spojrzenie, podejmowac - correct word usage

can someone explain the difference and uasge of;
spojrzenie, difference from words like ogladać,obserwować.
rodaniu, hand is ręka.
podjmować, podjemą ,how does it differ from brać.
zostały, i am reading a book and i am coming across this word where there should be the word for 'was'

some guidance please

chaza

glance, or look - really depends on the context


to watch


to observe


it would be good if you quote the rest of the sentence.


not clear on what you are trying to say here. Was/were- były in Polish, but can also be a part of "passive voice" (strona bierna in Polish) eg. on był zmęczony- he was tired. and so on:)

zostały - became (past form) - can also be a part of [passive voice eg. zostały znalezione - were found

I hope this helps:)

I always thought "patrzyć" was "to glance", then again, verbs of motion (as well as stasis) may not be my strongest suit. Come to think of it, the rest of Polish grammar tends to pinch a little too--:)

I think spojrzenie, spojrzeć is a one-time act, while 'oglądać', 'obserwować' is a sort of a continuous process whose duration is unspecified, though.
What's the difference between oglądać i obserwować. Try to work it out yourself while reading your book.

And here arrives Lyzko with 'patrzeć', yet another verb of the kind! Maybe the usage of the three of them is a matter of connotations. Let's take 'television':

Oglądam telewizję. [This one is OK.]
Obserwuję telewizję [This one is stupid.]
Patrzę na telewizję [This one is less stupid than the previous one, but very unusual and not 'normal', yet I once met a native speaker when I was in a sanatorium who frequently used to express himself like that: Idziesz patrzeć na telewizję? I always got annoyed and was always refusing his invitation to watch TV!]

DISCLAIMER: IANANSOP (I Am Not A Native Speaker Of Polish).

However - is patrzeć not used for looking (for a longer time) at something which doesn't move - so patrzeć w lustro, look in the mirror, while oglądać is more for moving things (such as the picture on a TV screen, rather than the TV itself)?

Works sometimes, but does it always?

no.
you can use patrzeć with moving objects - patrzeć na przejeżdżające pociągi, patrzeć when sth is going on in the street - two men were fighting, a ludzie stali i patrzyli/przyglądali się)

and oglądać can be used with immovable objects - oglądać obraz, pismo, książkę.
Oglądałem ten samochód, który chcesz kupić.
I'd say that oglądać is to look closely and intently, same as przyglądać się. Patrzeć has not much intent in it.

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

Dziękuję wszystkom! Bardzo mi przykro, że moja ortografia jest błędna-:))

To better your mood you may explain me|us the difference between
I tried vs I have tried ;)

podjąć is perfective - its imperfective counterpart is podejmować

podjać is pretty formal or traditional language mostly used in specific phrases

the most ubiquitos of the phrases is I guess podjąć/podejmować decyzję = to take a decision

you also collect money at a bank or a parcel at a post office and call it podjąć pieniądze z banku/ paczkę z urzędu pocztowego (quite formal languge - informal is wziąć/wybrać pieniądze z banku)

you also have: podejmować wysiłki = make effort(s), podjąć/podejmować pracę = take (up) a job, podejmować studia = take up studies, podejmować walkę = take up arms, choose to fight (also figuratively),

there is also podejmować kogoś kolacją/obiadem/przyjęciem = (a difficult idiom - in my dictionary translated as to treat somebody to a supper/dinner/party but I am not sure it is the best translation or even any good)

"I tried", Piotr Olsztyn (Peter Allenstein he-he!!lol) = simple past "starałem się" [cynność dokonana w przeszłości]

"I HAVE tried = present perfect/past participle [cynność dokonana ale NIE w czasie przeszłości specifyczniej]

N.pr. "I tried to learn Polish, but to little avail." (...a nigdy potem, już skończyłem!)
"I HAVE tried to learn Polish {throughout my life}, but to little avail. (kiedy to zaczynąłem, a kiedy to skończyłem, NIE wiemy!)

No, teraz zrozumiesz?

Yes I do. I hope I do ;)

Best distinction I've heard yet. Thanks!

I'd also say that 'o-glądać' implies that you look at a thing from several different perspectives, but not necesarily and not always in detail (the verb 'glądać' which no longer exist in Polish as an independent verb, but needs a prefix, does exist as such in other Slavic languages meaning "to see" or "to look at", whereas the prefix 'o' suggests that you were looking at a thing 'around' it). A sequence of images may be then involved (oglądam film/telewizję/mecz/wyścig), a set of objects in a certain sequence (oglądałem wczoraj garnitury w sklepie), or a set of some different aspects of an item (oglądałem przed chwilą nowy samochód szwagra). Notice that the perfective form of 'oglądać' is 'obejrzeć'.

Lyzko
Thanks for this very precise, yet a very good description of the Present Perfect Tense.

thankyou all, the relevance in these words is much clearer now. it is all appriciated.

chaza