Speaking with wrong Polish case endings?

Only curious, I always thought that it would be younger students that went to these classes.

I was talking to a Polish friend of mine at work today. She had spent the weekend with her 13 year old nephew helping to prepare him for a test in Polish this week. The kid consistently gets 1's and 2's-not good marks-because of his grammar, mostly case endings. Polish ain't easy, even for native speakers.

it's too much sitting in front of computer and TV and not formulating ideas in a communicative form in the Polish language on every day base - in my youth years only really handicapped children had serious problems with grammar in the age of 13

Could be true.

I think one of my errors has reared its ugly head reading the latter posts. I thought for example 'I went to London' was 'Byłem do Londonie'.

I was also using the word 'bylem' interchangably to mean 'I went ...' and 'I was...'.

Is this correct for both meanings?

Thanks :-)

Nope, but I'll let you figure out why not. :)

I went to London - in the way it is very often used in English it is a counterpart of Polish 'Byłem w Londynie' actually though it is not a translation of a sentence but a translation of a notion.

I'm almost 40 and sitting an exam for students more than half my age! ps, I wouldn't want to be that bloke in the chair ...

probably pointless asking why, but i always thought it was ja szlam, but obviously i am wrong AGAIN. nie lubie polskiego jemzka :)

szłaś, szłaś... ale czy doszłaś? :)

So now the real fun is about to begin. Fasten your seatbelts, Pam, and then check the forum archives for perfective/imperfective verbs.
Imperfective verbs tell you that some activity was/is/will be going on but we don't know whether the action was/is/will be completed.

Perfective verbs express actions completed (in the past, present or future).

ja szłam is imperfective - you were going/walking somewhere but we don't know whether you got there,
ja poszłam is perfective - I went - means you reached your destination.

The infinitive for szłam is iść, and for poszłam - pójść.


know your enemy ^^

Hi Pam :) - it's a bit complicated (perhaps you shouldn't have asked the question ;) - poszłam is sort of a form of 'szłam' with a bit different meaning - the difference is more or less the same as 'I was going' and 'I went' in English ('poszłam' is rather 'I went')

you were already familiar that Polish nouns take endings to form cases (the endings are called suffixes in the grammarian speech)

now you have a case where forms of verbs are created by adding prefixes before them (po + szłam)


you shouldn't have done that to our poor dear Pam, really, strzyga - she's still very much stiffled by the nightmare of Polish noun cases

Get the book 301 Polish Verbs. I think verbs are easier than case endings, though in the beginning the prefixes made my crazy. Hmmm. They still do.

one additional remark - you were always saying 'ja szłam' and was understood - so it is not so bad again

- don't feed yourself a lot of grammar - leave a lot behind until you feel safe and familiar with one or few things -

don't you worry, Pam is very brave and besides, chcącemu krzywda się nie dzieje :)
(and pls notice that I haven't even mentioned przyszłam, wyszłam, zaszłam, nadeszłam and przeszłam!)

these are actually simpler as they are semantically different verbs (I think)

The problem's, the way I see it, with "poszłem" instead of correct "poszedłem". "Poszłam" IS correct in any event, right? -:)

He probably says: "Mam fajowego komputera" ;)

In Polish section there is also a thread by Polonius who asked if people who say "tą" insted of "tę" are considered morons in Poland... I must say I've never paid attention if I say "tą" or "tę" :(

ok i understand now. ale to jest koszmar,i nie zartuje!! i knew i was wrong because every time i said ja szlam, my friend would tell me i was wrong, but his english isnt great and neither is my polish...:)

ha, I always say 'tą' - and can't be bothered about the supposed incorrectness of it

and I will always say 'tu pisze' instead of 'tu jest napisane' - for two important reasons - there is something like podmiot domyślny in Polish and 'tu pisze' has one if you think for a moment - secondly it is shorter and less 'pretensjonalny' :)

The problem is that a paper can't write... so paper doesn't write. :)
Ok, I also say tu pisze, but I know it's wrong and colloquial.

For me they are pretty much the same :)

Tu pisze, że był miesiąc temu w Zakopanem. - think for yourself and 'nie bądź pan papuga'

i am stifled by everything!! only understand what infinitive is. simply dont understand cases as i memorize everything ( have pretty good memory lol ) . strzyga , its fasten your seatbelt, not belts. i am actually thin and dont need more than one...yet! i am thinking the same old thing now....piekarnik,most,pociag,albo noz...lol!!

In everyday spoken Polish tą instead of tę is almost universal and is, I believe, now considered acceptable in informal speech.

In writing or very formal contexts tę would be required.

In my formative stage learning Polish as a foreign language I only learned tę so that's what I use (just like I learned ante-penultimate stress for verb forms like byliśmy) which often made people think I spoke better than I did. I do sometimes slip the accent back to the penultimate for verb forms like byliśmy on purpose to sound less formal but it doesnt' come naturally.

I rather like tu pisze instead of tu jest napisane for similar reasons though a Polish teacher I work with was scandalized when a student asked 'co tu pisze?' in class.

Which ones? :)

I would choose pociąg in your place - bridges don't travel very far, it's pretty cramped in an oven and it hurts after a while when you sit on a knife - so if I wanted to go anywhere I would definitely go by train ;)


it hurts my ears when I hear poeple put a stress on the penultimate - I think some people learned in school that accent in Polish is always on the penultimate and they knew better from the moment and never again listened to all those 'uneducated' who always used to say - BYliśmy and not byLIŚmy - try the same with 'zrobiłby' and hear how it sounds

yes strzga think i am for even trying to attempt learning this language!!! was i mentallly deranged at the time...probably lol :) also i am missing my lokator. drove him to the airport yesterday as he doesnt have work till march when he will be coming back to stay at mine. we always had such a laugh....but he has phoned me from poland tonight, and i got to speak to his mum,who thought my polish was good.she doesnt speak english and understood everything i said, so maybe i shouldnt beat myself up too much :)

now you've caught me red-handed ;)

as to why your "szłam" was wrong, is it possible that you used it when you meant "jechałam/pojechałam"?

iść is for walking only, if you went by car, bus, train etc. then it's jechać

this would not be a problem !pociag definitely first option as my garden backs onto a railway line :)

Don't do it, byLISmy sounds really awful, much much worse than co tu pisze and tą, I agree with Gumishu on this one.


we all have our moments ;)


Then you're really good, after a year of learning English I could only dream of having a phone conversation, actually had big problems with it for much much longer.

That's why I say you need grammar books as a support only, don't let yourself feel overwhelmed by endings etc. if you can handle a conversation and actually use the language. After all, that's the point of learning, isn't it?