Language / rukes in if [8]

chaza

czyj (M) - czyja (F) - czyje (N)

mostly used in questions

Czyj to pies?
Whose dog is it?

also in statements where the owner is not defined/unknown;

Nie wiem, czyj to samochód.
I don't know whose car it is.

If the owner is defined/known, we use który/która/które, just like in the examples from the previous post:

I know a boy whose father is a vet.
Znam chłopaka którego ojciec jest weterynarzem.

Language / Polish nouns of unpredictable gender [50]


The ones in bold are not used very often. You can come across them once in a while, but you may as well do without them. Let's say they're for highly advanced learners.

Language / doing / making - the difference? [20]

byliśmy, byliście, byli etc. is male, personal, animate - meaning you use it when talking about people of male gender
byłyśmy, byłyście, były etc. is female/neuter/non-animate - all other cases (women, kids, objects)

as for robić, zrobić, wyrobić, there's more: przerobić, dorobić, nadrobić, zarobić, podrobić, odrobić, narobić, wrobić...
actually it's like the English phrasal verbs - make up, make from, make off, make up etc.
There's not much logic to it in either language, I'm afraid. There's no easy way around it and mostly you just need to memorize the right verb for every meaning.

Language / The longest polish word in existence is..... [23]

yes.
you can make it even longer:
dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięciowartościowy

Language / Polish nouns of unpredictable gender [50]

Good job on the whole, Derevon, but it seems a bit tricky at some points - I'd say you are much more likely to use "jabłoń" (apple tree - 124 occurences) than "gardziel" (217); the occurence rate of "paznokieć" (nail) is also suspiciously low - 196, while "dań" has 1103. I don't remember ever seeing "dań" as the Nominative case in any text, so I suppose that this frequency is the result of mixing the word with Accusative plural of the word "danie" meaning a course of a meal. I guess that the program counts only words which appear in the texts in their Nom. sing., therefore it counts "paznokieć" and omits "paznokcie". It would be best to check the meanings and judge for yourself if you are likely to need them or not.

Language / doing / making - the difference? [20]


well, no.

co tu zrobisz - what are you going to do/achieve here?
what will you do here?

it's future tense, nothing to do with the job

and you may "robić zdjęcia" too, as well as "zrobić zdjęcia".

Language / doing / making - the difference? [20]


no. sorry :)

Co zrobisz na sylwestra? - What are you going to do on New Year's Eve? (presumably this year, i.e. the nearest New Year's Eve). Practically it's the same as "co robisz na Sylwestra?"

What do you do (in general) on New Year's Eve? would be: Co zwykle robisz na/w Sylwestra?

Language / doing / making - the difference? [20]

[quote=Lyzko]Confusing though, Strzyga, as to whether I meant "What do you do?" vs. "What (the heck) are you doing....?"quote]

:))
The tricky part is that both your questions - "What do you do?" vs. "What (the heck) are you doing....?" - would be the same in Polish: co robisz? (for living, or just now).

The "vs." is not Simple vs Continuous aspect, but perfective vs. imperfective. Use "zrobić" where you would use a perfect tense in English:

I've taken some pictures - zrobiłem trochę zdjęć.
It's about going all the way through with some task and finishing it.
Zrobiłem obiad - I prepared a meal and now it is ready to be eaten. I've made dinner, or: I made dinner. Anyway, the job is finished.

I think it's the same with all verbs which take z- as a prefix, like: budować - zbudować:
budowałem dom - I was building a house - we don't know if the construction has ever been finished,
zbudowałem dom - and it id finished now.
Jadłem bułkę - I was eating a roll (but did I finish?)
Zjadłem bułkę - I ate the whole roll; I finished it.

In future tense you may use both forms, as the future is never certain and you can't be sure if you manage to finish anything :)

so: zbuduję dom or będę budować dom. However, the determination to finish it is bigger with the first sentence.

I know it can be a little confusing :)

Guess I'll have to 'iron out' my translations (..no pun intended on your Forum name!):-)

:) and what has my forum name to do with ironing? I hate ironing :)))

Language / The longest polish word in existence is..... [23]

it's a chemical term, meaning: having the valency of 999. Such valencies don't actually exist, nevertheless from the lingiustic point the word is correct.

Still I'm not sure if it's the longest possible word. You could try to make something even longer with numerals.

Food / Nowolatki New Year's cakes? [6]

I live close to Podlasie, but have never heard about it.

Language / doing / making - the difference? [20]


I can't ride a horse :)


Same in Polish, you can use present tense for future actions. In English it's Pres. Continuous. Anyway, "co zrobisz na Sylwestra" pertains to the nearest Sylwester only, not to all future ones.


I've told you already that it means "what will you do" and has nothing in common with any job/profession/occupation/whatever. "Jaki jest twój zawód?" or "czym się zajmujesz?" would be "what's your profession/occupation". But it seems that you are waiting for a second opinion - OK, I'm fine with that.


Dziękuję i nawzajem :)

Language / WHY IS SATELITA MASCULINE? [25]


no.
in "satellite television" satellite (satelitarna) is an adjective and has feminine ending only because the noun television(telewizja) is feminine. As any adjective, it could take any gender ending.

But "satelita" as a noun is always masculine.

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

yes, that's right

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

I will - ja będę
will you? - czy ty będziesz?

you don't turn the words round. If you want to make a simple question (answered yes or no), just add "czy" at the beginning.

On czyta.
Czy on czyta?

Ty idziesz.
Czy ty idziesz?

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

yes

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]

The Auschwitz sign theft was commissioned by a British collector

Gazeta Wyborcza after Sunday Mirror:

Citing sources in Sweden letter does not mention the names of the alleged collector , says only that it is very rich and that he wanted to have a sign in your possession , as treated by him as a trophy .

- It was found that the inscription ( after transporting him to Sweden ) will be hidden in the basement of Stockholm , where the Briton will pick it up . The plan was that the money received by the Swedes for arranging finance the neo-Nazi groups in Sweden - weekly quotes its source .

The extreme right in Sweden had planned disruption of this year's general elections in the country.

Swedish neo-nazis were acting as a go-between, however, it was one of them who panicked and informed the Polish police about the place where the sign was hidden. I'm starting a new thread as the previous one on the subject is closed.

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]

They say that at the moment Interpol is collecting evidence against him, so I think he hasn't been arrested yet. They don't give his name, just say that he's very rich and wanted to have the sign as a kind of a trophy.

Here's the link in English:

mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/03/auschwitz-sign-was-stolen-for-wealthy-british-nazi-115875-21937555/

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]


there are also many neo-nazis who would gladly protect him and make him their hero

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]

We'll see in a couple of days, probably.
Anyway I suppose he's under close observation now so can't escape or try anything funny.

I'm not sure exactly how credible the Sunday Mirror is, however the article is marked as exclusive so they must have some unofficial info sources. It's hard to believe they've made it all up having nothing better to do on a slow Sunday morning.

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]

the British collector is a new part though

Language / The Polish language - it's bloody hard! [210]


Still, you could understand what she was saying.
I've no idea how good your Polish really is and how it sounds, so what I'm saying is just a general remark.
As it has already been stated many times in numerous threads on this forum, it's much easier to learn basic conversational English than basic conversational Polish. You need to know a lot more to make yourself understood on a basic level in Polish than in English. And the worst part is not the case endings - you could mix them up seriously and still get by - but verbs - just consider the difference in meaning between dać, zdać, wydać and zadać. It's very easy for a foreigner to mix them up and thus completely change the meaning of what they're trying to say. Add to this the usually butchered up pronunciation of prz trz szcz, and it can really take a lot of serious thinking on the part of a Polish listener to understand what the non-Pole is trying to say.

Don't get me wrong, I really admire you guys who've managed to make it with Polish and are able to hold a conversation. But it's just possible that the girl really wasn't able to get what you were saying and might have thought it easier to communicate in English.

Language / The Polish language - it's bloody hard! [210]

In writing. Whether you would have understood it spoken is another story.

Language / rukes in if [8]

yes, that's correct

Genealogy / Missing/unknown letter in my great-grandmother's last name. Any ideas? [34]

Here's a site where you can check the frequency and distribution of Polish last names. Type the name in the box and click the Szukaj button.

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/kwiatkowski.html

I've tried some probable variants of Rypy?a, but unfortunately got no results.

How large is that white streak? Could it be that more than one letter is missing?

Genealogy / Missing/unknown letter in my great-grandmother's last name. Any ideas? [34]

IMO Rypała is the best guess so far. The name could have easily been messed up with one "a" changing into "y". Rypała is actually an existing name, see the map: mapa/kompletny/rypa%25C5%2582a.html

Most Rypałas live in Krapkowice and the neighbouring districts. The area used to be Galicia once.
If you are able to find any place names from where your grandfather originally came, you could check if it is the same area.

Genealogy / Paluch family from south Poland near the Czech frontier [25]

There are over 15 000 people with the name Paluch living in Poland now:

Genealogy / Missing/unknown letter in my great-grandmother's last name. Any ideas? [34]


Zosia (without the dot over Z) is a diminutive from Zofia. Susan in Polish is Zuzanna, shortened to Zuzia.

Language / Too many English words in the Polish language! [709]


I like the word wieśmak better.

TheOther:
Didn't you know that Poland was a British colony for a long time?
Maybe in the future....

;-)

for now it seems the other way around ;)

Language / Too many English words in the Polish language! [709]


And technical: śruba, wajcha, wichajster :)