Language / Difference between "i" and "oraz". [6]

Basically, there is no difference, but oraz tends to be put to join longer expressions/sentences. Under the heading oraz, one of the dictionaries gives the following example: Wystąpili soliści zagraniczni oraz aktorzy scen polskich.

Of course, you could have put "i" in place of "oraz" there, and the sentence would still be perfect. In simple sentences like "Ola i Mariola poszły do przedszkola", one immediately uses "i" as "oraz" would sound a bit artificial or official (and yes, trying to be official pushes you towards using "oraz" more often than you would typically do).

Language / że & iż [16]

"Iż" is a borrowing from the Czech language and in fact has never been used in spoken language in Polish. Everyone who uses it this way sounds a bit silly (unless he is a politician, but they typically speak as if they were reading a newspaper, so instead of telling you: nie wiem, they will say: nie mam takiej wiedzy, which is unacceptable for a decent newspaper) ... but you can spot "iż" quite often in the press.

Language / 'ucha' [23]

Please notice that the contemporary double forms: uszy-ucha or oczy-oka are traces of the old dual number forms in Polish:

jedno ucho - dwie uszy - trzy, cztery etc. ucha;
jedno oko - dwie oczy - trzy, cztery etc. oka.

Language / "There will always be a Poland" in Polish [9]


That's along the lines of the well-known English patriotic song "There'll always be an England". I remember it from the "Keeping Up Appearances" ["Co ludzie powiedzą!?" - the title in Polish] series. The setings for this song were not patriotic, though, as everything in this most un-patriotic British TV production ever.


No, no, no! JAKAŚ doesn't sound good in this context. And we don't want it look like a thing from the "Keeping Up Appearances" series, do we?

Travel / Travel from Krakow to Sandomierz [7]

I'm sure there must a bus service from Kraków to Sandomierz. Apart from the castle (only one wing is left, the two other ones were blown up by the Swedes in the 17th century) the Old Town market place is a charming place. The church nearest to the castle (the cathedral, I should think) has a tremendous interior which was under renovation a year ago, definitely worth seeing.

News / Poland's fidelity to support wars and its limits. [46]


If you want to save order in Western Europe, you should think first of preventing the killing of human rights activists in Russia. Just think about the internationally known case of the unsolved assassination of Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya, shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building Moscow in 2006.

If you don't want to read the books of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, which is what I have advised you, please try reading the book of Anna Stepanovna: "Putin's Russia", in which she describes the Russian army in which conscripts are tortured and hired out as slaves, and Russian judges who are removed from their positions or brutally assaulted on the street for not following instructions "from above" to let criminals go.

If you do read it, you'll understand why people in Poland or Western Europe would not welcome Russia's - as you so aptly and boldly put it - more or less constant interventions to save order in their countries.

You indeed don't seem to be a troglodytian Polonophobe, as a matter of truth you seem to be a troglodytian Putinophile.

Life / Are Poles winter lovers? [63]

I am not particularly impressed by snow. I like it though when the weather is as it is in Warsaw today: no or mild wind, mild temperature slightly below the zero Centigrade, a lot of sunshine and ... a lot of the very white snow. Quite pleasant and very refreshing! In my childhood there used to be really snowy winters in Poland.

News / Poland's fidelity to support wars and its limits. [46]


I shall remind you, however, about the Russian vanity and your most shameful involvement in Afghanistan under the red tsar Leonid Brezhnev, aptly called "General Secretary" in the Soviet Russia.

Putting forward a subject like Poland's involvement in war against terrorism, I'm sure you have a certain malicious thesis about Poland in mind that you're going to reveal after having read our comments.

All in all, I would advise you to direct the vast interests of yours to reading Russian literature rather than beating about the helpless - in your view - case of Poland. Yesterday I was watching this excellent piece of Женитьба (Marriage) by Никола́й Васи́льевич Го́голь on Polish TV. The casting of the play was composed of best Polish actors, and I assure you, this was a most tremendous experience watching one of Nikolai Vasilievich's play on TV on a frosty evening.

Language / WHY IS SATELITA MASCULINE? [25]

It is indeed strange that satelita is masculine gender. Polish people are used to it, so they think it's obvious, but it's definitely not obvious. For example, kometa is feminine, asteroida is ... well, I think it is feminine, but it might be that some people think it ... masculne! Maybe it's the same story as with boa; the gender of one implies the gender of the other: (ten) wąż-boa / (ten) księżyc-satelita.

Life / WHY ARE POLISH CALENDARS SKEWED? [42]


We must remember, however, that ISO is a modern standard. That's why Polish pre-war calendars and contemporary American ones, as explains Polonius, set Sunday as the first day of the week; they seemed/seem to stick to the standard set in the Bible which is much older than the ISO standard, and where Sunday is explicitly stated as the first day of the week.

Life / WHY ARE POLISH CALENDARS SKEWED? [42]


I'm afraid you are wrong here. Środa is a perfect example of the thesis that Sunday is the first day of the week. Names of other days in Polish point to Sunday and not Monday, with Poniedziałek ("po niedzieli") as the day first day after Sunday; Wtorek as the second day after Sunday (not the second day of the week); czwartek as the fourth day after Sunday; and piątek as the fifth day after Sunday. I'd say it is a bit magalomaniacal to ignore the whole tradition of mankind in which, as the other poster pointed out, the Sun was at the centre of our ancestors' world. Putting Monday first is the invention of the modern business world who counts Money first and Nature second, so it's understandable that for practical reasons it prefers Monday as the first place on the agenda of a busy week.

The Christian world also refers to Sunday as the first day of the week. God rested on the seventh day of the week and this was of course Saturday (sabbath) [although, I think, God did not mind how we would call it]. Christian people of the first centuries after Christ decided, in commemoration of the ressurrecion of Jesus which happened on Sunday, to move the celebration of the Day of Rest from the seventh day of the week (Saturday) to the first day of it (Sunday).

Language / Polish nouns of unpredictable gender [50]

... and you are right. It is a non-declined masculine noun: Widziałem dzisiaj w puszczy tego samego boa, co wczoraj. Już się szykował aby mnie dopaść, ale znowu zdołałem mu umknąć. Biedaczek, pozostał bez śniadania. Pewnie będzie ponownie próbował jutro, niedobry boa ...

Life / WHY ARE POLISH CALENDARS SKEWED? [42]


At every Catholic Sunday service in Poland they will tell you that Sunday is the first day of the week. But in the lay world it is, of course, Monday.

Language / doing / making - the difference? [20]

Lyzko
Once again, one is confronted with the perfective and imperfective aspects of the Polish verb here.

Basically, a question like "Co zrobisz na Sylwestra?" is rarely, if ever, heard among native speakers of Polish. It is not good, since by asking a question about someone's activity during the New Year's Eve, we are asking them how they will be spending time, with no need to know about any result coming out of their activity, so we clearly need the imperfective aspect of the verb "robić" in the future tense here rather than the perfecive aspect, as applied to your sentece. [Please, try to construct the proper sentence.]

We often hear a sentence like "Co zrobisz na obiad/kolację?". It is here that by asking such a question we are interested in knowing about the result rather than about the process of preparing the dinner/supper, so we use the perfective aspect. Yet, we may often hear such a question with the use the imperfective aspect of the verb as in this case the process and thus time needed for that, might be equally important for the asking and for the asked. [To practice the imperfective aspect of the future tense, please try to make such one yourself.]

Such circumstances as the ones outlined above may perhaps make the use of both aspects of the Polish verb so incomprehensible for a foreign learner of Polish. A happy New Year for everyone learning Polish!

Language / doing / making - the difference? [20]

No, you shouldn't. Wyrobić/wyrabiać has six meanings; some of them are used in the perfective only, some of them are used in the imperfective only, some of them are used in both. Please consult the dictionary about this verb.

I have re-written from the dictionary the meanings of wyrobić się/wyrabiać się (pronominal verb) for you. It means:

1. nabrać doświadczenia, umiejętności w czymś: Wyrobił się towarzysko.
2. zniszczyć się wskutek tarcia: Wyrobiły się zawiasy.
3. (colloqiual) zdążyć z jakąś pracą, z jakąś czynnością: Nie wyrobię się na ósmą.

Real Estate / KRAKOW APARTMENTS...BUY NOW.. they are a bargain.... [16]

I myself stopped reading the three or four threads on appartaments in Kraków, but SeanBM still seems to be au courant ... Congratutations, Sean (still, there were several interesting posts in the threads)!

A country farm in Zachodniopomorskie, that sounds interesting, Wildrover. I like the region where I spent a summer holiday at the seaside, but with a number of inland excursions in the meantime ... I wonder what made you pick up a farm in Zachodniopomorskie as you are not Polish, aren't you (voilà, je ne veux pas être trop indiscret) ...

Language / Polish nouns of unpredictable gender [50]


-l: /faul, disel/ and
-cz: /tucz/ are masculine,
so these are mistakes.


Is it surprising because "myśl" is feminine and so should be "Prze-myśl"? Another proper name which is a tricky one is Ostrów. Do you vote for it being of masculine or feminine gender?

Language / Why in the world there are three ways to write simple U ?!?! [54]

Microwac to Mafketis:



Why do you think that explaining grammar and pronounciation is boring? Drinking beer and talking rubbish is boring ...

Language / 'MOZNA' - When is this used? [27]

I think the refrain of a Marian Hemar's song from 1934 will tell you that. You can play the two versions: the modern one is better in my view, but the original, pre-war one is definitely easier to follow for a non-native speaker (you can also hear the dark ł there as well as the -em instead of -ym endings).

Kochać nie warto, lubić nie warto,
Znaleźć nie warto i zgubić nie warto,
Chodzić nie warto i leżeć nie warto.
Przysiąc nie warto, uwierzyć nie warto!
Pieścić nie warto, pobić nie warto.
Stracić nie warto, zarobić nie warto,
Sprzedać nie warto, kupić nie warto.

Language / Polish nouns of unpredictable gender [50]


It's unbeliveble they make such mistakes. Can you quote the exact source (PWN does a lot of dictionaries)? They must have been drunk when compilying this one.

Law / Coffee Heaven (Poland's biggest coffee chain) for sale [33]


I'm for the option that Costa will rebrand the coffeeheaven shops. Judging from what you said about the price/quality value they have not much to loose by doing this ...

Law / Coffee Heaven (Poland's biggest coffee chain) for sale [33]



You've raised an interesting point here. As a former Warsaw stock market private investor I feel inclined to inspect Coffeheaven's balance sheet and income statement in more detail to see what is the reason behind their loosing money. If anyone wants to join into this case study exercise and then share their findings, please do ...

Language / Why in the world there are three ways to write simple U ?!?! [54]


And yet there is some truth in his post. Many Polish pupils have similar problems at school learning "ż-rz" or "ó-u". It is best to look for a related word where possible:

morze - morski; podróż - droga etc.
[I'm sorry but I couldn't find a related word explaining the ó in "gówno".]

Language / Polish nouns of unpredictable gender [50]


Yes, but I would add that you never say "ta berbeć", but always "ten berbeć" describing either of them, so it is always a masculine noun.

As to nouns ending in -u, we have "guru", and it's always "ten guru", never "ta guru" or "to guru", so it's a masculine noun.

Law / Coffee Heaven (Poland's biggest coffee chain) for sale [33]

"The recommended offer represents a premium of 25 per cent to Coffeeheaven’s closing price of 19.25p per share on June 11, the last business day prior to the announcement of the initiation of discussions."

I didn't know they started discussions as early as on June. But from then on it must have been pretty clear that the deal was likely to get through, knowing that Costa had the intention to expand and CoffeeHeaven (COH) may have wanted to follow the business model of Seattle Coffee Company, which seems to be an accurate assumption. Thus it was quite imaginable to buy at about 18p between the 11th of June and the 11th of December with a prospect of gain; certainly not a Buffet-style gain, but still a nice 30 per cent premium ...

I wonder how much money the owners of COH have put on the table several years ago to cash on their investment now ...

Law / Coffee Heaven (Poland's biggest coffee chain) for sale [33]

Thanks for the link, Szkotja. I've just found out that as of October 2009 the coffeeheaven group has 92 trading sites - Poland 62 : Czech Republic 15 : Latvia 8 : Bulgaria 3 : Hungary 4; many more sites are under contract or subject to contract in all five countries.

In my view, their deal with Whitbread has every chance to succeed. £32m is not much for Whitbread, and the owners of Coffee Heaven might be quite happy to get rid of coffeeheaven as it never made profit according to its income statements since 2005.

As to placing an order on Monday, in real terms it would be placing an order for Whitbread shares rather than Coffeeheaven shares.

Law / Coffee Heaven (Poland's biggest coffee chain) for sale [33]

I don't drink coffee myself, so I must take for granted what dcchris says: there are much better cafes [than Coffeeheaven] in Poland.

It is probably why they report losses rather than profit, but one should notice they improved on first half year-to-year losses around 15%. Costa is certainly a better run business than Coffeeheaven. I wonder who owns the latter, how many coffeeshops they own in Poland and abroad (Costa has 1,000 in the UK and 400 abroad), and what is London's AIM market where Coffeeheaven is listed. Is AIM something similar to the Warsaw Stock Exchange's "newconnect" market?

Language / Can you recognise the nationality of foreign Polish speakers by their accent? [43]


Now, I can see your question was more precise. And my answer to it is yes. I can recognise a British, American, Russian, French, or Italian speaker of Polish. I can sometimes recognise the origins of Polish speakers of Polish as well, but this is rare as most of them speak the standard version of the language now. For example, you can easily enough tell an older Małopolanin (Cracow) by his specific pronounciation: slightly different "n" in words like "sukienka" (similar to the English "n" in the -ing ending) or a voiced, instead of voiceless, consonant in certain interword liaisons such as "głoz_ludu" as opposed to the standard version of "glos_ludu".

Language / Can you recognise the nationality of foreign Polish speakers by their accent? [43]


You mean Pascal Brodnicki...? For me, native speaker of Polish, Pascal Brodnicki doesn't sound irritating at all. He speaks with French accent, nevertheless his Polish is outstandingly good. His mild French accent is really an asset for a TV cook, knowing of the qualité of the French cuisine. Apart from his accent, he chooses a wrong case in the declination of a noun from time to time, but these mistakes are rare and sound really charming. Personally, I like the way he speaks Polish, much as I like the way other foreign speakers on Polish TV pronounce the Polish language (they are usually very good at it, but their foreign accent, be it rather mild, gives them away).

It is usually easy in any language to recognize a non-native speaker, but ... . A British friend of mine of Manchester once told me he had met someone at a conference in London whom he culdn't recognize as a speaker from any given part of the UK. When he asked the guy whereabout Britain he was from, he told him he was ... a Frenchman from Paris!

Life / Do expats living in Poland speak Polish? [233]


Still, it builds up your vocabulary and grammar thus speeding up your progress in listening and speaking when you arrive at the country whose language you learn.

English in this respect is by no means easier to master than Polish or any other language. When on arriving in the UK I found myself in a strictly English-speaking environment, I just couldn't uderstand a word from conversations at dinners and meetings to which my English friends took me. But then I was the best in English at school in Poland! Without any previous knowledge of English, however, I suppose I couldn't have made substantial progress in listening and speaking comprehension in a comparetively short time, though for the first three months of my stay, I just felt like being surrounded by a glass surface around me which allowed air and light through it, but stopped understandable sounds.