fancyghost
15 Jul 2012
Language / Questions about Jej vs. Swoje, ą and ę, and Latin similarities [27]
Hello. This is my first post here, I've browsed it a little for a few weeks but I don't really know the culture around here, please tell me if I say or do something frowned upon.
A little backstory so I don't feel rude and the last bit of my post will make sense: I'm a fourth-generation Pole living in America. I've always been interested in learning Polish but because of school and the language-learning requirements, I had to take Latin all four years in high school, and never had the time in my schedule to learn Polish. I was given a copy of Rosetta Stone for graduation, and here I am.
First, don't understand the difference between jej and swoje. I know that you'd say "kobieta i jej pies", and "oni czytają swoje gazety", and that makes it seem like one is singular and the other is plural, but then I'm hit with "ona je swoje jabłko" and "on czyta jego książkę", the first having a picture of one girl eating an apple, the second of a man reading another man's book. When do you use jej/jego and when do you use swoje?
Secondly, I've got a little phrasebook with things that you would say every day. In the letters and pronunciation section, it says that ą and ę sound like "on" and "en". From just listening to a few people speaking Polish, it sounds to me like that's only sometimes the case, like with pięc, but other times it sounds like there's no N at the end, like in piszą. It's difficult for me to say exactly what I mean, if this isn't clear please tell me and I'll rephrase it.
Lastly, after four years of Latin, I picked up quickly on how the last few letters of a word sometimes change how it's used grammatically, and adjectives take the form of the word they're describing. I'm used to the nominative, vocative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, and locative cases, and three main declensions. How similar is Polish to Latin in this respect, and are there any quick reference charts I could use to help memorize the endings?
Hello. This is my first post here, I've browsed it a little for a few weeks but I don't really know the culture around here, please tell me if I say or do something frowned upon.
A little backstory so I don't feel rude and the last bit of my post will make sense: I'm a fourth-generation Pole living in America. I've always been interested in learning Polish but because of school and the language-learning requirements, I had to take Latin all four years in high school, and never had the time in my schedule to learn Polish. I was given a copy of Rosetta Stone for graduation, and here I am.
First, don't understand the difference between jej and swoje. I know that you'd say "kobieta i jej pies", and "oni czytają swoje gazety", and that makes it seem like one is singular and the other is plural, but then I'm hit with "ona je swoje jabłko" and "on czyta jego książkę", the first having a picture of one girl eating an apple, the second of a man reading another man's book. When do you use jej/jego and when do you use swoje?
Secondly, I've got a little phrasebook with things that you would say every day. In the letters and pronunciation section, it says that ą and ę sound like "on" and "en". From just listening to a few people speaking Polish, it sounds to me like that's only sometimes the case, like with pięc, but other times it sounds like there's no N at the end, like in piszą. It's difficult for me to say exactly what I mean, if this isn't clear please tell me and I'll rephrase it.
Lastly, after four years of Latin, I picked up quickly on how the last few letters of a word sometimes change how it's used grammatically, and adjectives take the form of the word they're describing. I'm used to the nominative, vocative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, and locative cases, and three main declensions. How similar is Polish to Latin in this respect, and are there any quick reference charts I could use to help memorize the endings?
