Colloquial Polish

I am reading "Let's Learn Polish" by Zofia Bastgen. The book consists of several dialogues, but the dialogues seem very stuffy and outdated, even though it was printed in Warsaw in 1978, not very long ago (at least not to me!) Here are some examples on pages 25 and 33:

A: Przepraszam. Czy pan tu mieszka?

B: Nie. Dlaczego pan pyta?

A. Pytam, bo szukam ulicy Ogrodowej.

I haven't run across the word "bo" in a long time. But, then again, I'm visualizing how ridiculous a native English speaker would sound if the speaker walked up to you on the street, tapped you on the shoulder and said: "For I am looking for my car." It just looks easier to say "szukam ulicy Ogrodowej" than tacking on that extra preposition. I don't know if "bo" is used in colloquial, everyday speech.

Here is another example:

Janek: Czy masz trochę czasu?

Tadek: Kiedy?

Janek: Teraz, zaraz.

Tadek: Mam godzinę czasu, potem załatwiam jedną sprawę na Starym Mieście.

Janek: No, to siadaj i opowiadaj, co słychać u ciebie.

Tadek: Nie mam pojęcia, o co ci chodzi.

I usually just see Co słychać instead of co słychać u ciebie.

I think both versions are acceptable.

It sounds normal.

bo=because

I'm asking, because I'm looking for ogrodowa str.


It's often used in everyday speech.


Both versions sound natural.

yes it is, very much so. A stiff and unnatural equivalent would be "ponieważ".


It sounds all right. In order to make it more colloquial I'd just cross out pytam in the last sentence - just: Bo szukam ulicy Ogrodowej.

The second dialogue is fine too. Two things that sound slightly off are:


Czy is rarely used in everyday speech as the beginning of a question, it's usually omitted. Masz trochę czasu? is more natural.


co u ciebie słychać - it's better in that order, but anyway it's fine and no more stiff than co słychać.

Ponieważ=because
Bo = as

I think the examples you gave are pretty much spot on. I'm going to look this book up.

I bought the book at a used bookshop in Chicago three years ago--with the analog cassette tapes. I don't know if libraries still carry the book, but it's worth a try.

bo = because
poniweaż - word used mostly in formal speech. I for example never use "ponieważ" when I speak.