Help with homework (Polish language learning) (Hurra! Po Polsku - Level 1)

I hope someone can help me, I'm learning Polish (only 6 weeks in at City Lit College in London). I'm trying to tackle a piece of homework for class tomorrow but I simply don't understand it.

I'm really sorry if my understanding is rubbish and I'm not the quickest learner (I do feel kind of stupid right now).
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But I'm doing exercise 12b on page 48.

We've started learning about conjugating verbs (cytać/jesć/wiedzieć/mówić/lubić/chodzić/uczyć się/chcieć/pisać/moć/pracować) which I am still trying to get used to in basic forms let along in the conjugated forms.

I'm finding it somewhat difficult to conjugate the verbs...

For example...

On często .................... telewizję (oglądać)
Which I think means "he often watches television".

However I do not know how to conjegate the word "oglądać" properly to make the sentence work correctly.

Normally On/Ona (he/she) has the last letter off of it "mówić" become "mówi" when it is in the context of on/ona. But I know this isn't always the case. So would I be correct in thinking oglądać becomes ogląda??? But when I google it that doesn't seem to be right either.

Can someone give me some help/tips/information on how to nail this. I'm really struggling and I'm getting really stressed about it.

i think that is correct. It sounds good to me.....

Ogląda is correct. You are probably doing better than you think. Just do it as you think is right and you will check it tomorrow at school. After all the purpose of homework is to practice not to get everything perfect.

Good luck :)

Dear Learner!

Polish conjugations can look insanely hard at first, but you've simply got to memorize by rote EACH new verb you learn from which ever "verb class" to which it belongs:-)

"Oglądać", for instance, ALWAYS has '-am, '-asz', '-a' in the singular, whereas "mówić" ALWAYS has '-ę', -'isz', '-i' in the singular. As soon as you even casually encounter a verb which you've never seen, note down its conjugation, for assuming in a language such as Polish is generally a poor idea.

The rules are numerous and surely too lengthy to condense into even a single post, space (and concentration) limitations withstanding.

The ol' "fluency" vs. "accuracy" argument rears her head again, eh?

Well, Lenko, my feeling remains that it's fine and good to want to "feel" a language etc.. , in some sort of '60's kumbaya-type atmosphere, sitting around a bong and getting gently high on life. However, all the feeling and even positive enjoyment in the world (not that I'm knocking that, by the way!) can never truly replace old-fashioned, solid study of the basics:-)

Sure, your way is great for all of us enjoying the feeling of speaking a foreign language, however, for me, I'd prefer to sound a little naturally halting at first, and yet enjoy getting it right, instead of sounding like an eternal illiterate, feeling their way around verb tenses, (did I utter that four-letter word G-R-A-M-M-A-R - horrors??!), merrily, unconsciously making an ass out of myself in the process!!

It is still possible as well as preferable to sound casual, intelligent, yes even, correct, in another language, while not sounding boorish or vulgar either.

I'm a language teacher myself and I'm all for mnemonic devices, games, songs, puzzles and the like in order to make learning "fun". Truth is though, sometimes learning ISN'T fun, it's hard work and adults learning a language such as Polish, German, Russian, Finnish... need a fundamental structure to their learning.

On the other hand, whatever floats your boat!

Besides the usual resources on the 'net for looking up conjugations and declensions like pl.wiktionary.org or sjp.pwn.pl, I find the book "301 polish verbs" very helpful, esp. in explaining the use of aspect dokonany vs. niedokonany (in this case: when to use oglądać and when to use obejrzeć).

btw., there is also this "official" słownik: wsjp.pl/ and here I found something I could not decipher: what is the difference between oglądać and oglądnąć? or - unrelated: biegać vs. biegnąć? Those -nąć forms seem to be very rarely used (13.000 hits on oglądnę vs. 13 million for oglądam), but they are used. My friend and part time teacher, a polish native, has no idea. Any takers?

Verbs with "-nąc" are typically perfective, those ending with "i"/"ywać", are typically imperfective.

Dont' know if that particular rule of thumb is helpful, but it might be a departure point:-)

oglądnąć is not proper Polish (can be considered slang) - but it is formed regularly - many perfective (dokonany) forms are formed by adding a -nąć suffix to the root of the verb (rąbnąć, palnąć, krzyknąć, klepnąć) - (the proper perfective form of oglądać is obejrzeć - different root here - like in the case of brać-wziąć)

-nąć suffix does not always indicate perfective aspect though - as in the case of biegać- biegnąć (similarly pływać-płynąć) - biegać is a frequentative of biec (or biegnąć) (frequentative means that the action is repeated) - biegnąć (or biec) means to be running - on biegnie - he is running - on dużo biega - he runs a lot (repeated action)

oglądnąć is not "slang", it's regional variant (of obejrzeć).

About "feel"- your "hunch" can come froem hearing the word before. If you don't have any tables take a look here

popolskupopolsce.edu.pl/pogotowie-jezykowe
it's in Polish, but the tables can help 1. is conjugation of verbs in present tense . they suggest you learn forms for "ja" and "ty" and you can use tables from there.

That's good advice!

There's such an arsenal of grammar, even to make basic Polish sentences, that one just can't "wing it" as one can in English and hope for the best:-)