Genealogy / GITLER... is it Polish surname? [30]

but with a grandfather's name spelled Tadeusz? it's 100% Polish form (not some bastardized Russian or German Taddeus, Thadaeus or whatever).

Life / Punk and Garage scene in Poland [35]

anyway, budzin, I only have some vinyl albums/singles with punk music, so I won't help you much, but if you want some samples other bands of the Polish independent (as independent as it was possible under communism of course) rock scene from the early-mid 80s I could send you a few mp3 from the 4 following bands (when I have time to rip the CDs)

Brygada Kryzys
Siekiera (unfortunatelly I have only one CD, after their punk period)
Maanam (early Maanam, they later became more lyrical, less aggressive)
Klaus Mitffoch
it's a shame but I don't have more Polish music on CDs :(

Life / Punk and Garage scene in Poland [35]

from the 80's I should add first of all Armia, also a lesser band: TZN Xenna,

I already forgot 1984, but I never got the impression they played punk, and Brygada Kryzys wasn't "pure punk" either, mostly reggae
there waso als Śmierć Kliniczna, which rather played ska not punk (like The Clash in many songs).
I guess we have 2 definions of punk - a social movement (where most of the mentioned above bands belonged) and more strictly a rock music genre

Language / Dwa vs. dwie in Polish [85]


yes, although I'm not sure how correct the form "dwóch studentów" is, it's been a while since I left school :)

you can use it alternatively only in the function of a sentence subject (even the Dative case, though normally the subject appears in Nominative case, with some exceptions, for example when the predicate is the verb "brakować")

if you want to use it as other part of the sentence normal rules apply
and remember that the Genitive case (used as sentence subject), requires a verb in SINGULAR form.

Life / Wholesale beer prices in Poland [10]

I don't know the wholesale prices, but in retail the beers you mentioned cost about

2,50-2,80 PLN + 0,50 PLN for the bottle, unless you bring an empty one in exchange, but almost noone does, I have lots of empty bottles in my basement :)

it's a 0,5 litre bottle

there are also 0,66 l bottles priced at 3,00-4,00 PLN (no paying for the bottle itself, only applies to those 0,5 l)

Language / Dwa vs. dwie in Polish [85]

your mistake is not the dative case after "ku" (because it's the correct case), but the fact that noone in Poland (I mean native speakers) would say "jadę ku Warszawie", it's, like pointed out by others, "jadę do Warszawy"

Language / Dwa vs. dwie in Polish [85]


dwie - all feminine nouns (animate and objects)
dwie kobiety - two women
dwie dziewczynki - two girls
dwie ulice - two streets

dwa - masculin/neuter nouns (non-animate, or more precisely non-human, i.e. objects, ideas, animals etc.)
dwa dni / dwa psy - two days / two dogs (dzień / pies is masculin)
dwa okna - two widnows (okno is neuter)

dwaj - masculin nouns (human)
dwaj mężczyźni - two men
dwaj chłopcy - two boys
there's also an equivalent form with the word "dwóch" and it requires Genitive case, so
dwóch mężczyzn = dwaj mężczyźni - two men
dwóch chłopców = dwaj chłopcy - two boys

dwoje - neuter nouns (human) OR a mix of a man and woman
and it requires Genitive case
dwoje dzieci - two kids
dwoje studentów - two students (one male, other female)
while dwaj studenci/dwóch studentów - means both students are male

if Genitive case is required, then we use the verb in SINGULAR form:

dwaj studenci jadą do Barcelony (two students go to Barcelona), BUT
dwóch/dwoje studentów jedzie do Barcelony

same rules apply for:
trzy/cztery (dwie/dwa), trzej/czterej (dwaj) troje/czworo (dwoje), trzech/czterech (dwóch)

some irregularities:
dwoje drzwi/skrzypiec/spodni - two doors/violins/two (pairs) of trousers (should be dwa, but all those nouns in Polish are Pluralia Tantum, i.e. they exist only in Plural form - like English scissors, trousers, I think - hence they require a special treatment to underline they plurality)

special expressions:
trojga imion (of three names), dwojga nazwisk (of two surnames) - regulary it should trzech/dwóch (non-human nouns), but it's an older way of saying, which survived

"both" is translated into Polish:
obie (rules like for "dwie")
obaj (rules like for "dwaj")
oboje (rules like for "dwoje")

and some more forms with Genetive case, but I rest my case here, too much grammar for one time :)

Life / Polish ghost stories [38]

It may be a valid point, Polish cinema industry was controlled and financed by the state until the late eighties, so you couldn't get funds for any stupid movie you wanted to make, and the writers/directors had to be careful in their choices otherwise they wouldn't get any money for the movie. And escapist genres (like horror/thriller) were looked upon as inferior, the only exception were silly comedies :)

So I can name a few Polish movies that deal with ghosts or other supernatural forces, but those forces are usually only a starting point, and the authors focus on more serious aspects.

There's a great classic fantasy/mystery movie from 1965 "Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie" by Wojciech Has (based upon the novel of Jan Potocki written at the beginning of the 19th century) - you have all there: cabalists, magic, ghosts, reincarnation etc.

Matka Joanna od aniołów (Mother Joan of the Angels, by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1961, based upon the story of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, dealing with the famous devil possession of a monastery at Louden, France)

Roman Polański made at least several movies with ghosts or other supernatural beings somehow featured, but all were filmed after he left Poland:
The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) - comedy
Rosemary's Baby (1968) - devil possession
Le locataire (The Tenant, 1976) - possession by or obsession about a dead person
The Ninth Gate (1989) - conjuring Satan
you can even add The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971) since there are witches etc.
Some of Krzysztof Kieślowski's films (La double vie de Veronique, 1991, some episodes of The Decalogue, 1989) were dealing with the Supernatural, too.

and lower quality cinema:
I saw a Polish movie from 1967 "Duch z Canterville" (based upon 'The Canterville Ghost' by Oscar Wilde)
I also watched a mystery movie "Medium" (1985) which was about a murder committed 50 years earlier and reenacted by some other people who were controlled by the spirits of the persons involved in the actual crime.

We had also a tv series in the 60's "Wakacje z duchami" (Holidays with ghosts), but it was for kids/teens and all those spooky things turned out to be something else, not supernatural, so I guess I can't clssify this series as a ghost movie.

that's what I can remember atm, I guess there must be more, but generally Polish cinema has always been more obsessed about the contemporary problems, first because of the communism regime, later because of the painful transition from a dictatorship and state owned economy to the democracy and free market with all funny/scary phenomena that accompany this process.

As far as talking with friends about spooky things, we did it (especially at night during holidays camps in the forest) when I was a teen. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves etc. aren't alien to Polish culture, but not prominent either.

Life / Polish Nursery Rhymes [243]


that's not quite right, it's a diminuitive of "nieborak"

from PWN lexicon:
nieborak «ze współczuciem o człowieku lub zwierzęciu»
so it's someone/something poor, unhappy, unlcky
poor soul/thing

Life / Famous Polish people (that we have actually heard of) [224]

Yeah, I didn't like my post, but I can't edit it now, I realized after a while I had posted something not quite relevant to the discussion. Sorry for that.

Anyway, I wasn't referring only to the real soldiers, as "unknown soldier" I meant anyone who had some great achievements that created the necessary basis for the future but remained close to anonymous, because someone else had the "finishing touch" (for example like those Enigma crackers, whose work was overtaken by the British when the war in Poland was inevitable).

Food / Polish head cheese [46]

damn, I'm really not into discussing such disgusting things, so it's my last post on the topic :)

but it looks like you got several Polish dishes mixed up in your memory, because there's actually another dish made of frozen pigs leg meat in gelatin, it has different names, in my area (between Warsaw and £ódź) it's usually called "zimne nóżki" or sometimes "nóżki w galarecie", but in the western parts of Poland I heard a different name, I just forgot it.

Food / Polish head cheese [46]

1/ what the heck is "head cheese" ? I thought cheese is made from milk :)


- maybe czernina (pronounced like "charnina" - but it's a duck blood soup,
other yucky food - vegetarian here :) - I can think of is "salceson" made of pigs head

btw, pigs head meat is Głowizna like Osiedle_Ruda said

Life / Famous Polish people (that we have actually heard of) [224]

This discussion so reminds me of the one in Seksmisja ("Marie Curie-Sklodowska was a man!").
But seriously, "famous" is such a misleading word, you can be famous by doing something really bad (Hitler, Stalin) or nothing worthy (Britney Spears), and remain virtually unknown to the wide masses despite of doing some great things in your area of expertise, it's all up to the (in the widest meaning of the word) "pubblicity" you get, and Poland usually didn't get much exposure.

for me an "unknown soldier" is more famous than Michael Jackson, for the world it's viceversa

Life / Price of cigarettes in Poland? [192]

Only a person who is 17 yrs (the exact birthday date decides) or older may bring alcohol and tobacco products to/from Poland.

if you want to bring something from Poland to another EU country, you must check this country's regulations.

strazgraniczna.pl/faq#q16
If coming TO Poland from an EU country, you can bring with you:
800 cigarettes;

Food / Your favourite Polish foods! [180]


Polish diary produecers:
blue cheese - Rokpol or Lazur are decent (IMHO),
Brie and Camembert - usually suck, only Turek (a company) make some that I could eat, but they're not as good as French cheese of course, but I suggest you to avoid most of those types, even if the company/brand name sounds French (it's usually some Polish or German company selling their stuff with more catchy names)

and there's always the yummy, white fresh cheese (twaróg) :)

Language / Use of Kochanie in Polish [37]

yes, it could be that way, like almost anything depending on context and interpersonal relations, but both persons involved in such case should know/feel that the word shouldn't by taken literally, that there's another meaning to it (for example "Kochanie moje" said by a man to a woman, more seldom viceversa, but also possible, both more or less the same age, the speaking person older than the other, and it should be said with a little changed intonation, no so affectedly, would be simply patronising - the way you could address your kid who just did something bad/stupid.) Otherwise, without all this "extraverbal" extenuating circumstances, so in 99.99% cases, it's simply "my sweetheart/ my love"


For me it would be acceptable between women, as at least some of them have a tendency to use slighty more affected language, but in a mam-man or man-woman conversation, rather not.

But as I read in other thread (about the word "pig"), someone's gf calls him "often baranie" and it's OK, while in almost any other cases it would be, more or less, but definitely offending.

So you may alter the socially accepted meaning of many words, but both parts must know the rules of this "game", which I guess is identical both in Polish and in other languages/cultures.