Food / YOUR FAVOURITE POLISH EASTER FOODS? [23]


They stopped drinking alcohol for lent, but much to my dismay (okay, slightly to my dismay), they kept eating pancakes. When someone had a name day, a bottle of whisky was opened (but not vodka, this may be an important detail).

I'm looking forward to what might be served at Easter.

Language / Przypadki (Polish language cases) [59]

The thing to do is to tell the learner that there are a lot of different cases, some of which share word endings in various places. But don't give them all of them at once. Start with an easy one like the instrumental, or perhaps the genitive plural for counting things.

Off-Topic / PF - The Omnibus Edition [1502]


Greek is best for this. It's pronounced Evros.


I didn't until I placed the cursor over the lower half of the letter P.

Off-Topic / PF - The Omnibus Edition [1502]


Anyone know the exchange rate with Osiolian Florins? I just think the word dollar is used in more than enough currencies already. I like the quirky old names of currencies, some of which have now disappeared. The dullest name for any currency has to be the Euro.

Genealogy / Why Polish aren't white?? [272]

Angolans are white, according to a Pole I was talking to once. Crazy guy, even thought I was Angolan.

Off-Topic / PF - The Omnibus Edition [1502]


Another incarnation of pgtx?

Off-Topic / PF - The Omnibus Edition [1502]

Osiol's omnibus

Stuff happened this week. Miranda decided not to post another omnibus until people stop arguing and start being nice to eachother. Seanus posted loads of stuff that no-one in the world has time to read (a bit like I used to). Other people posted stuff that I haven't read... and so on.

I wouldn't make a very good journalist, would I?

Law / Mr. Men and Little Miss series - trying to bring it onto the Polish market [20]


Mr.Grumpy? Mr.Greedy? Mr.Nepotism?

Off-Topic / PF - The Omnibus Edition [1502]

Very refreshing. Although I enjoy Szarlotka's ramblings, his editor never seems to allow such a concise and breezy run through of PF's latest events. Cheers Miranda.

Language / When to use: Znać/Wiedzieć & lub/albo [23]


To be acquainted with. (Apparently it compares with French: connaitre, German kennen and dialect English ken)

Znam Dave - I know Dave.
Znam to dziecko - I know this children.
Znam to słowo - I know this word.


Wiem, że... - I know that...
Wiedzą, kto... - They know who...
Wiesz, jakie... - You know what kind of...
Wiem wszystko - I know everything
Nic nie wiem - I don't know anything

Careful with umieć, meaning to know how to.
Umiem pływać - I know how to swim

Albo and lub, I think are completely interchangable. Just use the one that you feel like using at the time. Albo might be more popular in everyday speech, but who am I to know?

Life / What can citizens do to make Poland a better place to live? [125]

I hadn't considered the thought that I'd allow a Polish woman over here to beat me into submission. I had been getting quite close to the idea of upping sticks and moving, particularly after seeing how someone else I know had made a complete balls-up of relocating to Poland (I thought I could do far far better!) If I do put my flat up for rent, it'll most likely be because I want to help fund getting a slightly bigger place to live in over here. She seems to have more of a pessimistic view of things. A bit of Osioł magic should remedy that. (I fully expect to read the letters W, T and F with regards to that comment).

I will need a holiday in Poland before too long. There are people to visit over there. I've been offered a couple of beers and a barbeque (so that should definitely mean more than just a couple of beers).

Life / What can citizens do to make Poland a better place to live? [125]

Thinking about the positive things in life can do wonders. It helps you to think of ideas that a negative mind wouldn't dream up, and to carry those ideas out. Being polite, grateful for what you DO have and generous with those things in life that don't actually cost you anything (a smile, a polite word), can help anyone to become positive.

So-called-krates' point about blame was a good one, assuming it to have been a sarcastically-made point. Blame is negative. I'm now going to quote Detroit proto-punk band the MC5. I'm not sure if they nicked this particular rant off someone else before though.

The time has come for each and every one of you to decide whether you're gonna to be the problem or whether you're gonna be the solution... kick out the jams motherf...

History / The Celts in Poland. [71]

I think if you look at what spread Celtic culture, you might find that it was small numbers of warrior people who roamed around Europe taking over places, where the sedentary population remained pretty much the same. Remember that Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Italic, etc. languages all descend from the same group. Some of the differences may be accounted for by this language being adopted by different groups who already spoke different (unrelated?) languages.

History / The Celts in Poland. [71]

I don't believe they were the same Celts. Modern day Celts descend from the people who have lived there since people first migrated to Britain and Ireland after the last ice-age. Culture moves faster and further than people.

Travel / Weird and wonderful sights in Poland [30]


Isn't that the point though? Does weird mean something different to you than it does to me?

Love / The age of consent in Poland is only 15 [147]

Why not when IT started posting that stuff that actually finally got him banned? It doesn't need repeating, but it goes against his claim this legal situation being a disgrace.

News / What is Poland's politics towards Norway? [56]

I have admiration for just about any country that promotes a penguin to high office in their army. I was just wondering how well this goes down amongst other people around the world.

News / What is Poland's politics towards Norway? [56]

What do Poles think of Sir Nils Olav?

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Olav
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Olaf

Language / Word order and swearing in Polish [44]


If someone says "Shit! Blah blah blah..."
you don't normally think of the s word as being used to name the person being addressed. To do so would be a strange exception.

Kurwa is a much-used word, although I hear little use of kurwo as a word to address people or things. Perhaps I need to listen more to all these crude, coarse, kurwa-saying people.

Love / Polish girls, how are they when they are in love? [86]

Euro has to be the dullest name for a currency ever.

She's only after your Euros! (Euros is a Welsh name, by the way. For those who use the Polish spelling convention, it is pronounced Ejros.)

She's only after your Florins! That looks a little better.

I don't think my girl is only after my money. I told her from the start that I haven't got any.

Love / Polish girls, how are they when they are in love? [86]


choc

Mmmmm I like choc... Oh you mean chodź?


German origin. Thaler (thal means valley, related to the English dale). I believe it's an abbreviation of Joachim Thaler (named after the place where these coins were minted). I prefer the name Florin - named after Florence. I think the pound (currency) was named after the pound (weight). Other currencies like the gelder, złoty and so on were just named after gold.

Love / Polish girls, how are they when they are in love? [86]


they send lots of text messages without any punctuation you dont know where one sentence ends and another begins is it a question or what i dont know theyre also in a language i only half understand its alright because most of the words look quite nice still a bit confusing but doesnt love always lead to at least a bit of confusion punctuation or not thats my 2 grosz worth

Language / Word order and swearing in Polish [44]

My question was about using those milder words in a sentence like the one at the start of this thread. Would it sound natural? As far as I can tell, they probably wouldn't, but then maybe I only ever talk to coarse individuals.

Language / Word order and swearing in Polish [44]

Can any of the milder forms be inserted?

I've only really noticed kurna being used as a stand-alone word.

Language / Word order and swearing in Polish [44]


Not sure, but I have the feeling this one works best as a sentence.

Life / Tips on tipping in Poland [45]

It's one way of saying sorry for being an irritating tourist.
Whatever happened to the word holidaymaker?

Then again, if you're just a foreigner, it's a way of saying sorry for being an irritating foreigner.
Can any foreigner be called an alien or just those from beyond Saturn?

UK, Ireland / Britain... What the Poles did for us. [444]


I think he is personally stuck in a rut, just hoping for some work painting and decorating (which is, of course, declining as the property market diminishes), but most of all, hoping to get his old job back working with trees and shrubs (which is also declining with the property market). I don't know how aware of this northern business he is. He does want to learn to speak English, but still needs to change something in his own mind to make the effort to do it. I'm sure he's not the only one in his position.

UK, Ireland / Britain... What the Poles did for us. [444]


"Guest worker" is not a term used in this country. Many have come here with that kind of idea - earn some pound and take it back to Poland and turn them into zloty. Many have not come with that idea.

My friend Jurek has now been out of work since before Christmas. The general air of pessimism not just in this country but around the world that is causing the economic gubbins we're going through at the moment is not helping. The fact that his English skills are, to be fair, rubbish, doesn't help either. However, his wife and his daughter are all still in work. They all relocated to this country, not just to be "guest workers", but hopefully to make a better future for themselves.

Language / Polish Past Tense [47]


After all the squabbling on this thread, no-one pointed out that this sentence is gobbledegook.

If I just edit out the comment about the English "-ed" ending, we have this:

Genealogy / I am interested in tracing any of my Polish-Lithuanian relatives Sadowski [23]


Some places such as google can do rough translations of web pages. They're not great, but might be better than nothing.