Prepositions in the Polish language.

Hi,

There are so many prepositions in the polish language.
Etc: you have at least to words meaning at: "Przy" and "U".
And when your going somewhere you sometimes use "Do", and sometimes "Na".

Can anyone write most of the prepositions and explain how we use them? with some examples ? :)

And when you say: "I play football", its "gram w pilke nozno". why is there an "w"?

Also, is this sentence correct? :"Szkoła konczy czerwcem" - School ends in June. ?

Thanks alot :)

The best I can advise you (not being a native Polish speaker!), is to learn those prepositions in context right from the outset, as you seem to have already.

As to "why"? Frankly, a moot question, and not a terribly helpful one, being that every language has its own special idiomatic usage which is peculiar to that tongue, Polish no exception.

'Gram w piłkę nożno.' is the Polish use of the preposition "w" in this particular context, as typical for Polish as its absence is from English, where the phrase 'I play/am playing soccer.' requires no preposition!

Best to learn each individual example of such within its own context and try as best you can to imitate its application whenever you speak or write-:)

Oh, and above all, try never to get into the easy habit of translating unfamiliar structures etc. into your native language. Learning will only be frustrated by such attempts at finding parallels, since they almost NEVER exist word for word. LOL

Marek

This one is correct: "Szkoła kończy się w czerwcu."

all the games require the 'w' preposition:

gram w karty - I play cards
gram w brydża - I play bridge
gram w berka -
gram w siatkówkę - I play volleyball
gram w tenisa - I play tennis

the reason that games require the preposition might be this:

gram has also a meaning of I pretend(I play, I act like) but also I play (a role) - which are quite near semanticly

so there is: gram wariata/gra wariata - I play an idiot/looney (like to play dead), zgrywam (zgrywam is derivate of gram) głupiego, zgrywam durnia - I play stupid

grać/zgrywać wariata is colloquial for to pretend one doesn't no about something in question

there is also the meaning of grać which is connected with music

grać Szopena - to play Chopin, grać Beethovena, grać mazurki (play masurkas), grać wesołe nutki - to play merry tunes

a contrasting pair can be formed for example

grać w piłkę - grać piłkę

grać w piłkę - means to play some ball game (but usually means football - czyli w piłkę nożną)

grać piłkę means however to play a ball - say in a weird form of acting/performance

I can't explain to you the origins of the 'w' preposition here - but it does play some role in distinguishing meanings (disambiguation means) as you can see (czyli gra konkretną/określoną rolę w odróżnieniu znaczeń ;) )

there is more to tell about that but I think it is enough of a lecture already :)

is there a Polish equivalent of "play ball" (to go along with something so as not to create a problem/scene)

well could be przymknąć na coś oczy is similar in meaning but not exact (sort of to turn a blind eye - but not exactly too)

maybe - patrzeć na coś przez palce is nearer in meaning (look at something through one's fingers)

I can't think of anything that has exactly the same meaning and/or is a similar construction - I does not mean there is not

thanks...
I have gone to the effort of getting my dictionary out... this is the best it can manage...
iść ręka w rękę z kimś

hmm iść ręka w rękę is to cooperate with each other as far as my brain tells me

but who know's maybe I am wrong here (being a native speaker hehe)

I sure should buy dictionary of Polish phrasal verbs ;)

I should add closely cooperate (iść ręka w rękę z kimś)

A while ago there was a book published in Poland, something along the lines of "Collocations in English". It was basically a lit of English prepositional collocations with translations into Polish.

gumishu
That was really very well explained. It has answered a few questions for me too.

How about 'iść na rękę' for play ball in the sense of going along with someone.

I do not think that anybody yet has actually answered your question. I imagine that you are referring to words such as do, ku, przy, nad, pod ect These words are not actually prepositions but as you talk about przy and u I assume that this is what you want a list of.

In grammar books they are listed as prepositions. So it would be interesting to hear what you actually mean.

I think that he was looking for the following

plus the genitive case

od
do
z
bez
dla
koło
dookoło
obok
blisko
niedaleko

dative dative

dzięki thanks to
wbrew contrary to
ku

instrumental case

między
nad
popd
przed
za

locative

na
o
w
po
przy

accusative

przez
na
o
w
po

This was a really good thread! Thanks!

Nice!

But be aware of the fact that some preps. often are involved in 2 different cases depending on the sentence. Eg. na (accusative or locative), z (genitive or instrumental) etc.

Mam ochotę na herbatę (acc). <---> Jestem na rynku (loc).

Lubię filet z kurczaka (gen). <---> Mieszkam z siostrą (instr).