Language / Can accidentally using the wrong gender form cause offence? [26]

oh, but is something else - talking about oneself in the 3rd person vs. talking to somebody in the 3rd person instead of 2nd.
The latter also happens in families, it's slightly archaic but still used sometimes: niech mama pójdzie, niech babcia powie. It's considered to be more respectful than the ordinary "mamo, idź".

As a matter of fact, it's the same form as in "niech pan/pani pójdzie".

Language / Polish and Hungarian, how similar? [53]


The country was named Czechosłovakia, still there were Czechs and Slovaks living there, both groups speaking their relative languages, out of which Czech was the country's official language.


You're right in that Czechoslovakian-Hungarian border was actually a Slovak-Hungarian border. Still, ethnicity issues in that area were a rather complicated affair for many years after the fall of the Habsburg Empire; they might have been Czechs as well as Slovaks.

Language / Polish and Hungarian, how similar? [53]


The father was probably conversing with the Czechs, then it rings true enough. Unless the Hungarians could also speak some Czech, which is possible, depending on which part of Hungary they came from. He definitely wouldn't have been able to talk with the Hungarians not having any common language with them.


It's possible to just memorize simple phrases, although with Hungarian you need to know the pronunciation rules.


why not?

Food / Good Polish "chrupki" recipe? [8]


what kind of chrupki do you have in mind?

Language / Polish and Hungarian, how similar? [53]

Not similar at all. Different language families. There are probably more similarities between Polish and English than between Polish and Hungarian.

As for the phrase book - well, I don't know, depends on how gifted linguistically she was.

Language / Can accidentally using the wrong gender form cause offence? [26]


Actually it happens in Polish, with family talking to small kids: "Mama jest na ciebie zła". "Nie pluj na babcię, babcia nie lubi, kiedy na nią plujesz". "Daj cioci buzi, to ciocia da ci lizaka", "Chodź, tata teraz zaprowadzi cię do przedszkola" etc.

Language / FULL WYPAS, WYPASIONY, ZAJEBISTY? [20]


It's an euphemism for zajebisty, which is still considered rough by most people.

I remember Agnieszka Chylińska using it on TV, but I'm not sure when exactly and what programme it was. I don't think she was the first one either, but then I'm not much of a TV viewer.

And I remember "wypas" used by Gulczas, a guy from the 1st edition of the Polish Big Brother, in some sort of a TV commercial - something to do with cars probably, as the exact quote was "Nysa to jest wypas". I've just checked and the 1st edition of BB in Poland was in 2001, so the commercial must have been on the air soon after that - end of 2001? The expression was quite new then.

Genealogy / Krupski name [36]

Might you by any chance be related to Nadieżda Krupska? ;)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadezhda_Krupskaya

Genealogy / THE MEANING AND RESEARCH OF MY POLISH LAST NAME, SURNAME? [4501]

spławiać means to float. Maybe one of your ancestors was a raftsman?

Language / Too many English words in the Polish language! [709]


And technical: śruba, wajcha, wichajster :)

Language / Too many English words in the Polish language! [709]


I like the word wieśmak better.

TheOther:
Didn't you know that Poland was a British colony for a long time?
Maybe in the future....

;-)

for now it seems the other way around ;)

Genealogy / Missing/unknown letter in my great-grandmother's last name. Any ideas? [34]


Zosia (without the dot over Z) is a diminutive from Zofia. Susan in Polish is Zuzanna, shortened to Zuzia.

Life / POLISH DANCING (how to to this holding hands and such?) [11]


You really don't need to learn to dance krakowiak and polonez in order to do this kind of "holding hands,twirling round kind of dancing" which is danced at weddings and such. It's very very simple, just one step to the right, one to the left, and whirl around. Next time take your chance and ask one of the pretty ladies to teach you that, she should be delighted and you'll be a dancing master in some fifteen minutes :)

Genealogy / Paluch family from south Poland near the Czech frontier [25]

There are over 15 000 people with the name Paluch living in Poland now:

Genealogy / Missing/unknown letter in my great-grandmother's last name. Any ideas? [34]

IMO Rypała is the best guess so far. The name could have easily been messed up with one "a" changing into "y". Rypała is actually an existing name, see the map: mapa/kompletny/rypa%25C5%2582a.html

Most Rypałas live in Krapkowice and the neighbouring districts. The area used to be Galicia once.
If you are able to find any place names from where your grandfather originally came, you could check if it is the same area.

Genealogy / Missing/unknown letter in my great-grandmother's last name. Any ideas? [34]

Here's a site where you can check the frequency and distribution of Polish last names. Type the name in the box and click the Szukaj button.

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/kwiatkowski.html

I've tried some probable variants of Rypy?a, but unfortunately got no results.

How large is that white streak? Could it be that more than one letter is missing?

Language / rukes in if [8]

yes, that's correct

Language / The Polish language - it's bloody hard! [210]

In writing. Whether you would have understood it spoken is another story.

Language / The Polish language - it's bloody hard! [210]


Still, you could understand what she was saying.
I've no idea how good your Polish really is and how it sounds, so what I'm saying is just a general remark.
As it has already been stated many times in numerous threads on this forum, it's much easier to learn basic conversational English than basic conversational Polish. You need to know a lot more to make yourself understood on a basic level in Polish than in English. And the worst part is not the case endings - you could mix them up seriously and still get by - but verbs - just consider the difference in meaning between dać, zdać, wydać and zadać. It's very easy for a foreigner to mix them up and thus completely change the meaning of what they're trying to say. Add to this the usually butchered up pronunciation of prz trz szcz, and it can really take a lot of serious thinking on the part of a Polish listener to understand what the non-Pole is trying to say.

Don't get me wrong, I really admire you guys who've managed to make it with Polish and are able to hold a conversation. But it's just possible that the girl really wasn't able to get what you were saying and might have thought it easier to communicate in English.

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]

the British collector is a new part though

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]

We'll see in a couple of days, probably.
Anyway I suppose he's under close observation now so can't escape or try anything funny.

I'm not sure exactly how credible the Sunday Mirror is, however the article is marked as exclusive so they must have some unofficial info sources. It's hard to believe they've made it all up having nothing better to do on a slow Sunday morning.

Language / Which preposition for 'at'? [58]

It can be przy-, prze-, and million other things, that's why I say you need to check it up each time, for every specific verb.

For witać it's "przy" - przywitać.
And don't confuse that "przy-" with the pronoun "przy". Historically they are related, but it's of no use for beginners. For now just treat them separately.

"Prze" is not "will". In the specific case of the verb "witać" "przy" is the prefix that changes it into a perfective verb "przywitać" and that's all there is to it.

"Will" is an auxiliary verb designating the future. In Polish we don't have auxiliary verbs and future sentences are formed using the proper conjugation forms of ordinary verbs. "Przywitam" and "przeczytam" are future forms already, as both verbs are perfective. With imperfective verbs - "witam" and "czytam" - you must add the proper conjugated form of "być": będę witać, będę czytać - this is future tense. So with these expressions you might say that "będę" is the "will" part, as in "I will be reading, I will be welcoming".

and a correction to the previous posts:

przewitać i will welcome

it should be przywitam

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]


there are also many neo-nazis who would gladly protect him and make him their hero

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]

They say that at the moment Interpol is collecting evidence against him, so I think he hasn't been arrested yet. They don't give his name, just say that he's very rich and wanted to have the sign as a kind of a trophy.

Here's the link in English:

mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/03/auschwitz-sign-was-stolen-for-wealthy-british-nazi-115875-21937555/

News / The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign theft from Oswiecim, Poland [240]

The Auschwitz sign theft was commissioned by a British collector

Gazeta Wyborcza after Sunday Mirror:

Citing sources in Sweden letter does not mention the names of the alleged collector , says only that it is very rich and that he wanted to have a sign in your possession , as treated by him as a trophy .

- It was found that the inscription ( after transporting him to Sweden ) will be hidden in the basement of Stockholm , where the Briton will pick it up . The plan was that the money received by the Swedes for arranging finance the neo-Nazi groups in Sweden - weekly quotes its source .

The extreme right in Sweden had planned disruption of this year's general elections in the country.

Swedish neo-nazis were acting as a go-between, however, it was one of them who panicked and informed the Polish police about the place where the sign was hidden. I'm starting a new thread as the previous one on the subject is closed.

Language / Which preposition for 'at'? [58]

good!

only it's przywitać - the prefixes may vary from word to word, you must check it up every time

and in the past:
przywitałem - I welcomed
witałem - I was welcoming

that's as close as it can get

Language / Which preposition for 'at'? [58]


Think along these lines:
I will read (przeczytam) / I will be reading (będę czytać).

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

yes

Language / twoj wasz [12]

both are "your"
but ty is one person (single you) so twój is belonging to the one person
wy is plural you - more than one person - and wasz is belonging to wy

Language / Perfective vs Imperfective - grammar [150]

I will - ja będę
will you? - czy ty będziesz?

you don't turn the words round. If you want to make a simple question (answered yes or no), just add "czy" at the beginning.

On czyta.
Czy on czyta?

Ty idziesz.
Czy ty idziesz?