Language / Polish word "Dom" and its similarities in different languages [46]


'Domagać' has no connection with 'dom'. It's a prefixed word: do-magać. The '-magać' part comes from 'móc' which means 'might'.
(like: zmagać, wymagać, pomagać etc.)

Cinek

Language / Pronunciation of ę and ą? [4]


Havy you tried ivona.com? Just let her say some words with those letters, it sounds very good and natural. Cinek

Language / Tego/Jego [15]


No, in Polish it works tha same way as in Russian.

Cinek

Language / "TO" or "ONO" / "i je je"? [20]


Exactly:

it = ono

M ono
D jego/go/niego
C jemu/mu/niemu
B je <- here's yours (on old language it was also 'ono' like in the popular carol ("...I Józef święty ono pielęgnuje...")

N nim
Mc nim

Cinek

Language / Polish - Absolute Beginner Questions. Study plan. [75]


I think this will only work when you are exposed on the language all the time, e.g. living in Poland or at least having someone to listen and talk to everyday. It won't work when you wan to learn by yourself from books or movies only (which, as I understand, is Naomi's case).

Cinek

Language / Polish - Absolute Beginner Questions. Study plan. [75]


Try this one:
youtube.com/watch?v=10CPM3j5VqI

Language / Polish - Absolute Beginner Questions. Study plan. [75]


I don't know Sanskrit and what I wrote was only what I read somewhere. Here are some more examples I found here
https://books.google.pl/books?id=McB_3UZ4YlIC&pg=PA773&lpg=PA773&dq=polish+to+sanskrit&source=bl&ots=Jnb41XSorK&sig=29gnLJM92xNbj8-wVpquG06sha8&hl=pl&ei=O5Z2Td_0K83XsgbWlZHBCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result#v=onepage&q=polish%20to%20sanskrit&f=false

bhrata - brat
bać się - bhayate
czynić - cinoti
dawać - dadati
drzeć - drti
iść - eti
kaszleć - kasati
lubić - lubhyati
pić - pibati
pisać - pisati
pływać - plavayati
siedzieć - sadayati
szyć - siviati
świecić - svetia
uczyć - ucyati
umierać - marate
etc.

If these are real Sanskrit words (let Naomi confirm), don't they look similar?

Cinek

Language / Polish - Absolute Beginner Questions. Study plan. [75]


Suprisingly, it may help you in learning Polish :-) Both Polish and Sanskrit are so called 'satem' languages (a subgroup of inde-european langs) and have many similar features. Also some vocabulary may be suprisingly similar.

Cinek

Language / Polish - Absolute Beginner Questions. Study plan. [75]


I suspect in most cases you won't even be able to find the word in the dictionary if you don't know how to make the primary(dictionary) form of a word from the inflected one you'll see in the literature. This is why you really need at least some grammar before you start reading anything.

Cinek

Language / Diminutives (zdrobnienie) for Sylwia [12]


My wife's name is Sylwia. I hate calling them "Sylwka", like some people do. It sounds a little weird to me. Anyways, may depend on one's personal taste.

I use sometimes "Sylwiątko".

Cinek

Language / An email translated from Polish to English using translator [24]


Not necessarily. The sentence reads: "Pan, który..." which suggests the meaning like; "a man, who...". The capital 'P' looks like a spelling mistake in this context.

Cinek

Language / spojrzenie, podejmowac - correct word usage [15]

In English 'to be' can be used in both imperfective (was being) and perfective (has been, was) sentences. In Polish 'być' can be only imperfective. So, we need some different means to express the perfective 'to be' and we use 'zostać' to do that. This is why 'zostały' can be translated as 'was' e.g.:

it is done - to jest zrobione
it has been done - to zostało zrobione

The letter is written in English - List jest napisany po angielsku.
The letter was (or has been) written in English - List został napisany po angielsku.

In the last example above you could also say 'List był napisany po angielsku' but only in sentences like:

When I saw it, it was written in English (so why is it in Chineese now?). - gdy go zobaczyłem, był napisany po angielsku (więc dlaczego teraz jest po chińsku?)

Whether to use 'był' or 'został' depends much on the context. If you want to indicate that something just happened in the past and is finished now you use 'został'. If you want to express that something was happening when something else happened you use 'był'.

I hope I made it a little more clear now.

Cinek

Language / correct word for 'leave' or 'leaving' [5]


Shoudn't be "pozostawać" ?

How much left? Ile (po)zostało?

Cinek

Language / Napić się kieliszek koniaku [25]


I would not use 'kielich' at all. It sounds old-fasioned. Use 'kieliszek' instead.
But in general yes, I'd use 'kieliszek' and 'kieliszka' in the way I wrote.

Edit

One could use 'kielicha' instead of 'kieliszka' in sentences like:
"walniemy kielicha?" or "strzelimy po kielichu?", but in general,
"kielich" is used mostly in some fixed expressions like "kielich goryczy" or "kielich kwiatowy" etc.

Cinek

Language / Napić się kieliszek koniaku [25]


This is very common in Polish, and it's not changing the case (both are biernik) but the gender. When you use the masc. inanimate declension pattern you get 'kieliszek' (like kogo? co? stół, obraz, dom etc.) while when you use the masc. animate (or presonal) pattern you get 'kieliszka' (like kogo? co? chłopca, psa etc.).

This is a common phenomenon in Polish language. Peaople often make inanimate things animate to express some kind of personal attitude to it or to behavoiur related to it or to make the sentence sound more friendly or funny.

So in this case:
"Napijesz się kieliszek?" means "would you like to drink?"
while
"Napijeszc sie kielicha?" means something like "do you want some of my good stuff? come on, let's have some good time"

Cinek

Language / Is My Painting Title Correct In Polish? [23]


Let me put my 2 cents in. I think 'piosenka' may be not a good word for such big event. I'd use 'pieśń' instead. 'Piosenka' is a diminutive of 'pieśń' and usually means a small piece of music (e.g a pop song, folk song etc.). For bigger and more 'artistic' forms we use 'pieśń' (e.g. for Chopin's songs we'd never say 'piosenka' but always 'pieśń').

So in my opinion '600-letnia pieśń' sounds better here.

Cinek.

Life / $3,000-$4,000 a month - would we have enough money to live in Poland? [273]

Dont worry at all. Gdynia is not a small village, it's a civilised place and 3000$ is more than enough to rent a flat and live at quite good level.

Cinek

Language / Grammar help; Dokąd? and Gdzie? [19]


I think not. In proper Polish only 'dokąd' is used for motion. It indicates the target, while 'gdzie' indicates the place of the action. Eg.:

Dokąd idziesz? Do domu. Where are you going to? I'm going home.
Gdzie idziesz? Na ulicy. Where are you going (walking)? In a street.

Unfortunately, most Poles would understand 'gdzie idziesz' as 'where are you going to'


Cinek

Language / cookery, word usage question [19]


Eng 'pie' is often translated as 'ciastko' or 'ciasto' (sometimes 'placek'), however the problem is that the meaning of 'pie' is wider then the above Polish words. First of all, those Polish words are only used for pies that are sweet, so we can say that Polish 'ciasto' (or ciastko) can be understood as 'sweet pie'. But what about all 'non-sweet pies' (like the mentioned shepherds pie)? There's no single word to word translation of them. I'm afraid, that in may cases there's no such translation at all, and you must use some descriptive name instead.

I think the most usable word could be 'zapiekanka' which indicates all kinds of hot and usually non-sweet dishes made of many different ingridients.

The problem with translating names exists between all languages, mostly because food recipes ara as much local (or even more) as the languages. So what has been developed in one area is not known (and therefore not named) in the other.

Cinek

Language / Correct usage for 'going' in Polish [25]


'Przyjdę' can be used when they are already there and I'm going to join them there.
Though, 'Przyjde do was' would be better here.

Cinek

Language / Differences in Polish and English idioms [69]

Chineese (Dla mnie to chińszczyzna)

Cinek

Study / Opinions about '2 weeks intensive Polish course' [26]


I have no experiance in such courses, but it sounds very suspicious. 2 weeks is definitely too short to learn anything.

Cinek

Language / Polish guitar chords translated to English [13]


To be precize:

Eng. B = Pol. H
Eng Bb = Pol. Bb

Writing in Polish just 'B' is incorrect. It should be 'Bb' (B flat).

Cinek

Language / Word "K"? [4]

Very seldom used theese days. We just say 'do (tego)'.

Cinek

Language / jesc/zjesc and possible english translations for the imperfective/perfective [30]



But it wasn't me who started the discussion whether your sentence is understood, acceptable, polite etc. We (native speakers) just told how to say it properly.


Yes, I agree. At your level too many grammar details won't help. But it doesn't mean that you may speak improper grammar when you are told how to speak proper one.

Cinek

Language / jesc/zjesc and possible english translations for the imperfective/perfective [30]



Chaza,I really don't understand your point. Why are you blaming us for telling you how to speak proper Polish? What do you want from us then? Should we say "Chaza, your Polish is almost perfect and don't worry about such details like grammar, and we'll do our best to understand you and won't let you feel unfair" ?

Of course, your sentence would be understood by most people and gumishu explained you why. But still, it's gramatically incorrect. Telling you that it's acceptable is a way to nowhere, because you'll never learn speaking proper Polish.

Sorry for being harsh, but you were given so many good advices on this forum but you're still like a guy who want's to learn swimming by reading books. Man, throw your theories away and jump into it :-)

Cinek

Language / ów its meaning [11]

No! 'Ów' can be used in meaning 'that one', and it doesn't mean 'że'!!!
E.g.:

That man was looking at me:
Tamten człowiek patrzył na mnie.
or
Ów człowiek patrzył na mnie (that man (the one I was mentioning earlier) was looking at me)

BUT:

He said that he comes tomorrow.
Powiedział, że przyjdzie jutro.
BUT NEVER: !!!!!! Powiedział, ów przyjdzie jutro. !!!!!!! IT'S WRONG!!!!!!

Cinek

Language / difference in usypiac [9]


I've never heard it. It must by a regional form. But you're right that 'uspić' sometimes sounds bad.
We use 'położyć kogoś spać' in such cases instead.

Cinek

Language / How can I tell which conjugation group a verb ending in ~eć belongs to? [18]


A co to? Chyba 'pomocniczym' lub 'posiłkowym'.


They are stressed exactly the same way as other vowels. The 'unnaturality' you're mentioning is when one is trying to pronounce them too perfectly, especially 'ę' at the end of words (which tends to be pronounced almost 'e'). You must just not to focus on them too much and they'll sound properly.

And leave stress when it should be (usually on the penultimate syllable) :-)

Cinek

Language / difference in usypiac [9]

Both are imperfective.

'Zasypiać' means 'to fall asleep' and is intransitive (you are the one who is falling asleep). The perfective counterpart is 'zasnąć' or 'usnąć' (like in the example someone told you).

'Usypiać' means 'to make someone to sleep' and is transitive (someone else is the one who is falling asleep). The prefective counterpart is 'uśpić'

So in your example 'usnąłem' (or 'zasnąłem') means I fell asleep and it's 1st sing. past of perf. usnąć (or 'zasnąć' resp.), however, 'zasnąć' is used more often.

Cinek