Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]

@Lyzko


Not exactly. It is more likely to be habitual or generic that iterative. Iterative, strictly speaking, means something that is repeated again and again. Indeterminate verbs can be iterative, but not necessarily. Habitual and iterative are similar in concept, but not the same. If you find it totally natural to use the words "again and again" in the sentence, it is iterative. If you think it sounds odd or wouldn't naturally do it, it is probably habitual.

Swan explains this very well.

Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]

@Lyzko

Yes. Probably the only overlap with the English tense system is with those few verbs of motion that have determinate/indeterminate pairs. Determinate verbs correspond to progressive (continuous) tenses in English, and indeterminate verbs to simple tenses, in past, present and future.

Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]


The first means "I am in the process of going to the store" (uncompleted action). Niedokonany.

The second means "I will successfully finish going to the store at a particular point in time in the future". (One-time action successfully completed with a concrete result or accomplishment at a unique point of time). Dokonany.

"Będę iść/będę szedł do sklepu" means "I will be in the process of going to the store" (uncompleted action). Niedokonany.

If it is not a one-time action successfully completed with a concrete result or accomplishment at a unique point of time, either in the past or the future, then it cannot be dokonany. Actions occurring at the present time are never dokonany.

Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]

The "będę" forms of the future are niedokonany. Dokonany mean a successfully completed one-time action, and thus can only refer to past or future actions. Past or future actions can be dokonany or niedokonany. Present actions can only be niedokonany.

Frequentative: chadzać

Imperfective (niedokonany): chodzić/iść (determinate)

Perfective (dokonany): pójść

The frequentative has largely fallen out of use and is now usually expressed using the imperfective. It is used now only with a handful of verbs.

As for the rest of your post, it's fundamentally wrong. See the Swan grammar I mentioned above for a good explanation.

Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]


No, he didn't. You misheard or misunderstood, or your memory is mistaken. It is certainly niedokonany. An action in progress cannot be dokonany, for obvious reasons.

Language / Difficult verb pairs in the Polish Language; iść-chodzić, jechać-jeździć [34]

@Lyzko

Sorry, Lysko, but you really made a dog's breakfast of that. Frequentative is something different altogether, and the determinate/indeterminate pairs are both imperfective.

To the OP, this is actually way too complicated to explain on a forum like this. It is well worth spending 35 bucks on Oscar Swan's Grammar of Contemporary Polish.

He is the only one I've ever seen that does a good job of explaining the complexity of the Polish verb system, especially aspect, with which he does a stellar job.

It used to be available for free on his website, but it is not longer active. The "Nutshell" version now available for free on the internet is not good enough, and won't help you with these questions. Buy the full version on Amazon:

amazon.com/Grammar-Contemporary-Polish-Oscar-Swan/dp/0893572969/ref=la_B001JSDRRK_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479931887&sr=1-5

It will save you hundreds of hours.

All other Polish grammar books in English that I have seen are vastly inferior, so don't waste your money on them.

Off-Topic / B.Sc IT graduate. Which country can I apply for 100% visa approval in Europe? [4]

It is best to study in the country to which you want to emigrate, or in one of the richer, and more expensive, countries in northwestern Europe like Germany, Switzerland or Sweden. Studying in one of the poorer countries like Poland is not likely to be any better than studying in India. In fact, India is probably the better choice.

Be skeptical of websites hyping study in Poland and the other poorer countries of Europe. They generally underestimate the cost of living and studying by a wide margin, and greatly exaggerate the value of degrees from these countries. They also gloss over problems foreign students encounter. They often claim that part-time work is available for foreign students (it isn't) or that you will be able to find good jobs in these countries after you finish your studies (you almost certainly won't).

A good rule of thumb for graduate studies in an applied science field is to go where the R&D dollars flow in prodigious abundance, which means the English speaking countries, northwestern Europe, and South Korea. There is very little R&D done in Poland or the other poorer countries of Europe.

Another good rule of thumb is to avoid anywhere that suffers from brain drain, as do the poorer countries of Europe, including Poland. If you want to study outside of India, the study in a country that attracts intellectual capital, not one that exports it.

My advice is to study at a good school in India unless you can get into a very good university in a country that spends a lot on R&D, and preferably the country to which you wish to emigrate. A degree from Poland or other poorer European country is unlikely to be worth the investment, which is probably double or triple what you have been led to believe by websites and/or agents/recruiters.

News / Poland And the Pope: Not Happening, Apparently [58]


While most priests tend to be discreet, others flaunt it with wild abandon.

News / Poland And the Pope: Not Happening, Apparently [58]


No they don't. That applies only to members of monastic and quasi-monastic communities. Diocesan priests are free to own property, earn as much as they wish, and pass it down to whomever they wish.

Some priests are very wealthy.

Study / I'm going to study in Poland for 6 months and I want to know the costs of living [7]

Yes, you can. Frugally, but you can. You will have to either rent a shared dorm room or rent a room in a student apartment or with a family. That will cost 140 Euros or less. Living on your own is not an option. The rest will cover a basic student lifestyle if you are careful, and you make Polish friends to how you how to live cheaply and keep you informed about deals.

That is, of course, assuming that you do not drink alcohol (or take drugs of any kind), smoke tobacco or go on dates. These are the three big budget destroyers for students. Avoid them like the plague.

It is best to arrange accommodation with the school before you come.

Bring clothing, shoes, medication and electronic devices with you. They are very expensive in Poland compared to Romania.

USA, Canada / Differences in How Polish People Raise a Child and How Americans Raise a Child [149]

@american nanny

Is there any particular reason you didn't thoroughly document this abuse (times, dates, quotes, detailed actions and witnesses) and report it to the proper authorities in a timely fashion? Now, anything you say will probably be dismissed as the crazed invention of a disgruntled employee who was fired.

Sorry, but your silence made you complicit in this abuse. Shame on you!

History / German history of my new home in Poland [30]

@Wincig
From 935 to 990: Bohemia (loosely under the Holy Roman empire from 955 on.

From 902 to 935: Anarchy after Magyar raids devastated the area.

From sometime in the mid 800's to 902: Greater Moravia

From about 600 to the mid 800's: Several West Slavic tribes

From about 400 to 600: essentially depopulated after Hun raids drove the inhabitants away.

About 100 to 400: Germanic tribes, Goths and Vandals, including (probably) the Silingi, who apparently took their name from the hill just south of Wrocław.

500 BC to 100: Celtic tribes.

3000 BC to 500 BC: Indo-European tribes (proto-Germans and Proto-Celts, possibly Proto-Balto-Slavs mixed in).

4500 BC to 3000: Danubian Neolithic farmers (non-Indo-European, probably originally from Anatolia in Turkey).

9000 BC to 4500 BC: Scattered Mesolithic hunter gatherers.

Before 10000 BC: up to 2000 meters of ice covered virtually all of Silesia.

Law / Poland student visa refusal - 'intention to leave' [51]

On what basis would you base your appeal? What error do you believe the consul made? Your question is very vague and lacks important details. Also, where are you from, and which passport do you hold?

Work / Information about jobs for Indian students in Poland [286]

They usually get money from their families. A few have savings from before they came to Poland. Very, very few indeed ever earn money themselves in Poland. Many don't manage for long and return to India before completing their studies. Poland is not a friendly or forgiving country for non-EU students without wealthy parents.

As I've said many times before, make your plans on the very safe assumption that you will never earn a single penny during your stay in Poland. If you need to earn to learn, then Poland is not a country you should be considering.

Study / Coming to the University of Information Tech and Management in Rzeszow [5]


Not a chance. Make your plans on the very safe assumption that you will never earn a single penny during your stay in Poland. If you can't pay 100% for your study and stay from your savings or from your family, forget about studying in Poland.


Very poor, and non-existent for Indians. Poland produces all the physiotherapists it needs, and has plenty left over to export to richer Western countries.

Basically, there is nothing in your post that indicates that coming to Poland would be a good idea for you. Quite the opposite.

Genealogy / Which part of Poland would my grandfather (most likely) have been from? [5]

In genealogy, "might" and "could" don't mean very much, if anything. Only "did" and "was" do, and you get there only with real documents or first-hand accounts.

Work / Advice about salary level Unix admin in Poland [9]


Yes, you are missing the point. They are not overpaying them, but underpaying them, thus driving Polish wages down. These jobs don't pay enough to be attractive to local Poles with equivalent experience, who take better jobs or, often enough, go to work in the West. If they were not so easily replaced by Indians and Pakistanis, this would force Polish wages up. The influx of cheap labor from outside the EU keeps wages depressed.

The entire, and only, point of outsourcing is to keep labor costs as low as possible.

Genealogy / Surname Nowicki - but Jewish ancestors? [19]


You're making an assumption that your Jewish male line ancestor was named Nowicki. That may not be the case. It cannot be ruled out, for example, that your great-great-great-etc-grandmother had an affair and an illegitimate child, probably without the knowledge of her husband, a Pole named Nowicki. Or that they adopted a child, or took in a foundling. Or any of many scenarios where there was no link between genes and surname.

Only research can give an answer, as far as research is capable. Often, research is impossible and the answers you are looking for are irretrievably lost forever as no records exist.

Genes are not tied to surnames, or ethnicity, for that matter, as neatly as you seem to assume. Also, a Jew or Jewish convert could theoretically assume any Polish name for a variety of reasons.

Language / Name Meaning Of "Polinary" in Poland [10]


Europeans don't play with names nearly as much as English speakers do. The kind of thing you're describing is pretty much unique to English speakers, who have a long, long history of doing all sorts of things with names, and words in general, just for $hits and giggles. So your "contraction" theory, though plausible in an English speaking country, is way outside the norm on the continent.

Like John, I'm inclined to view it as either a clerical error or, perhaps, an actual variation based on Apolinary. It was a fashionable name in Catholic countries the 1800s. This is by far the most plausible explanation.

Also, the "au" Pauline sounds like the "o" in Apollonaris only to many, but not all, modern Americans. This is called the caught/cot merger in linguistics, and didn't become widespread in American English until quite recently. Before then, and for many Americans still, they were pronounced quite differently. Outside of modern American English, they are pronounced so differently that a pun of the sort you are proposing is very implausible. They are pronounced completely differently in Polish.

Language / Name Meaning Of "Polinary" in Poland [10]

Looks like a variation on Apolinary, which is a Polish forename. The English version (and Latin original) would be Apollinaris. Several figures from antiquity and Chistian saints have held that name.

Work / Salary of Data Analyst or Certified Qlikview Developer in Poland Krakow (Cracow) [12]

Not far out at all. My guess was somewhere between 5500 to 6500, maybe a little more if experience with Qlikview is seriously in demand and he's able to sell himself and his skill set well. This is, after all, a junior position, and with only a bachelors and only four years experience, he's unlikely to start out even as a team leader.

Work / Salary of Data Analyst or Certified Qlikview Developer in Poland Krakow (Cracow) [12]


That's $85,000 a year gross, or 27,000 PLN a month gross. You would have trouble getting that much as a junior developer in a rich country. Salaries like that in Poland are for senior higher management and administration, and even then.

You have priced yourself far, far beyond what the Polish market is going to offer, which is about a quarter, at the very best a third of what you are expecting. If that's the level of salary you are expecting, you are completely wasting your time applying for jobs in Poland and any other country where outsourcing is the industry mainstay.

You're only going to find salaries like that in the richest areas of the richest countries where serious R&D money flows in prodigious abundance, and there's very little of that in Poland. Even then, you would have to have very special skills and experience to get that much as a junior developer even in the richest countries.

Law / Ex-Girlfriend in Poland and Personal Debt [7]

Agree. "A verbal agreement isn't worth the paper it's printed on", so the saying goes. Without a written agreement, you will not be able to recover anything, regardless of what other records you may have. Even her admission doesn't mean very much without a loan agreement in writing. Your case will be dismissed even before it is heard, and you'll just be chasing good money after bad by hiring a lawyer.

Just consider it tuition in the school of hard knocks. Next time, you'll know better. This time, though, you're out a good amount of cash. Live and learn.

Work / Moving to Warsaw. What salary should I ask for in banking sector? [3]

@Mover: Your questions have been asked and answered a gazillion times on this forum. Use the search function and you will find many, many threads on the subject.

Classifieds / Polish nurses and medical staff wanted for work in the UK [45]

Because the private recruiting activity she is engaged in is commercial and is not authorized by the NHS. She also lists herself as employed at this recruiting agency. It is deceptive to present herself as a NHS employee when she is furthering the commercial interest of the recruiting agency. She is obligated to keep those spheres of her activities strictly separate to avoid a conflict of interest

It is also not clear whether she is still an NHS employee anymore at all, and is thus authorized to use the NHS address for any purpose. Her online profile gives an end date for her position in July. Her answers above are unsatisfactory, contradictory and implausible.

And she has just deleted her online profile within the last few hours, as well, probably in response to this thread.

Classifieds / Polish nurses and medical staff wanted for work in the UK [45]


I did look up the OP before I answered, and was surprised to find that this is someone high up enough on the food chain to know full well what they were doing, and understand exactly why it was wrong. Actually, quite a bit further up the food chain than I was prepared for. This was no innocent mistake by some low level flunky who could plead ignorance, and it wasn't "a bit inappropriate", it was way over the top unethical.

In any case, the matter is now in the hands of NHS risk management. I think you underestimate the gravity of the matter from a medical professional's standpoint. This makes us all look bad.

Classifieds / Polish nurses and medical staff wanted for work in the UK [45]

I'm not threatening you, I'm reporting you. And if you think I'm unpleasant, just wait until your meeting with risk management.

And what, then, did you expect for unauthorized use of an official NHS email address? You tried to pull a fast one, got caught, and now will have to pay the price.

Classifieds / Polish nurses and medical staff wanted for work in the UK [45]

You will still have to explain it to risk management. I've already copied your messages to send to them. You do realize this might well have cost you your job. This is not a minor offense.

Classifieds / Polish nurses and medical staff wanted for work in the UK [45]


Oh, no, Hazel. That is so utterly wrong, and even fraudulent. If you no longer work for the NHS, you are certainly not entitled to use that email address anymore. If you still work for the NHS, you are entitled to use it strictly for business directly related to NHS activity, and not your unrelated recruiting activity. Wherever did you get the idea you could? Please stop using it immediately as it is a gross ethical violation, which I am reporting forthwith to NHS risk management.

Love / Should I bring gifts? - help with a Polish wedding [46]

Funny! Came this close to going into orthopedic surgery myself. I even did a long rotation in a forensic orthopedic surgery clinic that evaluated people injured on the job for workman's compensation. Had a great time. Essentially, it was orthopedic pathology.

Used to teach nursing school for a couple of semesters while I was in grad school, for RNs going back for their BSNs and MSNs. Loved it. Too bad it paid so poorly.

And all my pathology is with living patients, all clinical, with no forensics anymore. I haven't done an autopsy in donkey's years, though I really loved doing them. You see a lot of interesting things that you don't expect, more than Scully in the X Files. A pathologist specializes in the diagnosis, rather than the treatment, of illnesses, in both the living and the dead. I'm more Dr. House than Quincy.

My understudies and students think I'm a big cuddly teddy bear. I never, ever lose my temper, like a good Buddhist. But you're right about the sharp sense of humor. Keeps them on their toes.

But back to topic. I've been to many weddings, four this year alone, and the behavior I've seen does indeed depress me a bit. Greed is an ugly thing to behold, and I've beheld way more than my fair share. Makes me a firm believer in eloping and skipping out on all the wedding ceremony and reception nonsense.