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

And what about "Have you got...?" vs. "Do you have ...?" ? In front of an (or is it: the) entrance door, should I ask my companion, the owner of the house, who is nervously seeking something, presumably the key, in every one of his pockets: Have you got your key with you?" or "Do you have your key with you?". Are there any rules governing both usages?

Genealogy / Nawrot surname source (Jewish converts to Catholicisim?) [7]


The "source" for this surname seems to be the verb "nawrócić" or the noun "nawrócenie" which has not exactly the same meaning as the English verb "to convert".

Language / may/might (expression) [25]


Such sentences often use the expression "[jest] możliwe, że ..." in Polish.
(a) Jest możliwe, że dzisiaj tam nie pójdę.
(b) Możliwe, że będę chciała cię dziś zobaczyć. / Możliwe, że będę się chciała dziś z tobą spotkać.

Law / Investors/Entrepreneurs.. Steer Clear of Poland. [77]


And that's a good point to most of the Polish Forum threads. People who are deeply frustrated with something in their life look to find someone else or something else to blame. It may be Poland or whatever. Their views tell much more about themselves than about the things they hate. The policy of the Administrator of this forum has inevitably led to this "natural selection" (in the Darwin's sense of the word) of the group who regularly come to vent here as they were told to go away somewhere else.

History / United States of America Vs Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth [74]


I'm sorry, but it's a real shame for someone who calls himself a "historian" to say things like that ...

The only noble title officialy recognized in the Royal Republic was the title of szlachcic. Then the Sejm at the Union of Lublin gathering in 1569 had recognized to a handful of Lithuanian families (among them Czartoryski, for example) the use of their traditional title of prince. Hence, the rich and famous families of the Crown, like the Potocki family, had never enjoyed the title of prince in the times if the First Republic except for a few cases in which the Sejm occasionally granted such a title to someone in recognition of their merits to the Fatherland (the most prominent case of this practice was the Poniatowski family).

All the szlachta, which used to follow almost exactly the same path of habits and traditions across the whole Polish Commonwealth, from Poznań to the deepest forests of Lithuania to the farest fields of Ukraine, regardless of their religion or wealth status, were very eager in stressing the fact that their formal status of noblemen was equal to to the formal status of their wealhy noble countrymen who enjoyed the posts of voivods, starosts etc (these had their real prices to be paid for if someone wanted them). Hence the very popular in these times (and well-known until our time) saying:

Szlachcic na zagrodzie równy wojewodzie,

which underlined the fact that wojewoda is only a simple nobleman, someone exactly like them, who may be richer than they are, but is equal to them in terms of citizenship.

In 1921, in its first Constitution of the Republic, the Polish State abandoned the idea of recognizing any titles except for professional, scientific and the like ones.

And what is being said in the family circles while celebrating the 90-th anniversary of an aunt who happens to be proud of being of the Rzewuski family, is a completely different story ...

Language / to be substituted (with reference to football) [7]


You are right. I'm not a football fanatic, but in these contexts in Polish, the active voice or impersonal constructions will be prefered over the typically English use of the passive voice ("zawodnika nr 9 zmieni zawodnik nr 17").

Language / na co dzien v. na codzien [3]

"Co dzień" (an adverbial expression) is written separated. Likewise, you write separated 'co noc', 'co tydzień', co miesiąc', 'co rok'. In spite of that, you write jointly the compound adjectives or adverbs such as 'codzienny/codziennie', 'coroczny/corocznie' etc.

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

"Ostatnia minuta" is precisely the equivalent of "last minute". But people are not used to the Polish term, so they may argue that it is not the same as the English one. The English term "last minute" used in tourism is built on agreement as to what it may mean, and this will exactly be the case with its Polish counterpart "ostatnia minuta" as well. Likewise, the British term "prime minister" is only roughly the same as its Polish equivalent "premier", as the prerogatives of both are sometimes strikingly different, but you will always say in Polish "brytyjski premier" rather than "brytyjski prime minister". If the term "ostatnia minuta" have been used in Poland for the last 5-10 years, no one would ever think today that it is not a one-for-one equivalent.

The term "wszystko w cenie" perfectly renders what the English term "all inclusive" wants to say to the customer of the tourist industry. The meaning of the English word "all" here is vague, just as the meaning of the Polish word "wszystko" is vague, and it is only the subject of "agreement" as to what the customer should expect from a tourist company after having read an offer labelled as such.

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

If only people in the Polish tourist industry were not so lazy, they could easily start to use the following terms in Poland:
last minute = "oferty z ostatniej chwili" or "ostatnia minuta"
all inclusive = "wszystko w cenie"

The Polish people in the manufacturing industry were once very eager to replace many of the German terms for technical tools, thus we have today, for example:

hebel = strug
messel = pilnik
---------------------------------
Not only the Polish use English words in conversation. Here is an example of the French using English:
"Ce week-end, j'organise une pasta-party. Si tu es O.K., man, envoie moi un mail. PS Tu peux te garer sur le parkingdevant mon loft, à côté de mon cross-over! Bye." [source: klub-beskid.com/forum]

UK, Ireland / What's the rule on 'the UK' but just 'GB'? [60]


My dear Seanus! I've been telling you several times here on the PF that there's nothing unusual about the Brits saying 'Japan' rather than 'the Japan' and you still don't seem to believe me. Japan was not a group of 5 island for the people who conceived its name many centuries ago. They could hardly imagine at that time what Japan really was, whether it was an island, or a group of islands, or perhaps a peninsula connected to a land, they treated it within a concept of a country, so they applied the rules that they were applying when naming other countries which were closer to them, that is they called it without using 'the' with the name of the country.

If you still don't believe it, but you do believe in the geographical awareness of the ancient Brits who were deprived of the possibility of watching those brilliant documentaries of Sir David Attenborough on BBC, please remember that Christopher Columbus thought he landed in the western part of India, so he named the lands and the people he met there accordingly: 'The West Indies' and 'Indians'. And this happened much later than the term "Japan" first appeared in the English language.

You can't explain the language from the modern perpective only; you have to search in its history and - sometimes - in the history of humanity. Within that perspective, language phenomena such as 'The Hague', 'The Netherlands' or even 'The Ukraine' will appear logical, such as they were for the ancient users of the language, though they may seem some mysterious exceptions in the eyes of the modern user of the same language.

Work / In Warsaw moving to Lodz...thinking about part time jobs.. [10]

A good method for you to earn money is to save. You know, a penny saved is a penny earned ...

News / Poland and Kresy being reunited? [162]


I think the fact that you go into personal insults instead of telling any arguments against someone's views means that you are a fool without knowing about it ...

News / Poland and Kresy being reunited? [162]

I think it is an absurd idea. The tendency in Europe is to re-unite within a global organization, like the EU. If I lived in Ukraine or Lithuania, I wouldn't probably like the country of my residence to be re-united with Poland. What for? To take part in the discussions whether the Cross should be left in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw or it should be removed somewhere else?

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]


I'd never have signed anything which I don't understand! Signing something means: I hereby give my consent to anything which is written here.

Study / Learning Polish at Adam Mickiewicz University [11]


Why not? You could have gained a decent command of the language within 7 years, and you'll know what a foreigner needs in terms of language, much better than a philologist at university. Much of the knowledge of a Polish philologist is useless for teaching Polish to foreigners, the subtleties of Jan Kochanowski's language, for example,

UK, Ireland / The secret Polish gay men in the U.K [133]

M-G, Polonius is a heterosexual white Anglo-Saxon protestant, and that perhaps explains his thoughts ...

Work / Wage and Salary rates in Poland [37]

Harry was kind enough to explain this. Enterpreneurs like you make people live on the bread line.

Work / Some opinions about current pay rates (normal pay per hour for housekeeping in Poland)... [19]

The answer has already been given and it is:


or it may be "gosposia" (not: gospodyni), but this one may be judged a bit old-fashioned by some ...

Life / Is Poland split into two religions: catholicism and non-believers? [103]

And your point, Seanus, is to merge all the threads on religion you have so aptly dug up today into one thread?

Language / Declining Polish acronyms [4]

This could be tricky, but I think the phonological rule given by Alex generally applies.

We can treat the abbreviation PZPR as both masculine and feminine, but when we use yet another noun specifying it in the same sentence, we tend to put forward its identity as described by the feminine noun "partia" inside the acronym, for example: 'PZPR była partią dyktatury proletariatu'.

PO and PiS are interesting. You never hear PO refered to as a masculine acronym. Phonologically, the acronim is of neutral gender, so you might expect to hear "PO było" (as in 'okno było'). Actually, you never hear it as such and it is always treated as a feminine acronym.

PiS is of neutral gender when you speak out the full name, eg. "Prawo i Sprawiedliwość wystawiło Jarosława K. jako kandydata w wyborach na prezydenta". 'Prawo' is neutral and 'sprawiedliwość' is feminine and blind, yet the first noun is gramatically dominant. Using the acronym, I would say 'PiS wystawił' (masculine) or 'PiS wystawiło Jarosława K. w wyborach'.

Law / Banking tax Procedure in Poland [14]

Basically, they work in the same way as do foreign banks. About 80% of the banking sector in Poland has been owned by foreign companies since 1990, this resulting in modern procedures having been implemented into a once old-fashion sector.

News / Who are you voting for in the 2010 Poland's presidential elections and why? [82]

Notice that he was telling of a plane crash over Ukraine, while the presidential plane crashed over Russia. He could easily walk out of court acquitted ...

News / Who are you voting for in the 2010 Poland's presidential elections and why? [82]

Just as you, MareGaea, I am deeply sceptical about paranormal phenomena. I usually dismiss them, never read any horoscopes and never believe people who say having seen ghosts. Yet Jackowski is different. He is not the one receiving "patients" and telling them their future and fate for money. He is known in this country for having cooperating with the police several times in hopeless cases of finding missing bodies of victims. The police would not officially confirm to the press and other media his successes in giving them most accurate clues as to where the bodies were, yet he says he collects official acknowledgements from them he demands and receives from the police after each case.

He says he can usually "operate" after having been given a belonging of the victim or a photograph of him/her. He maintains that every living soul leaves "traces" on objects they touch which he is able to "see", and that those traces are somehow "linked" to the victim after their death. He also says that many of his visions are "wrong", but much more of them are accurate.

News / Who are you voting for in the 2010 Poland's presidential elections and why? [82]

Thread attached on merging:
Clairvoyant Krzysztof Jackowski tells the political future of Poland

Krzysztof Jackowski has no doubts that the winner of the 2010 presidential election in Poland will be Komorowski. But he says that this election will be the beginning of the end of Platforma Obywatelska.

In December 2009 he said in an interview for TVN that the two main candidates for the election "will not be those whose names are heard most often".

This was judged almost absurd at the time when the two most probable candidates were Donald Tusk and Lech Kaczyński.

In February 2010 the clairvoyant was visited by Andrzej Lepper who wanted to know if the winner o the election would be Lech Kaczyński. "I told him of my vision of the acting president as a lying and sleeping man". Jackowski says he was indicating a crash of a plane or planes over Ukraine in the not-too-distant future as early as in 2009.

The clairvoyant says that "two things having an unfavorable impact on the Polish economy will happen in the second half of 2010". Also, the condition of the zloty will not be good. As a result, the PO will loose support of the voters and Jarosław Kaczyński will strengthen considerably his position as leader of the opposition.

History / Battle of Warsaw movie in production [24]


I'm afraid I have to defend Harry here. There are a lot of anti-racist Polish people here on the PF; their racism may may lie in the genes as well (scientific evidence emerges slowly to confirm this theory). Harry has the right to express his anti-Polish views which are not racist in nature at all. Harry loves to indulge himself in manipulation, ignores those bits of information that don't fit his theories, so he is a real challenge to all those who try to contradict him. He pretends to command profound historical knowledge in certain fields which in reality is not profound. Unfortunately, his fields of interest are not the same as mine; if they were, I'd be happy to challenge him ...

Language / będzie potrafił? [34]


I'm not trying to convince you. I'm quoting an expert who says the verb "potrafić" is marked in modern dictionaries as having two aspects :perfective and imperfective. Actually, you are taking out of the expert's opinion statements which favor your one-sided view that the verb is purely imperfective,


while leaving out bits that don't:


Also, the Linde dictionary is quoted as a historical source only, showing the past state of affairs, and no one is trying to impose on anyone the past usages of this dictionary.

I'll try to illustrate the expert's view that the verb still has a distinctly perfective character in modern Polish when I have some more free time. Undoubtedely, the verb has evolved into one having distinctly imperfective features as well, but that doesn't mean we can classify it in such a bold way as you do.

Language / Ile by nie było to i tak jest za mało [26]



You've made a sound diagnosis, indeed. How to find a suitable remedy?

If I were your doctor, I'd advise you that overcoming your main problem as you've described it is absolutely essential if you want to progress any further. You should absolutely abandon the habit of translating words into Polish (or whatever foreign language you learn). Never ever translate any words when you or listen to people or speak to them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stop learning Polish beyond what you've learnt already and start to eradicate this habit in you. The best way to achieve this is creating links (in your mind) between the imagination of an object or an action and the sounds or graphs which represent them. When you hear, read or speak the word "gruszka", you imagine the fruit as it is, not even trying to recall the English or Swedish equivalent in your mind. You just don't remember a name for it in another language. Similarly, if you hear "pływać", you imagine the action in progress, without any reference to the verbs that describe this action in other languages.

This method needs time and perseverence. It is a training that teaches you to develop a habit to automatically assign a real object or action to its symbolic (or abstract) representation of it in a given language. Likewise, you may treat declined nouns as seperate "entities" which are represented by individual words, e.g. "w domu" means you are in a place where you live, whereas "dom" represents a building which may be your home or may be a building in a street or in a country. This way you don't have to bother which case "w domu" is (by the way, I think it is the way native speakers acquire their command of cases). Giving up your native language as an intermadiary between the real world and the Polish language spares you time and effort, and removes an obstacle that stops you from making any real progress.

Buy yourself a good monolingual dictionary of Polish. For a time being, stop using any bilingual ones.

All the other shortcomings of yours in mastering Polish are weak in face of your main problem, so I won't be commenting on them at the moment.

News / Komorowski - Russian stooge, traitor background [42]


Actually, I wouldn't think so. While I classify Varsovian's attempt to discredit Komorowski as a complete nonsense, I'd say that the Kaczyński's case seems plausible. The commies would not necessarily persecute an "ordinary" fighter of the AK unless he was an "ideologist", especially after the end of the war. Of course, those people would not go around telling everyone "I was in the AK and I was risking my life for the cause of an independent Poland". They kept silent and the bravery of those people had never been acknowledged by the vassal state of the People's Republic of Poland.

Contrary to that, the "władza ludowa" or the communist regime was allergic to the social class of land owners and capital owners, that is "zadowolonych właścicieli pałaców, banków i brylantów" (as the poet Julian Tuwim so aptly put it in his pre-war poem "Kwiaty polskie"), and it was Bronisław Komorowski's family who fell victim of that stance having lived in near-starvation for many years after the Soviets brought "independence" to Poland.

News / Komorowski - Russian stooge, traitor background [42]

While Bronek Komorowski's nobel family was persecuted because of their origin (they were deprived of their land and home, I think), the Kaczyński family were pretty well-off in the communist times. Who told you to gossip this nonsense of yours, Varsovian?

Language / będzie potrafił? [34]

YES! (That's exactly what the above description from the PWN site says; from, as Polonius3 puts it, "purely perfective to perfectvie or imperfective depending on context".)