Using Polish declensions..

Basically I'm an English student heading to Poland on the erasmus scheme this year, I've been learning Polish since September and have learned a lot of it very fast within these nine months to the point where I can hold conversations with my Polish friends in Polish, all of which are amazed with my pronunciations and all the words I know.

However my problem is, that I really don't know how and when to use declensions other than locative and nominative nouns and adjectives. I can decline words no problem if someone said decline this word under the dative grammar etc, but what I'm struggling to do, is when to use them as I don't understand the ruling behind it, I've been through the internet and this forum reading as much documents etc on declensions, but I still don't understand it.

Any help will be massively appreciated as this is pretty much the only issue I have.
Dzięki :)

Get the book 301 polish verbs. It has declination in all cases (robić, robisz, etc) when to use them and all of that good stuff and it has examples of everything

Bardzo dziękuję

I will look at getting that book when i get on my laptop

It's only like 11 dollars too :P
p.s you flipped the polish words, should be dziękuję bardzo

I hear it both ways all the time Mleko...your way is more common but putting bardzo first is hardly "wrong". In any case the book is a must have along with a good dictionary.

it's not wrong at all


I think this is a misunderstanding - the OP has problems with nouns and not with verbs.
Getting the book will certainly not hurt him, but is probably not what he's looking for.
Unfortunately, I don't know if any "301 Polish nouns" exists at all.

I'm afraid, there's no easy rules to explain it.
But at your level, you should only remember that the case depends on 2 factors:

1. All transitive verbs require their objects to be in particular case. YOU MUST LEARN THEM BY HEART. This means that when you learn a new (transitive) verb you must also learn the case it requires for the object.

In most cases it would be Accusative or Genetive for the direct object and Dative for the indirect object.

2. All prepositions require particular case(s) of the nouns they are standing before. YOU MUST LEARN THEM BY HEART. Every time you learn a preposition, besides its meaning you must also remember the case(s) i requires.

Sometimes you may notice that a proposition has several different meanings and requires different case for each one meaning e.g.:
w + locative = in
w + genetive = into

1+2. Some verbs require their object to be in particular case and to be prepended by a preposition. YOU MUST LEARN THEM BY HEART.
e.g.:
śmiać się z kogoś - to laugh at someone.

So, to summarize, always learn pairs: (verb + case) or (preposition + case).
And that's it :-)

Just keep learning and good luck.

Cinek

For whatever it's worth, I've heard Polish native speakers say either "Proszę bardzo" as well as "Bardzo proszę". Perhaps the latter's a tad more polite, I'm not sure:-)

Thanks


thanks very much


almost casual


when u really want something

Proszę bardzo is a calque of German Bitte schoen - it is a polite answer to thank you or dziękuję and is not used when you actually ask for something contrary to bardzo proszę

Cinek

Thanks for the reply, I will keep at it and keep putting the same amount of effort into learning, hopefully when i'm in Wrocław for the year, that'll help me when I hear people using the declensions all the time in conversation, will people be able to understand me if i get my declensions wrong?

In most cases yes. But be prepared they can be often confused because Poles are used very much to it.
Keep your sentences simple, and should be ok.

Cinek

You'll do fine in PL if you have already gone this far as to actually understand what declensions are. And do not keep your sentences simple, try to speak what you have in mind and when you (perhaps) see a confused look tell them to correct you! That way you will learn polish really fast.

Merely weighing in on the last poster's advice, be sure also to let them correct you preferrably in Polish, so as you get the feeling of both walking and talking like a native, not some foreign visitor or outsider who'll never find group acceptance! It'll be hard in the beginning, but trust me, in the end, it'll be for the best and well worth the extra effort!