Law / Motorcycle Polish drivers license? [37]

Where does it cost 2500 €? Do you have to take all the courses and such even if you already have B?

Beware also, that many Poles fail the practical B license exam quite a lot of times beforse passing it, a combination of difficult exam and ease of taking it - you can repeat it as long as you want, you only have to pay some more than 100 zł for each exam, and you need to take six driving lessons every three failed exams (and a theoretical exam every 6 months). It's common in Poland to fail one day and try again the day after. The record I heard was some 15 times before passing.

(based on my few experiences in WORD Wrocław).

Language / Pożyczyć vs. wypożyczyć, etc. [5]

And thank you, cinek, everything is clear now.

News / 9 year old Polish girl and 10 year old brother killed by World War II bomb [46]

Bombs are still recovered in most European countries, I think. Of mine, bombs in Finland are quite certainly Russian, while those in Italy American.

Many countries in the world, including the losers Germany and Japan, had completely destroyed cities too and managed to not only build them back, but to become part of the most important economies of the world. So I'd say rebuilding destroyed cities doesn't automatically mean hampering development, nor new cities would have automatically been built.

Language / Pożyczyć vs. wypożyczyć, etc. [5]

Thank you! I had no idea of that difference.

Language / I want to learn Polish. Where to start? [180]


This is the first time in my life that I didn't register to a possibly interesting site... because of too complicated for me password rules:

Feedback / Why PolishForums? Give us your stories! [60]

Very simply, polishforums is the first (and almost only) result on Google for questions in English about Polish grammar or words. Also if you google specific methods or textbooks for Polish there's a good chance polishforums will appear on the first page of results.

History / What nation do Poles feel closer to? [74]

There's a country, which is mentioned in the Polish National Anthem. The funny thing is, this country's National Anthem mentions Poland too.

Maybe because of similar history and some similarity of character, I'm under the impression these two nationalities do consider themselves quite friends, even if they aren't so close.

Language / Are the languages of Russian and Polish similar at all? [94]


Wrong.

Finnish is actually quite a simple language. Contrary to Slavic or Romance language, the first steps are quite steep, but you will eventually reach a plateau: there isn't so much grammar after all in Finnish.

The problems of Finnish are:
- different feel from Indoeuropean languages, different vocabulary - which is paradoxical, as most lexicon is Indoeuropean, though this usually doesn't help much, as both Finnish and Indoeuropean languages have changed the original words in different directions;

- pronunciation, but there actually isn't any sound you don't know from English/French/German. Ä, Ö, Y aren't so difficult after all.
- cases, a good number, 14(15), but of these six are locational (w, na, do, od/z) and some are very rare, relics from the past. That leaves only 3(4) cases: nominative, genitive, partitive (and accusative, which is equal to one of the others).

- consonant gradation: word stems, both nouns and verbs, get specific changes, especially with K/P/T - something Polish is full of too.

On the other hand:
- the verb system is easy, there's even no future tense
- almost no prepositions, which cause so many headaches in other languages (w vs. na in Polish, all Romance languages, English phrasal verbs)
- you pronounce as it's written, fixed stress, no omophones (u/ó, rz/ż, ...)
- very easy sounds, for example only one sibilant (?), s and one affricate -ts-, as opposed to s/ś/sz/z/ż/ź/c/ć/cz/dz/dż/dź
- no gender

Just to debunk a myth.

Language / Pan vs. pan (letter capitalization), Cię, Ciebie [13]


Miłości i wolności, potrzebuję was.

Language / Tego/Jego [15]

Just as a side note, I think that in Russian you must use 'swój' (свой) when, and only when, referring to the subject of the sentence, that is: subject + verb + "swoj"-something. Therefore in Russian it would go exactly as in your examples (note that in the second example the subject is "chłopiec i jego dziadek".

But I think in Polish it's much more of a free choice.

Language / The difference between lubić and podobać się in Polish? [4]

Polski bez problemu! intermediate has the following to say:

Language / Polish - Absolute Beginner Questions. Study plan. [75]


Those are used here too (Italy) at the university, but as you mentioned, they pretty much require a teacher.

Language / Polish - Absolute Beginner Questions. Study plan. [75]


Maybe all languages from the same family.


If you listen to tons of native material you will understand next to zero and you won't progress. That's why they suggest "n+1" or "comprehensible input": listen or read material that is only one step more difficult than your current level and you will progress fast.

Grammar is not a monster - on the contrary it is very useful, especially for beginners. We are not children: from one side, we have qualities and knowledge that they don't have (we can read, we have been in school, we already know one or more languages,...); on the other we might have lost some of their ability to "intuitively" learn languages, and we are not actively immersed in the language - with "actively" I mean your mum teaching you, repeating, correcting, encouraging.

Grammar often makes it easier - I don't mean to learn by heart all declinations and conjugations, but to understand why something is like it is and to have a clearer picture of the language.

As an example, take the popular course called Pimsleur. They avoid on purpose all grammar terms, but in doing so they have to take plenty of difficult steps to explain even the most basic concepts of the language. It would be much easier, and faster to learn, if they'd allow some basic grammar, as in "what is a case".

Language / Pronounciation of the name "Rafael" [16]




So which is off, my English or my Polish, as for me it should be as the U in "cut" and not the A in "cat"?

Language / Is rosetta stone any good for learning Polish? [51]

Rosetta Stone is the single worst language course I have come across. Well, second to worst, after the American selling his Spanish course where you multiply words instead of adding them.

For a free and legal alternative, check out the courses at supermemo. The paid courses work like spaced repetition software, but you can use it for free without spaced repetition.

Language / Pan vs. pan (letter capitalization), Cię, Ciebie [13]

Thanks k..., Lyzko and gumishu. So I take it than in a novel you'd have a dialog:

- Dzień dobry, pani Kowalska!
- Dzień dobry, panie profesorze.

Language / A good free online conjugator for Polish [8]

On polish.slavic.pitt.edu/~swan/beta you write jest in the search field (on the right side of the page) and press Enter. You get 23 results as it is often used in examples in the dictionary. The fourth result is być. Click on View Tables under być, and on the imperfective verb... być, and you get all the tables.

Language / pospieszyć się, pośpieszyć się. [5]

Ale jestem głupi!

Language / pospieszyć się, pośpieszyć się. [5]

Thank you, asik!

I found both in słownik języka polskiego, with pospieszyć being "zob.".

Does "zob." mean "popular" or something similar?

Language / A good free online conjugator for Polish [8]

polish.slavic.pitt.edu/~swan/beta/

is an online dictionary with all verbs conjugated (and all nouns, etc. declined).

The website (polish.slavic.pitt.edu) has lots of other, free, interesting materials, from a first year university course to a couple of grammars, etc.

Language / How hard is it to learn Polish? [178]


I'd hate Polish to use only U or only Ż and dispense with Ó and RZ. Or even, more drastically, to write devoiced consonants as such: 'tesz' for też, 'pszepraszam', 'buk' for buk, Bóg and Bug.

I do actually like the Polish ortography - I personally prefer it to Czech or Croat, for example. Not to talk about those ugly Cyrillizations of a language which doesn't suit (anymore) to Cyrillic.

Language / How hard is it to learn Polish? [178]

Nah, if you know Russian well you will learn it very fast, as both are quite similar both for grammar and lexicon. All those mysterious word changes (D -> D-, T -> Ć, R -> RZ,...) will make sense in view of the palatalizing rules of Russian, as when adding -Е in the locative case.

I'd suggest to use resources in Russian for Russians, as they will probably bring out well the differences between the two languages.

Language / Napić się kieliszek koniaku [25]

What a discussion came out! Thank you all.

Language / Napić się kieliszek koniaku [25]


Your examples are exactly how I thought it.

Strange only that also my Polish friend would have said kieliszek instead of kieliszka.

She adds she lately heard on television: "to co..napijemy się kieliszeczek naleweczki?"

Language / cookery, word usage question [19]


Not only in Poland.

Language / How similar is the Italian accent to the Polish accent (when speaking English)? [34]

Polish and Italian both use quite open vowels and are mostly stressed on the penultimate syllable. I find both very "normal", "prose" languages, as opposed to the more poetic/emphatic Russian and French respectively.