Language / Polish Conditional - if you would.. [24]


Yes. If your intention is just doing something you use imperf. If your intention is to achieve some result you use perfective.
The same with the condition. You can use either perf or imperf depending on what the actual condition is (some result of an action or the action (doing it) itself resp.).

Cinek

Language / Dwa vs. dwie in Polish [85]


I didn't. I just wanted to answer the question precisely.
And I agree that while not so difficult when explained properly, still a bit over-complicated.

Cinek.

Language / Dwa vs. dwie in Polish [85]


actually there are 23 but some are used for more then one gender/case:

dwa, dwie, dwaj, dwu, dwóch, dwom, dwóm, dwiema, dwoma, dwoje, dwojga, dwojgu, dwojgiem, dwójka, dwójkę, dwójki, dwójce, dwójką, dwójko, dwójek, dwójkom, dwójkami, dwójkach

CInek

Po polsku / Polskie filmy, seriale z polskimi napisami to learn Polish? [14]


From what I know the main Polish TV chans are available on sat (Astra)

Cinek

Language / dziękuję za lekcji/dziękuję za lekcję? za takes dopełniacz/biernik/celownik? [20]


and of 'wszystkie' - all women, children, things etc..

Language / Is this proper Polish grammar? If it is, can you explain how it is? [32]

Citation please :-)

All sources I found say that the 'powinien był' uses the coniugation patern similar to that used for the old 'czas zaprzeszły', however its meaning is pure 'czas przeszły'.

e.g.

portalwiedzy.onet.pl/141107,,,,powinien_powinna,haslo.html
poradnia.pwn.pl/lista.php?id=11646
grzegorj.w.interia.pl/gram/skladnia05.html (this one is interesting, it says that 'powinien' is an adjective that is used as a verb, what supports my point above).

Cinek

Language / Is this proper Polish grammar? If it is, can you explain how it is? [32]


Don't belive in everything they write on Wiki ;-)
Here's a proper description (Notice: 'W czasie przeszłym (nie zaprzeszłym) odmienne słowo posiłkowe być")
pl.wiktionary.org/wiki/powinien

Cinek

Language / Is this proper Polish grammar? If it is, can you explain how it is? [32]


Of course not! It's a regular czas przeszły of the predicative (czasownik niewłaściwy) 'powinna'.

A bit of history:

'Powinna' means just '(she) owing' and the semantics is very similar to English construction 'ought to'.
In the past 'powinna' (or just 'winna') was just an adjective and in present tense it required using 'jest' (is) e.g.:

present: Ona jest powinna zrobić coś dla mnie. (She owes to me to do something)
past: Ona była powinna zrobić to dla mnie. (She owed (ought) to me to do it)

But later the 'jest' in present tense was just skipped what caused that the 'powinna' word took the role of the verb itself and became a predicative (czasownik niewłasciwy).

However, in the past tense 'była' must still be used.
Interestingly, this could be adopted to future tense too in an easy way: e.g. 'Ona powinna będzie ...' but this construction is not used in contemporary Polish.

Also, the past tense (powinna była) is used seldom today in speach, so some youngsters may even don't know that it is correct ;-)

Cinek

Language / Rozpoczynać - Zaczynać [12]


I don't think there's any rule for this. You must just learn them by heart (the same way you must learn that in English you say 'I can do' but 'I'm able to do'.

Cinek

Language / Rozpoczynać - Zaczynać [12]


What words do you mean? I wrote before that 'rozpoczynać' should not be used with verbs and that's just an example of improper usage of the word.

Cinek

Language / Rozpoczynać - Zaczynać [12]


One more thought on this.
Zaczynać can be used with verbs and nouns, while rozpoczynać only works with nouns, which fits what I wrote before e.g.:

Zacząłem pracę w nowej firmie <- noun 'pracę', sounds neutral
Zacząłem pracować w nowej firmie <- verb 'pracować', sounds neutral
vs.
Rozpocząłem pracę w nowej firmie <- noun 'pracę' - this sounds quite formal
Rozpocząłem pracować w nowej firmie <- verb 'pracować' WRONG! This sounds BAD and NEVER use it this way.

Cinek

Language / Rozpoczynać - Zaczynać [12]


Rozpoczynać is a little bit more formal, but they are interchangeable in most cases.

Cinek

Language / Lat V lata [8]


Bzdura,

It's 'od 2 lat', 'od 4 lat' as well as 'od 20 lat' and 'od 24 lat'.

Read the question carefully and stop confusing people.

Cinek

Language / pisać-pisanie, jeść-jedzenie, what is the rule for jeść to jedzenie? [9]


Bzdura,

spaść - spadnięcie
spadać - spadanie

the noun is different for perfective and imperfective verbs e.g.:

robić - robienie
zrobic - zrobienie
jeść - jedzenie
zjeść - zjedzenie

etc.

Cinek

Work / Job opportunities with Hungarian-Swedish-English languages in Poland? [51]



Really? So why don't you give KB2011 advice to go and teach in a primary school e.g. in Bydgoszcz? Or maybe you could come here yourself? Small town kids welcome you.

Cinek

Language / How do I pronounce "Kocham Ciebie"? [19]


Yes, but if you form this sentence this way you emphasize 'bardzo' (much), as if you were answering a question like:

Kocham cię tylko trochę, a ty?
Ja kocham ciebie bardzo!

I love you only a little bit, and you?
I love you very much!

Cinek

Genealogy / Looking for a lost friend (Katarzyna Serwin)? [9]


Try on Nasza Klasa nk.pl It was quite popular in Poland a few years ago and many folks still have accounts there.

Cinek

Language / Prefixes - resources (books?) describing ranges of meaning they add when deriving verbs [7]

Here're some of them described:
faculty.washington.edu/dziwirek/grammar/verbs/polish-VOM-prefix-meaning.pdf

Life / Cost of living in Wroclaw (rent price too) [119]

There's a nice button on the top of the page: "Search". There were many questions like this in this forum and I'm sure you'll find all the answers yourself.

Cinek

Language / "someday" / "kiedys" - Confirming some spelling and forms [11]


It's hard to explain. Just think of it as a rule that must be obeyed when talking about week days. The same question you could ask about English, why one must use 'on' before weekdays and 'in' before years...? It's just how the language works.

Cinek

Travel / Traveling to Poland from USA for family research [7]

1. Can I rent a car and drive it from Poland to and from Slovakia without any problems?

I wouldn't recommend it if you have never been to Poland. Driving in USA and in Polans are two completely different worlds. Just take a train, it'll be much cheaper and safer.

2. Can anyone recommend a trusting person or agency to help with family research and guidance while in Poland?

I'm not sure, but you could strat here: pck.pl

3. How easy or hard is it to get access to old family records in a church or library?

It may depend on where you want to do it. If you visit a small church in a small village and you don't speak Polish, it may be hard.

4. What time of the day does it get dark in late Oktober?

04:15 PM, according to this: calendar.k-ce.pl/index.php

5. Can I visit cemeteries any time of the day?

Some yes, some no.

6. I don't understand the difference between villages, towns, cities, districts, regions - how do I tell the difference?

what do you mean?

Cinek

Language / Czego, Czemu, Co, Kto, Jak, Dlaczego? [64]



Good observation. There are very many verbs that can be used as either reflexive or non-reflexive, with the former requiring dopełniacz and the latter biernik e.g.:

napić się herbaty vs. wypić herbatę
najeść się chleba vs. zjeść chleb
naoglądać się filmów vs. oglądać filmy
nasłuchać się głupot vs. słuchać głupoty
etc.

The "na-... się" construction is used to indicate that someone did something as much as he could and now he's full or tired or cannot do it any more. It can be used with virtually every verb e.g.:

Napracowałem się dzisiaj i jestem zmęczony - I worked hard today and now I'm tired.
Najadłem się chleba - I ate bread (and I'm full now)
Nagadałem się tyle że mnie boli gardło - I talked so much and now I have a sore throat

Cinek

Language / Unique names of cities/town/villages in Poland [58]

just to name some nearby:

Grzeczna Panna (next to Szubin) - polite maiden
Kotomierz - cat gauge
Samoklęski - self-defeats
Występ - performance, gig
Ruda - red haired, or ore
Kaczory - drakes
Białe Błota - white muds
Studzienki - little wells

and many others...

Cinek

News / Lithuanian ambassador 'Poles not loyal citizens' [63]


Where did you read it? The referenced article don't say it at all...
Poles in Lithuania DO speak Lithuanian. They learn it at school and use every day.
They use Polish only among themselves, and what they want is only allowing to write they names with ś, ć, ą, ę etc. which Lithuanian law currently forbids.

Cinek

History / What was it like in 1989+ in Poland when the Soviet house of cards fell? [237]

Here's a nice movie made by someone in 1989 in Bydgoszcz:

youtube.com/watch?v=xlSqv5-9ESY

you can see what streets of an average town looked like in that time.

Cinek

Language / Need advice on how to improve Polish language skills [134]


If it was so then evolution would make human languages more and more simple, as it'd allow for better usage of the 'higher functions' of the brain. But in fact we see quite opposite, the languages evolved into complex ones.

I think that highli inflected languages don't need more brain-power for memorising because in fact people think using ideas, not words and use some automated mechanisms to express the ideas by sentences.

One more thought about inflected languages. The complex system of endings and rules of using them works much like mechanisms used in teletransmission to prevent from transmission errors. The endings work much as 'check-sums' in telecommunication. If it's wrong it warns the listener that the transmitted data may be corrupted and the information cannot be trusted.

This is by the way one of the reasons why Poles are sensitive to improper usage of cases, noun endings etc. Any ending that is used improperly is a warning to their brains that the message they are receiving may be corrupted (they misunderstood it). So proper usage of Polish allows not only for exchanging messages between people, but also reduces the possibility of misunderstanding.

Cinek

Language / Capitalisation in Polish language; uncapitalised car marques (fiat, buick, honda)? [17]


I wouldn't day it's bad. You don't need to remember when to use capitals because you always do.

Cinek

Love / My Polish girlfriend's mother called her a prostitute because we live together [113]


I thought the same. Maybe she just sad:

Kurwa, dziewczyno, ale znalazłaś zajebistego gacha!

If so, then you don't need to worry at all ;-)

Cinek

Language / Need advice on how to improve Polish language skills [134]


Of course, but the initial question was whether szcz differ from ść at all... This is not a question to ask after 1,5 y of learning. This is a very basic knowledge of the sounds used in the lang. The lerner should know it and be aware of the difference, even though mastering the pronuntiation may take many years.

Cinek

Language / The verb "to stay" [6]


Avoid such one to one translation pitfalls. Polish 'Mieszkać' is not the same as English 'to live'. Both 'to live' and 'to stay' can be translated as 'mieszkać' if you're saying about the place which you occupy during your life/stay.

e.g.

Mieszkam w ładnym domu - I live in a nice house
I stayed in a hotel during my last visit to... - mieszkałem w hotelu podczas mojej ostatnie wizyty w...

However, when you're talking about other aspects of your life (e.g. your social status, lenght etc.) you usually translate 'to live' as 'żyć'

e.g.
My grandma lived longer than I would be - moja babcia żyła dłużej niż ja będę żyć... (because she lived healthier)

During the war people lived as rats - podczas wojny ludzie żyli jak szczury (whatever that can mean ;-)

Cinek