldn't find a butcher who would cut them the right way (thin and long). Finally I was at Alma in Galeria Kazimierz and running out of time, I accepted what they could do there. wanted, but still acceptable. The meat was delicious, but not cut the required way.

I had only one experience with beef. I bought 2 steaks from some supermarket but I forgot which one. It was either Lewiatan or Kaufland. I think it was Lewiatan. The meat was too old and it tasted too strong. As I don't usually like meat (except top quality one cooked specific ways), I got disgusted and just couldn't eat it.

How about mashed meat? can you get a good beef mashed meat here? and what exactly is "mielonka" ? I haven't tried yet.

Study / CZĘSTOCHOWA'S POLONIA UNIVERSITY? [4]

Hi. What did you study? Can you compare with another academy? I'm just curious. I had a female colleague 3 years ago who did a master of French philology there, but we never discussed her studies at that time because I didn't have yet an interest in Poland back then.

Food / Where is the best place to eat pierogi in Poland? [24]


z mięsem ? :-)

The best place where I ate pierogi was at my hotel in Mazury (Hotel Conrad on the shores of lake Roś). The cook prepares everything fresh, absolutely all ingredients. It is also the place where I had the best gołąbki and barszcz czerwony.

Food / Polish (but can be just any other) recipes for chicken dishes anyone? [23]

JustysiaS, one more chicken recipe for you. It's Belgian, and called "waterzooi". You need:

- chicken breasts
- leek, carot, onion, celery (with leeves)
- salt, pepper, light beer
- cream ( = smietana)

Cooking is made in a pan.

Cut the vegetables into pieces (carot and onion must be cut in very thin slices, leek and celery in bigger pieces). Cut the chicken breasts in big pieces.

Put everything in a pan with a bit of butter to brown, then remove the chicken.

Add beer, so vegetables will boil in the beer. When they're almost cooked, add the chicken again (it needs less time to cook than the vegetables).

When it's cooked, add the cream, salt and pepper.

On the side, you can serve with potatoes simply boiled in water, or with fries. If you choose the boiled potatoes, then they may be mixed with the rest at the end of the cooking.

A variant is with fish instead of chicken. In this case choose a piece of some thick fish meat, which will resist the boiling without falling apart. So it's chicken or fish. Don't try with another meat, it doesn't work.

"Bon appetit"

News / ARS cinema in Krakow [9]

I don't mind the IKEA seats. I just can't stand breaking my neck by looking upwards at the screen of the "Salon" or having the impression of being in a student bar in the "Kiniarnia".

;-)

News / ARS cinema in Krakow [9]

Be careful when you choose which screen you go for, in this cinema. Each one has a specific name. The "Salon" and "Kiniarnia" awfully suck. Poorest theaters and technology I ever saw and, sorry, it was better when I was projecting 16mm films myself at home a few years ago. I don't usually like multiplex because they have no personality and I'm not interested in films that usually play there, but the Ars has awful rooms. In the future, I will only go to their bigger screens.

In the same style of cinema, it seems to me that Kino Pod Baranami on the main square is better. But my favourite screen in Krakow is screen #1 at the Kijów. THAT is what I call a cinema. Their screen #2 however sucks as much as the smaller screens at Ars.

Love / Polish blonds are so beautiful [99]

Yes.


And with tanned skin. Many Slavic girls are like that. It is just imagination to believe that women from northern or eastern Europe are all blonde with blue eyes.