History / Poland's biggest historical blunder? [341]

So when did Ukrainians have their own independent state?
Why didn't Ukrainians fight against USSR by themselves when Polish allies failed? The Soviet army was badly organized, malnourished, not well armed etc. The odds weren't impossible.

Language / Need advice on how to improve Polish language skills [134]

Again back to you old wrong memories? You're wrong, you can make various mistakes and still be understood, you just have so little experience with Polish that you don't know when the message is and when it's not understandable anymore. Quit your whining, study more.

Life / Is Lady Gaga popular in Poland? [47]

I only like the new wave of pop stars. Katy Perry is popular despite having no musical talent whatsoever (I once saw her live concert on TV - I think even I can sing better LOL), Gaga got popular despite being just fugly etc. It's completely different from the plastic dolls of yesteryear carefully chosen and promoted by musical corporations.

Language / Need advice on how to improve Polish language skills [134]

Quite the reverse, you nail the pronunciation first, then you worry about the rest. If someone thinks sz=ś, cz=ć etc. then he needs to review the basics as it'll continue to cause frustration.

Language / How to understand and remember the Polish nominative plural form? [9]

1. Look at the noun in its singular form.
2. Try to pronounce it in a way that's easier to do so.
3. Check the correct version.

Eventually you should get a grasp. It's a bit of a dick advice, but I don't think there's much point in learning the endings of every word. The plural form isn't as irregular as it is in German, anyway.

Anyway
ta macierz - te macierze
ta klacz - te klacze
So I think the endings are -e in both cases. Hard to explain why though.

macierz - matrix; klacz - mare

edit: just re-read your post and realized you gave the example, and not were asking to explain it; silly me.

Just did some research into -cz feminine nouns, I don't think only the last sound matters.

ta klacz - te klacze
ta rzecz - te rzeczy
ta rozpacz - no plural
ta ciecz - te ciecze (I had to check it to be sure, it doesn't appear in plural too often)

Language / What's a Polish equivalent of hardware store? [9]

I'd be hard pressed to tell when exactly I heard the phrase "sklep żelazny" the last that. Must have been 15 years ago or so.

Language / What's a Polish equivalent of hardware store? [9]


or Praktiker. I can't think of any other hardware store brand .

Love / I met a Polish guy but wonder what his intention is.. [35]


You're an idiot for marrying a guy you didn't even learn enough about. Don't blame all Poles for that.

Life / Is Lady Gaga popular in Poland? [47]


That's her way of doing money, don't get angry at her.

Language / Dzwoniono / Czytano [22]


What about the sentence "Dzwonił palcami o szkło"? Wouldn't "palcami" be a direct object?

Language / Dzwoniono / Czytano [22]

"Melodia była dzwoniona palcami o szkło."

To me this sounds a bit weird, but not incorrect. Hard to tell.

Language / Dzwoniono / Czytano [22]

Not really. It's a vastly different language at the end of the day.


Yes, I think so.

News / Warsaw is the natural capital of Europe, not Brussels [67]

Warsaw and Berlin, the two ugliest capitals in Europe. Not to mention, there's no highways that connect W-wa with Berlin, Prague, Bratislava etc. So no, W-wa should not be the capital of EU.

Off-Topic / im a true polish patriot [30]

I think he confused North Pole with Poland.

Language / The differences between these words: Oni plywaja / plyna / biegaja /biegna /chodza /ida [18]

Yeah, the difference between biegnąć and biegać is blurry and I often use them exchangeably.


I think the differences aren't as big as you make them out to be. Ultimately the same information is conveyed, the difference is that in Polish more information is conveyed in the infinitive form of the verb and the grammar tenses are streamlined.

UK, Ireland / Why are Polish people, especially women, so disrespectful toward the English? [437]


UK, without a doubt

History / Poland's biggest historical blunder? [341]


Germany was demilitarized. Also, communists had bigger support in Germany than in Poland. Yes, they would overrun Germany in no time.

Language / Polish verbs are confusing/I get many results when I look them up in an online dictionary [54]

It's difficult both ways, though I think learning English from Polish is easier simply because of abundance of textbooks and established teaching practices. The reverse is rather scarce from what I can gather and English speaking people attempting to learn Polish don't know where to start.

Though the best way to learn any language is just to read and listen to it a lot and absorb all the patterns (and then to practice it, eg. writing stuff on pointless message boards:)).

Language / Polish verbs are confusing/I get many results when I look them up in an online dictionary [54]


Well the reverse is also the case:
(to) match - łączyć
match - zapałka
match - mecz

to know - wiedzieć
to know - znać
etc.
OTOH:
zamek - zip
zamek - castle
Context is the king in such cases. Ambiguity comes either from not knowing the context or insufficient knowledge of the language.

Language / Polish verbs are confusing/I get many results when I look them up in an online dictionary [54]

German is actually very productive with prefixes. Though often prefixes change the meaning of the word entirely (eg. nehmen - to take, abnehmen - to subtract, to lose weight), which doesn't happen too often in Polish. Back to the 'skok' example, the prefixes are a nice way to discern different ways of executing the same activity (skok, przeskok, wyskok, odskok, doskok) that are always clear.

Language / Polish verbs are confusing/I get many results when I look them up in an online dictionary [54]


"-uje się nie kreskuje"
A rhyme used to teach children proper spelling. You don't put 'ó' in the ending -uje of conjugated verbs and similar -uj,-ujesz, -uję. So the correct form is spróbuj even if the infinitive form is "spróbować". Hope you don't mind :)

Language / Polish verbs are confusing/I get many results when I look them up in an online dictionary [54]


I think "suchy" isn't used in that context anymore. At least I haven't heard it in 7 or 8 years LOL

Language / Polish sayings [236]

My mother always says that someone hungry will come. :) "przyjdzie ktoś głodny"

Language / Use of A/An/The ...... Articles [186]

Shit gets confusing when you begin to learn foreign languages other than English, eg. Spanish or German. The rules are similar but not quite the same and in specific situations you are likely to forget in which language you should apply (or not) the necessary article.

Examples:
English - I am a student.
German - Ich bin Student.

English - Alexander the Great
Spanish - Alejandro Magno
etc.

It's a nightmare, especially since for me, a proud Slav, the concept of definite/indefinite articles is artificial, unnecessary and garbage.

/whining

Language / Use of A/An/The ...... Articles [186]

It's artificial since in Polish we don't use it at all and never miss its absence. So, yeah. Especially since in English you often skip the indefinite article in situations that you still use it in Spanish, which shows you that not using them may not use to ambiguities.

I know I'm ranting, it's an inherent part of Germanic/Romance languages and I need to accept it, but I get frustrated when I try to apply the same rules in German or Spanish as I do in English and often turn out wrong.

Language / Polish and other West Slavonic languages and "pozor vlak" :) [48]

'Panna' in Czech and Slovak has a different meaning than in Polish :)

Language / Does anyone feel that they are not normal for learning Polish? No Polish girlfriend etc. [12]

Why would you feel ashamed? You might feel ashamed for getting obese or drinking too much or being rude or wearing dirty cloths etc. but learning a foreign language? Hell no.

Language / Is this true about Polish pronunciation of English (that some words sound identical?) [34]

Learning vowels is almost always the most difficult of learning pronunciation of any foreign language, Polish has 8 vowels whereas French has 16 or 17 and I can't even hear the difference between many of them, let alone pronounce them correctly. English isn't as tricky, but still difficult.

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

albo blutuf. "Mam blutufa", "ten laptop nie ma bultufa" itp.

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

"łoki toki"


Well, we approximate English (foreign) words with the sounds we have in our language, injecting foreign sounds into daily conversations makes them a bit awkward. English native speakers do the same all the time.