Language / Polish - Absolute Beginner Questions. Study plan. [75]


I don't know Sanskrit and what I wrote was only what I read somewhere. Here are some more examples I found here
https://books.google.pl/books?id=McB_3UZ4YlIC&pg=PA773&lpg=PA773&dq=polish+to+sanskrit&source=bl&ots=Jnb41XSorK&sig=29gnLJM92xNbj8-wVpquG06sha8&hl=pl&ei=O5Z2Td_0K83XsgbWlZHBCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result#v=onepage&q=polish%20to%20sanskrit&f=false

bhrata - brat
bać się - bhayate
czynić - cinoti
dawać - dadati
drzeć - drti
iść - eti
kaszleć - kasati
lubić - lubhyati
pić - pibati
pisać - pisati
pływać - plavayati
siedzieć - sadayati
szyć - siviati
świecić - svetia
uczyć - ucyati
umierać - marate
etc.

If these are real Sanskrit words (let Naomi confirm), don't they look similar?

Cinek

Language / Polish - Absolute Beginner Questions. Study plan. [75]


Suprisingly, it may help you in learning Polish :-) Both Polish and Sanskrit are so called 'satem' languages (a subgroup of inde-european langs) and have many similar features. Also some vocabulary may be suprisingly similar.

Cinek

Language / Polish - Absolute Beginner Questions. Study plan. [75]


I suspect in most cases you won't even be able to find the word in the dictionary if you don't know how to make the primary(dictionary) form of a word from the inflected one you'll see in the literature. This is why you really need at least some grammar before you start reading anything.

Cinek

Language / Diminutives (zdrobnienie) for Sylwia [12]


My wife's name is Sylwia. I hate calling them "Sylwka", like some people do. It sounds a little weird to me. Anyways, may depend on one's personal taste.

I use sometimes "Sylwiątko".

Cinek

Language / An email translated from Polish to English using translator [24]


Not necessarily. The sentence reads: "Pan, który..." which suggests the meaning like; "a man, who...". The capital 'P' looks like a spelling mistake in this context.

Cinek

Language / spojrzenie, podejmowac - correct word usage [15]

In English 'to be' can be used in both imperfective (was being) and perfective (has been, was) sentences. In Polish 'być' can be only imperfective. So, we need some different means to express the perfective 'to be' and we use 'zostać' to do that. This is why 'zostały' can be translated as 'was' e.g.:

it is done - to jest zrobione
it has been done - to zostało zrobione

The letter is written in English - List jest napisany po angielsku.
The letter was (or has been) written in English - List został napisany po angielsku.

In the last example above you could also say 'List był napisany po angielsku' but only in sentences like:

When I saw it, it was written in English (so why is it in Chineese now?). - gdy go zobaczyłem, był napisany po angielsku (więc dlaczego teraz jest po chińsku?)

Whether to use 'był' or 'został' depends much on the context. If you want to indicate that something just happened in the past and is finished now you use 'został'. If you want to express that something was happening when something else happened you use 'był'.

I hope I made it a little more clear now.

Cinek

Language / correct word for 'leave' or 'leaving' [5]


Shoudn't be "pozostawać" ?

How much left? Ile (po)zostało?

Cinek

Language / Napić się kieliszek koniaku [25]


I would not use 'kielich' at all. It sounds old-fasioned. Use 'kieliszek' instead.
But in general yes, I'd use 'kieliszek' and 'kieliszka' in the way I wrote.

Edit

One could use 'kielicha' instead of 'kieliszka' in sentences like:
"walniemy kielicha?" or "strzelimy po kielichu?", but in general,
"kielich" is used mostly in some fixed expressions like "kielich goryczy" or "kielich kwiatowy" etc.

Cinek

Language / Napić się kieliszek koniaku [25]


This is very common in Polish, and it's not changing the case (both are biernik) but the gender. When you use the masc. inanimate declension pattern you get 'kieliszek' (like kogo? co? stół, obraz, dom etc.) while when you use the masc. animate (or presonal) pattern you get 'kieliszka' (like kogo? co? chłopca, psa etc.).

This is a common phenomenon in Polish language. Peaople often make inanimate things animate to express some kind of personal attitude to it or to behavoiur related to it or to make the sentence sound more friendly or funny.

So in this case:
"Napijesz się kieliszek?" means "would you like to drink?"
while
"Napijeszc sie kielicha?" means something like "do you want some of my good stuff? come on, let's have some good time"

Cinek

Language / Is My Painting Title Correct In Polish? [23]


Let me put my 2 cents in. I think 'piosenka' may be not a good word for such big event. I'd use 'pieśń' instead. 'Piosenka' is a diminutive of 'pieśń' and usually means a small piece of music (e.g a pop song, folk song etc.). For bigger and more 'artistic' forms we use 'pieśń' (e.g. for Chopin's songs we'd never say 'piosenka' but always 'pieśń').

So in my opinion '600-letnia pieśń' sounds better here.

Cinek.

Life / $3,000-$4,000 a month - would we have enough money to live in Poland? [273]

Dont worry at all. Gdynia is not a small village, it's a civilised place and 3000$ is more than enough to rent a flat and live at quite good level.

Cinek

Language / Grammar help; Dokąd? and Gdzie? [19]


I think not. In proper Polish only 'dokąd' is used for motion. It indicates the target, while 'gdzie' indicates the place of the action. Eg.:

Dokąd idziesz? Do domu. Where are you going to? I'm going home.
Gdzie idziesz? Na ulicy. Where are you going (walking)? In a street.

Unfortunately, most Poles would understand 'gdzie idziesz' as 'where are you going to'


Cinek

Language / cookery, word usage question [19]


Eng 'pie' is often translated as 'ciastko' or 'ciasto' (sometimes 'placek'), however the problem is that the meaning of 'pie' is wider then the above Polish words. First of all, those Polish words are only used for pies that are sweet, so we can say that Polish 'ciasto' (or ciastko) can be understood as 'sweet pie'. But what about all 'non-sweet pies' (like the mentioned shepherds pie)? There's no single word to word translation of them. I'm afraid, that in may cases there's no such translation at all, and you must use some descriptive name instead.

I think the most usable word could be 'zapiekanka' which indicates all kinds of hot and usually non-sweet dishes made of many different ingridients.

The problem with translating names exists between all languages, mostly because food recipes ara as much local (or even more) as the languages. So what has been developed in one area is not known (and therefore not named) in the other.

Cinek

Language / Correct usage for 'going' in Polish [25]


'Przyjdę' can be used when they are already there and I'm going to join them there.
Though, 'Przyjde do was' would be better here.

Cinek

Study / Opinions about '2 weeks intensive Polish course' [26]


I have no experiance in such courses, but it sounds very suspicious. 2 weeks is definitely too short to learn anything.

Cinek

Language / Polish guitar chords translated to English [13]


To be precize:

Eng. B = Pol. H
Eng Bb = Pol. Bb

Writing in Polish just 'B' is incorrect. It should be 'Bb' (B flat).

Cinek

Language / Word "K"? [4]

Very seldom used theese days. We just say 'do (tego)'.

Cinek

Language / jesc/zjesc and possible english translations for the imperfective/perfective [30]



But it wasn't me who started the discussion whether your sentence is understood, acceptable, polite etc. We (native speakers) just told how to say it properly.


Yes, I agree. At your level too many grammar details won't help. But it doesn't mean that you may speak improper grammar when you are told how to speak proper one.

Cinek

Language / jesc/zjesc and possible english translations for the imperfective/perfective [30]



Chaza,I really don't understand your point. Why are you blaming us for telling you how to speak proper Polish? What do you want from us then? Should we say "Chaza, your Polish is almost perfect and don't worry about such details like grammar, and we'll do our best to understand you and won't let you feel unfair" ?

Of course, your sentence would be understood by most people and gumishu explained you why. But still, it's gramatically incorrect. Telling you that it's acceptable is a way to nowhere, because you'll never learn speaking proper Polish.

Sorry for being harsh, but you were given so many good advices on this forum but you're still like a guy who want's to learn swimming by reading books. Man, throw your theories away and jump into it :-)

Cinek

Language / ów its meaning [11]

No! 'Ów' can be used in meaning 'that one', and it doesn't mean 'że'!!!
E.g.:

That man was looking at me:
Tamten człowiek patrzył na mnie.
or
Ów człowiek patrzył na mnie (that man (the one I was mentioning earlier) was looking at me)

BUT:

He said that he comes tomorrow.
Powiedział, że przyjdzie jutro.
BUT NEVER: !!!!!! Powiedział, ów przyjdzie jutro. !!!!!!! IT'S WRONG!!!!!!

Cinek

Language / difference in usypiac [9]


I've never heard it. It must by a regional form. But you're right that 'uspić' sometimes sounds bad.
We use 'położyć kogoś spać' in such cases instead.

Cinek

Language / How can I tell which conjugation group a verb ending in ~eć belongs to? [18]


A co to? Chyba 'pomocniczym' lub 'posiłkowym'.


They are stressed exactly the same way as other vowels. The 'unnaturality' you're mentioning is when one is trying to pronounce them too perfectly, especially 'ę' at the end of words (which tends to be pronounced almost 'e'). You must just not to focus on them too much and they'll sound properly.

And leave stress when it should be (usually on the penultimate syllable) :-)

Cinek

Language / difference in usypiac [9]

Both are imperfective.

'Zasypiać' means 'to fall asleep' and is intransitive (you are the one who is falling asleep). The perfective counterpart is 'zasnąć' or 'usnąć' (like in the example someone told you).

'Usypiać' means 'to make someone to sleep' and is transitive (someone else is the one who is falling asleep). The prefective counterpart is 'uśpić'

So in your example 'usnąłem' (or 'zasnąłem') means I fell asleep and it's 1st sing. past of perf. usnąć (or 'zasnąć' resp.), however, 'zasnąć' is used more often.

Cinek

Language / Variations of these Polish Foul Words [6]

kurwa - a prostitute
wkurwiać - to drive one crazy
przykurwić - to beat
zkurwić - to lower one's moral standards
zakurwić - to hit something
zkurwiały - (adj) someone who lowered down his moral standards
wkurwiony - annoyed
wykurwisty - cool, very good
kurwować - to say 'kurwa', to use rude words
kurewka - a prostitute (dim.)
kurwiki - something Renata Beger has in her eyes ;-)
kurwnięty - (no idea what that means, probably very dependant on the context)
kurwnąć/przykurwnąć (same as above)
kurwiszcze - see 'kurewka'
wykurwiaj - go away!
kurwica - annoyment
zkurwiaj - go away!


There's no single answer to that question. Creating words like these is what the whole art of grammar is about. So, learn the language and you'll know :-)

Cinek

Language / jesc/zjesc and possible english translations for the imperfective/perfective [30]



I agree with Magdalena. You wrote that:


and the 'Poproszę rachunek' exactly belongs to that category. It's just an acronim that expresses a polite way of asking someone to get the bill, and it translates to 'can I have the bill please' in the way that the meaning and the politeness level are the same in both languages (even though the used words are different).

As I (and others) wrote you many times: stop translating words and start reading and listening to people speaking Polish. To learn the language you must use all your senses, not only dictionary.

Cinek

Language / jesc/zjesc and possible english translations for the imperfective/perfective [30]


hmm, maybe because that's how Poles say it? Who said 'czy mogę ma rachunek proszę' is fine? It's not! We just say 'poproszę rachunek' when we mean 'may I have the check' and that's it.

See that from the opposite side. Why to say 'may I have the check' when 'please bill' is fine?

Cinek

Language / Dziękujecie in plural form [11]

No. It is: dziękowaliście (imperf.). Podziękowaliście is the perfective counterpart.

Cinek

Language / Undertsanding case structure (or 'you can't translate English directly into Polish') [10]


Does you cousin correct you when you make a mistake? If not, then ask her to do so. If she just says 'ok, I undestood you' it may make you feel you said something well while it might be just 'understandable' but not gramatically correct.

Every time you make a mistake she should say the same correct way and you should repeat it after her. This is how children learn languages and it is the only way to get the language feeling.

And as the others said, avoid asking 'why'. It won't help you at all at your level and even makes the things more difficult.

Belive me, little children don't ask 'why', they just repeat after they parents and they are usually able to speak with correct grammar in age 3 or 4.

Cinek

Language / "A" and "I" usage in Polish language [22]


It's easy. 'I' connects similarities while 'a' connects differences.
E.g.

Jabłko jest czerwone i wiśnia jest czerwona (both are red - similar)
Jabłko jest czerwona a śliwka jest niebieska (one is red, the other is blue - different)

There was a thread on this already.

Cinek

Language / Question about podoba sie [23]


However the 'very much' may suggest something more.

To make things as easy as possible:

1. Lubić = to like

Ja lubię ciebie (usually just 'lubię cię') = I like you (you as a person, no matter what you look like)

This one works the same direction as in English:
I = Subject, you = object
Ja = Subject , ty (ciebie) = object

2. Podobać się = to look attractive or nicely to someone

Ty mi się podobasz (usually 'podobasz mi się') = I like how you look (no matter if you are a nice person or whether I hate you or love you)

This one works the 'opposite way':
in English: I = subject, you = object
in Polish: Ty = subject, ja (mi) = object.

The 'się' here is just a part of the verb and it means nothing. You just have to memorize that it must be there.

I hope it helps you a little.

Cinek