Language / Help with idiomatic translation ... [48]

przelom.pl/14403-o-dywanie-kobiercu-i-tapczanie.html

An article about dywan/kobierzec/tapczan in the link above - when I'm not being lazy ...
As for the semantic drift, would English 'tart' apply? From a sort of cake, through a sweet girl to .... well ...

Life / ZUS / NFZ / Compulsory Health Insurance in Poland - where the money come to/from? [29]

commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oddzia%C5%82_ZUS_w_Lublinie.jpg

Nope but buildings like the one in Lublin are definitely too much.

Real Estate / American whinging and whining when buying or renting property in Poland [30]

@Joker
So people in Kraków stink?
And so did your wife when she came to the US? Ok ...
Most Americans make 300 dollars per day? Good for them.
What a wonderful country and people!

@Ktos
Stop whining about whining Americans. Just tell them the price. 300 dollars per month is too little. Period.
BTW, what did you mean by 'we had deodorants'? Had?
So you don't anymore? Where on earth are you?

Life / ZUS / NFZ / Compulsory Health Insurance in Poland - where the money come to/from? [29]

Whatever you call it, if present days pensioners paid tax/składka zdrowotna etc all their working life, they should be entitled to get free health care nowadays.

Language / Writing "to" and "from" on gifts in Polish. [41]

How about Felisia?
Or simply Felcia?
@Ziemowit

Btw, can you spare a moment and read the thread? Have you heard of Tadz? Perhaps it's used where you live.

Life / ZUS / NFZ / Compulsory Health Insurance in Poland - where the money come to/from? [29]

It's not enough to fire these people and close the offices down. You need to change the whole system.
I don't know how it works in your part of Poland but where I am I don't remember a single time when I went there and saw the employees idle - there were always people queuing. And something must have brought them there - probably some silly rules.

Several months ago I got a phone call from my local branch asking about a contract from 2011 or 2012. So the system keeps the employees busy.

@Sparks11
There are some impressive ZUS buildings indeed ....

Language / Writing "to" and "from" on gifts in Polish. [41]

@The Elves
The -ka dimunitive would be Felka or Feliska (the latter far less possible). As for Felikska, you mentioned Kresy - perhaps the person who wrote the name down wasn't Polish. It was a pretty ethically diverse area.

I still believe Tadz is an Americanised version of the Polish name. But it's part of your family history.
If you live abroad for years your mother tongue gets influenced by the language you're surrounded with. It's natural. I have seen It with a childhood friend of mine who moved to the USA twenty years ago or read it in my grandma's sister's letters - she had been living in Brazil for decades.

If you're not sure how to say something in Polish, feel free to ask here.

Life / ZUS / NFZ / Compulsory Health Insurance in Poland - where the money come to/from? [29]

I disapprove of ZUS for sure but what kind of tax are you talking about? In Polish. Are you talking about you składka zdrowotna and społeczna, fundusz pracy, fundusz emerytalny or what.

As this discussion started (in random chat as it wasn't my intention to start a new thread) when you replied to my comment about people paying all their working life to ZUS and said that it's not paying into any system but just another tax.

Language / Help with idiomatic translation ... [48]

@DominicB
Do you know why Polish dywan (rug/carpet) has a diffferent meaning to English 'divan'. The latter meaning is used in diffferent languages actually.

Real Estate / American whinging and whining when buying or renting property in Poland [30]

@Joker
When was the last time you visited Poland?
Have you ever been to Poland?
If Polish people stink, why do you come to a Polish forum?

Language / Writing "to" and "from" on gifts in Polish. [41]

Tadziu is the vocative form of Tadzio and perfectly fine in Polish. Tadz must have evolved in your American family. Dimunitives are pretty regular here - especially for such old fashioned names as Tadeusz. If anyone wanted to shorten Tadzio in Polish, it would be Tadź, as 'dz' is softened by 'i' in Tadzio and Tadz would sound too hard. But again there are regular dimunitives for names used in Poland for centuries and I have never come across Tadź in spoken Polish, film or literature. That just sounds like a foreign form of a Polish name. So is Tad - like a mixture of Tadek and Ted. You can't forget your family was influenced by English even if they were born in Poland. It's Ponglish like sklep na cornerze instead of sklep na rogu.

Felikska is a mispelling, I'm afraid. I find it difficult to pronounce and I'm a native speaker. It can't have appeared in that form in Latin Church books. It doesn't sound Polish and a dimunitive of any sort can't have appeared on a birth certificate. It's a formal document. If it's really on her birth certificate, someone must have misspelled it - either a half-literate Polish scribe or an American clerk.

You provided a link to Ms Zaleski's obituary. Her sister's obituary is also online and the name is spelled Feliksa there. And it has just struck me that if you're related to these two ladies, Feliksa's husband was called Stanisław. So perhaps he was called Staś not Tadz, Staszek not Tadzek. Other dimunitives for Stanisław are also Stasiek, Stasiu, Stasio.

Anyway, all the best for you.
Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!

Life / ZUS / NFZ / Compulsory Health Insurance in Poland - where the money come to/from? [29]

You apply for dobrowolne ubezpieczenie zdrowotne at NFZ and you pay it through ZUS.

Life / ZUS / NFZ / Compulsory Health Insurance in Poland - where the money come to/from? [29]

@Ziemowit
In terms of składka zdrowotna and dobrowolne ubezpieczenie zdrowotne for sure.

@Ironside
So how do you explain the reason why self employed people pay składka zdrowotna/spoleczna/fundusz pracy straight to ZUS?

Life / ZUS / NFZ / Compulsory Health Insurance in Poland - where the money come to/from? [29]

And NFZ and ZUS are linked.
The funny part is that if you're employed and self employed, you pay składka zdrowotna from both sources. Surprisingly enough, your state medical treatment isn't twice as good.

A couple of years ago I read an article about extra expenses ZUS had to cover like buying coffee, cookies etc (cele reprezentatywne or whatever) and there was a bunch of comments below with one saying: a szyby kuloodporne zamówili?

Life / ZUS / NFZ / Compulsory Health Insurance in Poland - where the money come to/from? [29]

Where does ZUS get money from then?
And if it's not from our składki, why can't we get another private insurance?
BTW, if you're self employed and you need to pay your składki to ZUS yourself, do they send the money to the government if they don't get it?

Language / Help with idiomatic translation ... [48]

I thought of pudernica but all of the ladies mentioned look very different even if they're more or less the same age. Not all of them look bad.

Genealogy / Searching for Wasikowski and Papczynski Family History [13]

As for the surname, if your ancestor was a góral, I somehow doubt he was a noble man. Also if he was, you would probably know it.

Suffix -ka does exist in Polish and it's often used to form dimunitives.

As for your ancestors, you can try looking for their vital records at szukajwarchiwach. Some church books have been digitalised. You need to know the year of birth and the parish, though.... and have good luck as you can't find all books online.

Language / Help with idiomatic translation ... [48]



There are lots of memes made of classical paintings at the sztuczne fiołki fanpage. Too many political ones recently.

Life / Health system in Poland one of the worst in Europe: report [78]

Anyone claiming the health system in Poland is fine either lies or doesn't know it.
Not enough specialists? And we won't get more. Especially after how the ministry treated the resident doctors on strike.
Or that case of a patient in her eighties who had her endoprotesis surgery planned for 2024!

Genealogy / Searching for Wasikowski and Papczynski Family History [13]

Cholewa/cholewka - upper part of a boot around the calf - bootleg.
Cholewka is also a regional name of a mushroom.
The surname might be derived from both meanings.
There's also a Cholewa coat of arms with numerous families using it listed on the wiki page.
Merry Christmas to you, too.

Language / Writing "to" and "from" on gifts in Polish. [41]

Well, you asked about Polish. I tried to help you as a native speaker. I have already told you what it looks like in Poland.

As for Felikska - any Polish source?
As for Tadzyk - there's only one anonymous account. The language listed is Kashubian. Perhaps a local variation. But again there seemto be no other results for Tadzek.

As for the genitive forms of Tadz, Tadzek or Felikska - I just don't know.

Language / Writing "to" and "from" on gifts in Polish. [41]

Feliksa? Fela or Felcia would be possible dimunitives from Feliksa, too. Felikska isn't Polish either.
Well, as for Tadz... as I said: I don't recall coming across it either in spoken Polish, in Polish films or in literature.
Stryjek and stryjenka were used by my grandma. One of her brothers was called Tadeusz- she called him Tadek.
Don't take it personally. I'm just talking about Polish.

Language / Writing "to" and "from" on gifts in Polish. [41]

Nah, I think you just spell them like an English speaker. Poles spell them differently.
When you wrote Felja I read it as /felya/ and got confused. Now I'm pretty sure Felja is your transcription of Felcia - the dimunitive of Felicja. The genitive would be Felci.

I have never heard of Tadz unless they weren't etnically Polish. You mention the Greek Catholic Church so they might have been of, for example, Ruthenian origin. Or it's just an American version of Polish like 'busia'. In Poland the dimunitive forms of Tadeusz are Tadek, Tadzik or Tadzio (for a little boy)

Nouns change forms, too. So dla wujka/stryjka/cioci/stryjenki.

UK, Ireland / No Poles Allowed! - Latest Polonophobic Outrage Out of Britain [660]

Cool you know all Polish people.

Language / Writing "to" and "from" on gifts in Polish. [41]

Roman Catholic church records did have the Latin versions of the given names, indeed.

As for the names you mentioned, the nominative-genitive forms are:

Ania- Ani
(Or Anna-Anny)

Kaśka- Kaśka
(Or Kasia-Kasi, Katarzyna-Katarzyny)

Maks-Maksa
(Or Maksymilian- Maksymiliana)

Karolek - Karolka
(Or Karol-Karola)

Krzysiek- Krzyśka
(Or Krzyś- Krzysia, Krzysztof- Krzysztofa)

As for Tadzek, it's either Tadek or Tadzik so:
Tadek-Tadka or Tadzik- Tadzika. As for other forms of the name: Tadeusz-Tadeusza and Tadzio-Tadzia.

Felja is more difficult. It might be Fela-Feli or Felicja- Felicji.

You need to use the genitive form after dla/od so for example 'dla Ani od Krzyśka' etc.

Language / Writing "to" and "from" on gifts in Polish. [41]

mowicpopolsku.com/polish-grammar/cases/genitive/

Here's an article about it. But it doesn't discuss names.
I know it's rather private but you can just post the names here. They might be a bit tricky if they're English, though.

Language / Writing "to" and "from" on gifts in Polish. [41]

It's 'dla' and 'od' but as Wulkan pointed out you need the right case and it depends on a name/word. For example: to Adam from Anna ---> dla Adama od Anny

Language / Declining a number. Polish declination grammar. [7]

It's just 'agenta osiemdziesiąt sześć'.

Genealogy / Opszentkowski means what in Polish. [28]

Agreed ;)