Posts from October 2008

Verbs of Motion

Posted by Anna 10 Comments
Oct 16 2008

Polish verbs make me cry. And I don’t mean the tears of joy here, that’s for sure.

I’ve never thought about just how evil they can be until recently. I was working on a project, which demanded expert knowledge of verbs, Polish verbs, naturally, and that was a real eye-opener for me. I’ve never realized just how many problems they can cause for a sloppy Polish speaker, even a native one. And if a native gets confused, then what about those who are learning Polish?

To get some help, I’ve been plodding through “Polish Grammar in a Nutshell” by Oscar E. Swan, and needless to say, like most grammar books in the known universe, it also fails miserably when it comes to explaining the finer points of Polish verbs. (And I also think that it switched perfective and imperfective forms of “to buy,” so be careful.)

And it all started when someone very near and dear to me wanted to know the difference between “iść” and “chodzić.” Well, he also asked about “pójść” but we’ll leave that one for now.

Frankly, I have never thought about this phenomenon, but these two verbs of motions seem indicative of what happens to Polish verbs in general.

Both “iść” and “chodzić” mean “to go.” They’re both imperfective verbs. The difference is in how they’re used.

Let’s start with “iść”:

Meaning, going right now, I’m all dressed up, have my high-heels on, my make-up and hair are done, and I’m going.

And now with “chodzić”:

  • Tak, chodzę na randki. – Yeah, I go on dates. Says your teenager daughter to you while you watch her with a horrified expression. Like every weekend, for example, I go on dates.

See what happened? One verb is used to express an immediate action, and the other – a habitual thing that is done more or less regularly, but not right now.
There are tons of verbs like that in Polish, and sadly, you need to know both forms to make sense of what people are saying to you.

Let’s take another motion verb “to run” – “biec” and “biegać.”
Yep, you guessed it, the first one means “to run right now”, and the other one “to run.”

  • Biegnę na przystanek. – I am running to the bus stop (you may yell into your cell phone to a friend who’s waiting there for you.)
  • Biegam 5km każdego rana. – I run 5 kms every morning. (To which my answer is: good for you. You go run, and I’ll sleep.)

I think I should ease you into the world of verbs slowly, so we will stop here for now.

Below you have the present tense forms of “iść” and “chodzić” and “biec” and “biegać.”

  • ja – idę / chodzę
  • ty – idziesz /chodzisz
  • on/ona/ono – idzie / chodzi
  • my – idziemy /chodzimy
  • wy – idziecie / chodzicie
  • oni – idą / chodzą
  • ja – biegnę / biegam
  • ty – biegniesz / biegasz
  • on/ona/ono – biegnie / biega
  • my – biegniemy / biegamy
  • wy – biegniecie / biegacie
  • oni – biegną / biegają

I Have a Cold

Posted by Anna No Comments
Oct 12 2008

I have a cold. Or worse than a cold. It’s one of those evil afflictions that bangs your head sideways and removes it from the head hinges. I’ve been like that for a week now, and I suspect that by now I have a vicious case of flu.
No, I didn’t see a doctor, because all he/she will do is tell me to go home, drink plenty of fluids and rest. And that I can do all by myself, and at least that way I won’t be exposed to those even more horrific cases sitting in the waiting room at the clinic.

Last week Grażyna suggested me to try some traditional Polish cold remedies, but since I don’t know any, and the ones she told me about sounded particularly vile, I did nothing. Maybe that’s why now my cold is a full-blown flu? But c’mon now, would you really drink milk with garlic? Or warm dark beer? They’re supposed to make you feel better. No kidding! After you puke all that milk and garlic out, you will certainly feel better, I guarantee it. And of course you’ll feel better after downing a couple of pints of dark beer, duh! For better results why not just drink żubrówka instead?

I really don’t remember what my mother used to give me when I had a cold as a child. Vitamin C and some fizzy orange flavored drink. I refused to drink milk, so that was out. I refused to eat onions and garlic so that was out. And I didn’t really like hot tea with honey, either. My mom’s chicken soup was OK, but it wasn’t the kind of stuff that would make you feel better. Possibly the opposite.

So, what did I do? Stay home, sit in bed, watch TV, read books and generally get on everybody’s nerves. In other words, not much has changed. I still do exactly the same when I’m down with flu.

And if you ever find yourself sick in Poland, here are some useful words:

I will record the audio when I get my voice back. Now, if you excuse me, I am crawling back under the blankets. No milk with garlic for me, thanks. I’ll stick to orange juice, zinc and multivitamins.

Dear Sir/Madam

Posted by Anna 14 Comments
Oct 8 2008

Yesterday I got an email from somebody, and I just about fell over while reading it. Luckily, I was sitting on a bed.

The email began with the words “Szanowna Pani!” which would be something like “Dear Madam” but much more pompous. “Szanowna Pani” ??? People still use this expression? Even young people? Dang, I must be so out of the loop, it’s scary. I have never heard this phrase being used by anyone younger than, say 65 years old, and not wearing a suit. The guy who wrote the email was about my age (and I’m not THAT old yet) and he wasn’t even a total stranger. True, this was his first email to me, and it was about business, and he did try to make a good impression, but still… I thought he totally overdid it with this “Szanowna Pani” stuff. This is the kind of language I see on papers from the Tax Office (Urząd Skarbowy), not from somebody who’s my peer.

On the other hand, I can’t really blame him, Polish can be a very formal language, heck, Polish IS a very formal language. And people may take offense when they’re not addressed properly.

A few months ago I was out with a group of friends and strangers, foreigners and Poles. I chatted with one lady in English, turned out she was Polish, so I switched to Polish. Because in English, I addressed her as “you”, I didn’t even think twice about using the same form in Polish – “ty”. She was my age and we were in a foreign country. Yet, her response was an icy stare and an even icier “Ja z tobą krów nie pasałam” (I didn’t tend cows with you) which is a nasty warning to a person talking to you (me in this case) that he/she has breached the magical Pan/Pani barrier. Apparently, that means you’re only allowed to use “you/ty” to people with whom you were tending cows at some point in the past, or somesuch. I should have begun referring to that woman as “Szanowna Pani” for the rest of the evening, but unfortunately I totally forgot about this ancient phrase.

Somehow the male equivalent “Szanowny Panie” (Dear Sir) and the plural “Szanowni Państwo” are easier to stomach, it’s only that unfortunate “Szanowna Pani” that rubs me the wrong way. Maybe because it’s a sign I’m getting old? Dunno…

So, how do you maneuver this minefield of Polish courtesy expressions? I asked several people and got several answers. This is more or less the general consensus:

  • 1. If you don’t know someone, address them as Pan/Pani (Sir, Madam)
  • 2. If you know someone, address them as Pan/Pani
  • 3. If the person you’re addressing is much, much younger than you, then you’re safe using “ty” (you).

We could write volumes on this Pan/Pani/ty business, and you betcha it will be continued. And here imagine me winking.
;-)

You’re Welcome!

Posted by Anna 14 Comments
Oct 4 2008

Like I said in the comments to the previous post, it’s official, I have the best readers ever! Thank you so much for all your kind words, and even more – for your suggestions.

Today’s post is inspired by a comment made by Thomas in the post below. Remember his problems with finding the Polish equivalent to “you’re welcome”? I couldn’t believe what kind of nonsense he found in his dictionary, and so I decided to do some googling of my own and see what I could come up with.

While there are quite a few free on-line dictionaries (which in my opinion are a better choice than on-line translators), the one that I like the best is Ling.pl.
It’s not just one dictionary, what Ling does is to compile answers to a query from every source in its database. Or at least that’s how I think it works.
Knowing Polish is not really necessary to use the service. Just type a word in (use the Polish letters they show you if it’s a Polish word), hit enter and then waddle through the multitude of results. From what I’ve seen, Ling also includes definitions from the dictionary that Thomas had mentioned – Ectaco, which personally, I have found to be less than perfect, to put it gently. Very gently.

So how do we say “you’re welcome!” in Polish? There are a couple of ways to do it. Ling (if you have the patience to read through the definitions after you punch in “welcome” into the search box) gives these two:

Nie ma za co means something like “nothing to it” or “that’s nothing.”
Proszę bardzo is the same as “please.”

Both are used to answer when somebody’s thanking you, like this:

  • – Dziekuję bardzo! – Thank you so much!
  • – Nie ma za co. – You’re welcome! (audio)

Then I wanted to find out if one of these phrases was more popular than the other, and so yesterday, I got on the phone and called ten random businesses and administrative offices in Warsaw and beyond, and asked a bunch of idiotic (but still plausible questions). I wanted the people to spend some time on looking for an answer to give me a reason to thank them profusely and then listen to their responses. Apart from one very rude woman at a certain institution of higher learning in Warsaw, which because I’m such a great gal, shall remain nameless, who hung up on me almost immediately, everybody was extremely nice and helpful.

They patiently searched for a solution to my imaginary problem and when I finally showered them with a slew of “dziekuję bardzo”, five responded with “nie ma za co”, two said “proszę bardzo”, one said “nie ma sprawy” (no problem) and one – “z przyjemnością” (with pleasure).

So, the conclusions?
Poles are very conscientious when it comes to acknowledging somebody’s thanks and use a variety of expressions to do. And I definitely don’t like the Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities. Their loss, because I am seriously considering going back to school. For real.

On the other hand, the good ladies at the University of Warsaw were super patient and super polite. I spoke to two, one said “nie ma za co” and the other – “proszę bardzo”. So there you have it.

photo: urbanlegend

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