Negation in Polish sentences

Hello I am teaching myself Polish from a textbook. I've come across sentences in the negation lesson that I just can't figure out.

Could someone help me with these sentences?

1. Nic nie wiem, on o tym nigdy nic nie mowi. (this sentence is very confusing to me!)
2. On nigdy na nic nie ma czasu. (He never has time for anything. Is this correct?)
3. Komu Staszek o tym mówił? (Who did Staszek speak to about it. correct?)
4. Temu dziecku nikt nigdy niczym nie pomoga. (No one ever helps that child with anything. Correct?)
5. O czym dziadek dzieciom opowiadał? (Did the grandfather tell the child something? Is this correct?)
6. Ta nauczycielka nie uczy żadnego z naszych dzieci.
7. Ktoś mi coś mówił o tych dzieciach. (Someone told me something about those kids. correct?)
8. Może one wiedzą o kimś, kto wraca do Krakowa.

Any help appreciated.

What book do you have? Sometimes there is a teachers book with the answers
There is double negation in Polish which is still a negative.

Never did I not help her means I always helped her in the english langauge while in Polish it means I never helped her. I am not an expert but I hope you get the idea.

The book is an out of print Teach Yourself Polish by M Corbridge-Patkaniowska 1964. Incase anyone wants to know.
It is a very good book. The newer books are usually pretty bad.

Welcome to the double/triple/quadriple negation.
In Polish it's possible to negate a few elements of a sentence and it's still negation, just as Catsoldier says.
Just treat any number of negations as if it were a single one.
It's not maths and two minuses don't change into a plus (in English they do).


I know nothing, he never says anything about it.

See, in English it's possible to say:
I know nothing
or I don't know anything.
It's either-or.
In Polish it's both:
I don't know nothing.

The same with the second part of this sentence:
He never says anything about it, or: He doesn't ever say anything about it, or: He says nothing about it.
If you combine the three, you'll get: He never doesn't say nothing about it. That's exactly the Polish sentence (three negative elements).


all correct


What did the grandfather tell the kids about?


This teacher doesn't teach any of our children.


yes


Maybe they know something about somebody who's coming/going back to Kraków (the meaning is more like: Maybe they heard of somebody who's coming/going back to Kraków).

twww189: 8. Może one wiedzą o kimś, kto wraca do Krakowa.

Maybe they know of someone who is returning to Krakow?

I just could not stop myself from quoting this fine piece about double negation from Stanisław Lem, Cyberiada - Jak Ocalał Świat, How the World was Saved:


polonica.ru/node/280

But here's the third order: Machine! Do Nothing!
Machine did not move at all for a long time. Klapaucjusz began rubbing his hands with satisfaction, but Trurl said:
- What do you mean? You told her not to do anything, so she is not doing anything!
- Not true. I told her to do Nothing, and that is something else.
- Something too! To do Nothing and nothing to do - are the same thing.
- Not at all! She supposed to do Nothing, and yet she has not done anything, so I won. Nothing in fact, my buddy smart alec, is not such a mere nothing, a product of laziness and non-activity, but it is open and active Nothingness, it is the perfect, the ubiquitous and the highest Nonbeing in its own person!

- Stop bothering the Machine! - cried Trurl, but suddenly a bronze voice was heard:
- Stop arguing in such a moment! I know what is Nonbeing, Nothingness, which is Nothing, because these things belong to the key letter n, as being Non-existent. You better take a look at the world for the last time, because soon it will not exist ...


- Rendered by Michael Kandel

Thank You strzyga!
Very good explanations. I think I understand now. :)

Strzyga, great explanation. However, yes, you can make the same expression in English, well a version of it, ebonics or redneck, pick yo' flavr
Nic nie wiem, on o tym nigdy nic nie mowi

Now, close your eyes and imagine 50 cent translating this sentence for you. It'd be something like:

I no' nothin', he ain't never said nothin'

Means exactly the same. You're welcome :-)

I've posted this before but here's it is again, Ebonics lesson just for you.. :-)

youtube.com/watch?v=oyxYjl-KR5I

yeah, that's a great story, the whole Klapaucjusz and Trurl series is so much fun and fantastic creative language.
Is the first part of it your translation?
Lem is tricky to translate. There are good translations of his books into German though, there was an Austrian translator who did most of his books and he loved her work. He had no such luck with English, though I quite like the fragment you quoted.

Wow, first time I've read it in Polish. Somewhat (sadly) ironic...

I know, I just don't feel I'm fluent enough in ebonics to give examples on my own. But your translation looks about perfect :)


charming :) thanks again

Yes, and poorly done too, I realize. I did not have anything already translated at hand, so I patched it quickly.


We once talked a bit about Douglas R. Hofstadter. In his book "Le Ton bon de Marot" he played a bit with translation of the Lem's "How the world was saved" because he was intrigued by absurdity of the premise of the story, leading to "both a philosophical and linguistic joke".

He says: "I had been told that the English translations by Michael Kandel were brilliant beyond description. (...) I wanted to read it, but on the other hand, I didn't want to read Kandel's translation of it (which I easily found in print), since I thought that translating it would be an interesting challenge, and I didn't want to plant any ideas in my own mind"

Here is a fragment of his translation, which you can directly compare with the Kandel's one I quoted before:


He then compares it with a rendition of his Polish friend Marek £ugowski, who curiously extended the capability of the Machine to making s-things, in addition to n-things. But that's entirely different topic, and I may type it in later in a separate thread, if you wish.

Well, Lem was part of our growing up educational process, and his books were readily available in Polish. But buying anything foreign was practically beyond means of an average student those days. And yes, some hidden anti-communist messages were suspected to be buried in Lem's prose too, so we saw them everywhere... :-)