Travel / Coming to Warszawa (Warsaw) 31st, where to spend New Year? [13]


They don't ask about a place on the Christmas table, they ask about two places in a New Year's Eve party ...

Travel / Coming to Warszawa (Warsaw) 31st, where to spend New Year? [13]

They do, but they don't invite strangers.

Travel / Coming to Warszawa (Warsaw) 31st, where to spend New Year? [13]

A big, open-air concert will be held on the Konstytucji Square [PLAC KONSTYTUCJI], right in the town center, featuring also foreign performers such as the Swedish group Roxette, Opus and Danzel. It starts at 20.00 and will last six hours. At the same place last year gathered one hundred thousand people.

Po polsku / Tragedia jezykowa, czyli "stay on topic" LOL. [95]

A ile to będzie półtora i półtora? Odpowiedź: cały tor.
Co do tego ile to będzie półtorej i półtorej, to nie mam zdania.

Language / Word "K"? [4]


This is a very old preposition, once quite frequent in Polish, indicating the direction and associating itself with the dative case, which over time has been replaced in its basic function with the preposition "do" plus the genetive. It is still common in Russian and, I think, in Czech. "Ku" can be still heard in several fixed expressions like "ku mojemu zdziwieniu" or "ku przestrodze", "ku pamięci" [Ku pamięci, pamięci kupa, wpisał się Alojzy Dupa ]. It may be common when you want to describe a target which is either very distant [zwrócił wzrok ku słońcu] or rather undefined [świat zmierza ku zagładzie] or totally overhelming [podążam myślą ku przyszłości]. Or try to contemplate the following sentence to remember when "ku" is used: "Ku wściekłości prostytutek, Paryż myśli o legalizacji burdeli" - a headline from the Gazeta Wyborcza of the 26th of March 2010.

News / John Godson, born in Nigeria, might become Poland Sejm's first black deputy! [313]


... the end of what?

News / John Godson, born in Nigeria, might become Poland Sejm's first black deputy! [313]

The system is really complicated or even mad. The clue to it is that the Polish system of vote is proportional, so you don't elect one MP from a given constituency as it is in the UK [correct me here if I'm wrong]. You vote for a party list choosing between as many lists as there are in your constituency. You can select only one list and only one candidate on that list. If the PO is assigned, say, five places in that constituency [whatever party list is entitled to have its share in parlimentary seats in the Sejm and what this share will be is decided according to the total number of votes for the given party in the whole of the country], those five seats in parliament from that constituency go to the candidates who received the greatest number of votes on that party list. Mr. Godson scored in the seventh place in the election, so the fact that he is now becoming an MP from his constituency has occurred by accident, or by two "accidents", to be exact. There is no bye-elections in Poland as they are known in the UK, but we may say that Mr. Godson in a sense won "in advance" his potential bye-election during the principal election, by arriving seventh on his party list, which was very close to the winning candidates.

This system is much in favour for the party leadership who decide the numbering on the party lists for the election. It sometimes happens, although very rarely, that voters "change" that numbering by voting out someone who had been put on top of the list by the party headquaters.

UK, Ireland / EXCHANGE RATES BETWEEN POLISH ZLOTY AND BRITISH POUND [73]


What's the title of your book, Harry? I may want to read it or just look through it. If you don't mind, please PM the title to me. If you do mind, could you just tell me what is the domaine the book tackles?

The zloty slides down since investors rush off in the result of the Irish crisis to the curriences that they view as more stable. The same story happened as a result of the Greek financial crisis. Afterwards the zloty rebounded, it is likely to rebound this time again.

Language / The Future of Polish Language [179]

Polonius3

This is an interesting example. The way the poet expresses himself is somewhat bizzare for the modern user of Polish. Let's take only the two first verses as an example:

"£ańcuch" seems to be used here as a symbol of authority or power. It is not the case today, and I even don't know the reason why it was the symbol of it for Mikołaj Rej. This very single word makes the first two verses a little "uncomprehensible" as the reader must stop and then he will probably think: "what on earth does the author have in mind?". The reader will work the meaning out of context after a time, but a contemporary author would not use such a phrasing. The other two differences to contemporary Polish here are minor and will be easily understood by a native speaker [uźrzą --> ujrzą; ślachcic --> szlachcic]. The phrase "mieć kogos za coś" is rather colloquial today and will hardly be encounterned in modern poetry. This is why I don't perceive it as much "sophisticated" here, but rather as characteristic for the Old-Polish poetic style; it is very possible that it was viewed elegant in the 16-th century,however.

Language / The Future of Polish Language [179]

These are interesting remarks about German, £yżko and Mafketis. I once read a comment by a Polish linguist that German or French are easier to learn for a Polish learner than English since these languages have the same "spirit" of constucting sentences as Polish, whereas English has it in a quite different way [I'm not talking of "Basic English" here, however]. Recently I've started to refresh my German a little and I am surprised how easily one is able to recall sentences which should seem quite complicated for someone who attempted to learn German three times in the past, but hasn't been using it for about 15 years now.

Apart from rather complex phrases like "Im Gegenteil zu Goethe, hat Schiller nur wenige Jahre in Weimer gelebt", I can easily - to my great surprise - recall lots of single words of which I thought I have forgotten them completely.

Polonia / Going to Paris for 10 days, any hints? [14]

Glad you had a wonderful time in Paris. Maybe it is a good idea that you now share some of your experiences of Paris with other members of the forum?

En attendant vos precieux conseils ...

Language / Poles - don't fall into the French/Spanish trap re pronunciation/accent! [81]


No, it is not. Pronouncing it sześć-set would sound artificial and over-correct in normal speech. But it would be OK if you delivered a rather formal or ceremonious speech. The same story goes, for example, with "jabłko" which you will usually pronounce "japko" rather than the way it is actually written.

Language / Poles - don't fall into the French/Spanish trap re pronunciation/accent! [81]


I'm curious what's wrong with this sentence?

Language / Pronunciation of vowels at the end of a word [28]

This is called "ubezdźwięcznienie" which means that voiced consonants become voiceless consonants. Please, repeat: "u-b-e-z-dź-wi-ę-cz-ń-e-ń-e". Very good!

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]


It is legal. Only the the president's post is restricted to two consecutive terms, each lasting five years.


This remark is just silly. If you are talking of corruption and nepotism, you must prove a link between the possession of five properties and a yacht to the holding of his post by the Mayor. Please give the name of the town, we would then be able to verify your accusations perhaps.


Surprisingly or not surprisingly enough, the "big city" perspective as you paint it, hasn't work for Poznań at all. Ryszard Grobelny, an independent candidate, has won the first round of this local election with 49,5 per cent of the vote, leaving the "party" candidate, Grzegorz Ganowicz of the PO, far behind him with 21,5 per cent of the vote. Such a perspective doesn't work for many of the big cities, either:

Gdynia: Wojciech Szczurek, independent, 88 per cent of the vote, the record of the voter's support in this election;
Wrocław: Rafał Dutkiewicz, independent, 70 per cent of the vote;
Toruń, Kielce, Katowice, Rzeszów, Bielsko-Biała: in all of them the independent canditates have won in the first round which means they gained more than 50 per cent of the vote.

There are many more independent candidates who won in the first round, but didn't exceed the treshold of 50 per cent of the vote to be elected; they are much likely to win in the second tour on the 5th of December.

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]


The important distinction is that powiat is a governmental structure, whereas gmina and województwo are self-governmental or local governmental ones. Hence starosta - head of the powiat is never elected in a local election, but the person is nominated by the central government or wojewoda [I don't remember precisely]. The prerogatives of powiat are also different from those of the gminas [powiat is a bunch of gminas]. On the województwo level, there exist a kind of a "double" administration with separate prerogatives however, with wojewoda, a not-elected person representing the central government within the województwo, and sejmik województwa, an elected body with its head "marszałek województwa" being elected by the members of sejmik rather than by universal voivodship suffrage.

Language / The Future of Polish Language [179]


Objection, my honorable friend! Basic English - as you like to call it - will usually not comprise Perfect tenses in the common usage of a Polish speaker. The concept of a "perfect tense" is totally strange for Polish learners, it's quite hard to get them to use it, and even more advanced learners will constantly tend to "miss out" on the Present Perfect Tense, not even mentioning the Present Perfect Continuous Tense. This adds to my doubts if Basic English could be a proper concept at all.

Language / The Future of Polish Language [179]

I agree that Basic English is a totally false concept. There is no border whatsoever separating the "basic" English from the "more advanced" English. There only exist different levels of knowing a given language.

News / Giant Jesus Rising in Świebodzin ( Tallest in world ) [323]

... or even, if the Polish people make too much mockery of their fantastic statue, will think of joining the [now Fourth?] Reich again? By the way, what was the name of the town under the third Reich? I have just come back from a visit to the region of Lower Silesia where as usual I paid attention to its German past in combination with its Polish present, but that's a subject for a separate thread.

News / Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote [57]

Also, quite a few mayors of smaller [below 50.000 inhabitants]to medium towns [if a town has more inhabitants than that number, its mayor is called a president] are independent, too. A satelite town of Warsaw where I live has three candidates running for presidentship, one is independent, another is from PO, the third one is from PiS.

News / Giant Jesus Rising in Świebodzin ( Tallest in world ) [323]


You never know... The inhabitants of Świebodzin now contemplate renaming their beautiful little town to Rio de Świebodzineiro ...

Language / The Future of Polish Language [179]


Why's that? I've been a regular reader of Rzeczpospolita for many years and I don't think that I can find any gramatical mistakes that I could call "horrible" there. I mean they certainly make mistakes, but a horrible grammatical mistake would be the one over which a typical, well-educated reader [as is usually the case with readers od Rzeczpospolita] can't slide without spotting it.


The changes in grammar have been minor since 1939. Most of them concern changes to the rules of writing of certain suffixes, or starting writing the "i" instead of the "y" in certain words during the post-war period. To realize that you may read any of the pre-1939 newspapers or magazines.

Real Estate / Poland Housing prices in July 2010 [129]


It would be interesting to know what proportion of property is sold here in Poland through real estate agents versus directly sold by the sellers. If it is a large one, I have the impression that the real estate agents are in force of dictating prices since a small proportion of property being sold at lower prices directly cannot really thwart the market.

Law / Best Polish returns on $100,000? [23]


There is no such thing as WIG50.

There is WIG [332 companies in the index presently], WIG20 [the 20 biggest companies in it], mWIG40 [the next 40 companies or "medium" companies], sWIG80 [the next 80 companies or "small" companies], and also there are several industry indexes such as WIG-deweloperzy or WIG-banki.

History / Life in Partitioned Poland (Specifically in the Prussian Partition) [118]

So who pays president Medvedev to visit Poland? Is it Gazprom or is it the North Stream Consortium?

History / Life in Partitioned Poland (Specifically in the Prussian Partition) [118]

Hello again, our dear ConstantineK. Did you know that president Medvedev is going to pay an official visit to Poland on the 6th of December this year. Shall we all hope that you will be included into the delegation to express your most interesting views on Russian-Polish co-operation and friendship?

Po polsku / Tragedia jezykowa, czyli "stay on topic" LOL. [95]


A ja dalej uważam, że nie masz racji i że to wcale nie jest germanizm, ale forma utworzona na podstawie czysto rodzimej, można by rzec, "starosłowiańskiej" konstrukcji językowej obecnej w takich zwrotach jak "to jest ciasto od mojej cioci", "to jest list od wujka Franka" itp. Wydaje mi się, że "list od wujka Franka" i "list wujka Franka" to są zupełnie odmienne stwierdzenia językowe. Całkowicie pominąłeś ten aspekt mojej wypowiedzi (lepiej nie zauważać czegoś, co nie pasuje do naszej teorii, prawda?).

Nie podoba mi się, że dezawuujesz innych ludzi w swoim poście. Określanie innych słowami "matołki" albo "ćwok" pokazuje tylko, że czujesz się tak, jakbyś wszystkie rozumy pozjadał oraz, że gdy coś Ciebie razi jako rzekomy germanizm, to na na innych używających tych wyrażeń możesz od razu wylać kubeł pomyj.

History / Life in Partitioned Poland (Specifically in the Prussian Partition) [118]


There is a very good book on that. Its title is "Czarna legenda Polski" ("Black legend of Poland") and it describes how the Prussian Partition of Poland and the Polish there were seen by the Prussian administration and Prussian people immediately after the Prussian Kingdom moved into these lands. It also shows how the Polish people saw the occupant or in fact their new state. It uses extensively the Prussian official statistics of the time and the memoirs of the people of both nations and other nations of this epoch. It was published in Poznań in the 1990s and has a summary in German and English. The book is fascinating, scientific and fair to the point of view of both sides.

Remember that the borders of 1772-1795 had not survived until the Duchy of Warsaw was called into existence by Napoleon in 1807, and it is the period of up until that year that the book deals with. I think this book is something you are looking for.

Po polsku / Tragedia jezykowa, czyli "stay on topic" LOL. [95]


A ja się nie zgadzam z tym poglądem. To wcale nie jest germanizm, czyli jakaś kalka od przyimka "von". Tak się często mówiło przed wojną wręczając komuś w prezencie wyrób jakiejś znanej firmy, np. Oto czekoladki od Wedla dla pani, droga panno Maniu [proszę obejrzeć sobie jakiś film sprzed 1939 roku]. Panna Mania była wniebowzięta, podskakiwała z radości i głośno dawała temu wyraz wymawiając wyraziście w swoich podziękowaniach tzw. ciemne ł, czyli ł zwane kresowym. Taki sposób formułowania tego zdania ma swoje korzenie w wyrażeniach typu: to jest ciasto od mojej cioci [nie zaś "to jest ciasto mojej cioci"]. Zdanie owo podkreśla, że ciocia przekazała dla was ciasto, które wam teraz przynoszę. Użycie typu "maszynki do golenia od Gillette" jest więc użyciem manierystycznym, celem takiego użycia jest sugestia, że maszynka do golenia jest "prezentem", przynoszonym wam "do domu" przez firmę Gillette; w żadnym razie nie jest to natomiast germanizm biorący źródło w niemieckim przyimku "von".

UK, Ireland / Common pitfalls for Poles learning English [187]


Thank you. Your answer has probably been most satisfactory of all answers I've ever had on this subject. It says - as I understand it - that "do you have" is neutral, whereas "have you got" may be emotionally-stricken.

This was in fact a real-life situation which happened to me many years ago in the north of England. My friend, an Englishman by birth, education, residence or whatever else, who was the one searching the key to the entrance door of his friend's house, told me that both versions were correct, but hearing one of them (which one it was, I have forgotten) most Englishmen would get the sense of it, but then would think to themselves: "ha, this chap is a foreigner".

Later on, when I tried to find an answer to this in English language monolingual dictionaries like, for example, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, all I could get was an academic discussion of the problem which was bringing nothing to my understanding of it.


That's what I've been thinking, too. But from a certain point of view, this "entrance door" is quite a specific one - "the only one", if I may quote you - it it is the entrance door of the house to which my friend was searching the key for.