Posts from January 2010

Verbs Expressing Feelings and the Nouns that Follow Them

Posted by Anna No Comments
Jan 31 2010

So, what were we talking about last time? Ah yes, verbs that express emotions. You know, stuff like love (kochać), hate (nienawidzieć), like (lubić), dislike (nie lubić), etc.

In English, it’s simple, whether you like or don’t like someone (or something), the noun that follows the verb expressing your feeling doesn’t change.
I like winter. I hate winter.
“Winter” stays “winter” no matter what.

As you’ve probably figured out by now, this is not how it works in Polish. Well, nothing is ever simple and straightforward in Polish. It wouldn’t be Polish otherwise.

Remember when we talked about these two cases: dopełniacz (genitive) and biernik (accusative)? No? Then now it’s the time to look up those blog posts (I wrote about those cases in the past) and refresh your memory. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

OK, I see you’re back. Good! We can move on to the fun bits now.

So, this is how those winter (zima) sentences would look like in Polish.

  • Lubię zimę. – I like winter
  • Nienawidzę zimy. – I hate winter.

See what happened to “zima”? Yes… Your worst fears have been confirmed. We have two different cases here.

In “Lubię zimę” we have the accusative case – biernik, which answers to these questions: “kogo?” and “co?”.
“Lubię kogo” – when talking about people. Or “Lubię co” – when talking about everything else.

In “Nienawidzę zimy” we have the genitive case – dopełniacz, which answers to these questions: “kogo?” and “czego?”.
“Nienawidzę kogo” – when talking about people. Or “Nienawidzę czego” – when talking about everything else.

Yes, you are right – in both of these examples, the “kogo?” question when talking about humans is the same. But that doesn’t actually mean that the noun will stay the same. Not so! (And what did you think, huh?)

For example:

  • Lubię Kasię (or Anię, if you want to talk about me behind my back) – I like Kasia (Ania).

and

  • Nienawidzę Kasi (Ani) – I hate Kasia (Ania).

Luckily, this is only the issue with feminine humans. Masculine humans stay the same.

  • Lubię Pawła – I like Paweł.
  • Nienawidzę Pawła – I hate Paweł (Paweł, it’s nothing personal, it’s just an example, OK?)

Incidentally, when talking about space aliens in Polish, treat them as humans (at least grammatically), even though they are very clearly not.

So, basically, this is the drill:
If you have positive feelings towards someone or something, use biernik (accusative).
If you have negative feelings towards someone or something, it’s time to use dopełniacz (genitive).

Hey! What happened to you? Wake up! Wake up!!!

On Disliking Winter – Verbs Expressing Emotions

Posted by Anna No Comments
Jan 28 2010

So, in the last post, our guest blogger – Ms. Anglopole was telling us just how lovely and picturesque polskie zimy (Polish winters) can be.

Now, I don’t know about lovely, but they sure are picturesque. Even if you’re not a fan of cold weather (like me), you have to admit that śnieg (snow) looks very pretty. It covers all those ugly, unsightly things and makes even the dirtiest city appear fresh and clean. Of course, that lasts for only about five minutes until the snow turns grey and yellow. And slushy. Yeah, nie znoszę zimy! – I can’t stand winter.

But what was it we were talking about? Ah yes, pretty and picturesque.

There are people out there who don’t mind bundling up and going out with a camera to take photos, even in the dead of winter. One such person is the lovely young lady who runs the City Toruń Daily Photo blog.

Kasia kocha (loves) Toruń, it’s her home town, and being the tough Polish woman that she is, she odważnie (bravely) went out in the cold and took some wintry shots.

So, go take a look at them while the snow is still biały i puszysty (white and fluffy)!

And since we are talking a lot about disliking and hating winter, I thought I might as well include those verbs for your learning pleasure:

  • lubić – to like
  • nie lubić – to dislike
  • kochać – to love
  • nienawidzieć – to hate
  • nie znosić, nie cierpieć – can’t stand (something), to resent, to dislike, but more powerful than “nie lubić”.

We’ll talk about nouns (yes, it’s declension time again – how fun!) that follow these verbs in the next post.

Guest Post – Evil Winter! (“Zima Zła”)

Posted by Anna 6 Comments
Jan 25 2010

Today we have a new guest post by a new guest blogger – Ms. Anglopole.
Ms. Anglopole is Polish but lives with her husband and kids in the UK. She blogs about her Anglopolish life at Anglopole’s Ponglish World.

OK, Ms. Anglopole, the floor (or rather – the blog) is yours today! Take it away.

A few weeks before Christmas the British media treated us with scary news: there would be heavy snowfalls (opady śniegu) practically everywhere in the British Isles! Yeah, yeah, you’ve guessed right – for most immigrants (emigranci) from the Central and Eastern Europe this news was far from frightening, and actually, the omnipresent British ‘snow panic’ was getting to be really annoying.

Surprisingly the weather forecast (prognoza pogody) was correct on that occasion and we actually had a month of real winter, which reminded me of Polish winters (polskie zimy) and how harsh they can be. I am sure many of my countrymen living in the UK welcomed the freezing temperatures (mrozy), blizzards (zamiecie), snowdrifts (zaspy śnieżne) and picture postcard landscapes (krajobrazy jak z obrazka) as a reminder of Poland in winter. Those homesick for our homeland have felt more at home in the UK this winter, that’s for sure.


I am not a great fan of cold winters and so the ‘big freeze’ we experienced last year and at the beginning of 2010, for me personally, was more of a survival camp (obóz przetrwania) than anything else.

First of all, the fact that nothing whatsoever was done to clear the local roads and pavements (sidewalks) from snow was a major hazard (zagrożenie) for anyone venturing out of their house. On those snowy days I couldn’t stop thinking about winter tyres (opony zimowe) which are a necessity (konieczność) in Poland and here are rather uncommon.

Also I so wished I had a shovel (szufla) to clear the snow at least around our house. To transport the kids around people needed sleds (sanie) and we got one as well. Ironically, on the day a friend of ours gave us a sled for our children, the snow began to thaw (topnieć) and it hasn’t snowed again since. The white blankets covering the fields have disappeared and all the snowmen (bałwany) built by excited kids have melted away (roztopiły się).

At the moment, the winter here is more or less as it usually is in the UK – rainy (deszczowa, yes, “deszczowa”, because in Polish “winter” – “zima” is a feminine noun), windy (wietrzna) and chilly (chłodna). I am relieved, frankly speaking. I also feel for all my friends back in Poland as winter there seems to be truly Siberian and can be described nicely by this paragraph from Maria Konopnicka’s poem ‘Zła Zima’ (Evil Winter):

“Hu! Hu! Ha! Nasza zima zła!
Szczypie w nosy, szczypie w uszy
Mroźnym śniegiem w oczy prószy,
Wichrem w polu gna!
Nasza zima zła!”

It looks like the global warming (globalne ocieplenie) in Europe has been more like a global freezing! ;-)

Oh, spring, where art thou?! Wiosno, gdzie jesteś?!

Thank you so much Ms. Anglopole! You have no idea how happy I am that you decided to write about winter. Personally, I hate winters. I’d rather pretend they didn’t exist at all. So, needless to say, I am very glad you picked this “frosty” topic for your guest post.

Dictionaries and Reference Books

Posted by Anna No Comments
Jan 22 2010

With Polish being Polish, it’s no wonder there are gazillions of language reference books and dictionaries out there on the market. Because, yes, even Poles need help with their own native language from time to time. No, actually make that – most of the time. Even I myself cannot imagine functioning without my old trusty słownik ortograficzny.

There are literally shelves upon shelves of Polish help books to choose from. And they range from ridiculously expensive to “front of the shop sale bin” cheap. And that’s not including all the stuff that is available on line.

Myself, I prefer printed books. I like to see the words arranged alphabetically on a page and see the flow from one entry to the next. This way, when you read them, you can marvel at the magnificent confusion of “klauzula” (clause, in a contract, for example) and “klauzura” (area of cloister off-limits to non-monks/non-nuns). Without my trusty dictionary, I would have never even known that such a place existed. But then again, klasztory (cloisters) are not my thing to begin with.

I was looking at my work bag today, and realized that last year there were two books stuck in there more or less permanently. And since it looks like I’ve been using them quite a lot, I thought it might be worth sharing with you what they are.

I got both of them from a sidewalk sales bin and that means they were cheap. And because these books were intended for a wide audience, they are also very functional and simple.

“Słownik poprawnej polszczyzny” by Daniela Podlawska and Magdalena Świątek-Brzezińska (published by Wydawnictwo Szkolne PWN 2008) is meant primarily for students. However, as the authors point out – it can also be used when teaching (and studying) Polish as a foreign language.

Each entry is marked with the appropriate part of speech, gender (where applicable) and the most troublesome cases are also listed. In addition, most entries give an example of the word used in a sentence. Some words (but not all) come with an explanation of their meaning.

Like I said, it’s simple, it’s concise and it’s functional. And it was cheap, too. I paid for it 10 zł.

The other book that stays in my bag is the 5th volume in the Akademia Języka Polskiego PWN series – “Poradnik językowy – Poprawnie po polsku” (Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN 2007). It’s a collection of about 1000 entries selected from the on-line version of Poradnia Językowa PWN. People asked questions, experts answered, the whole thing got put in a book.

I like it. It makes for some very interesting reading. This book may not be suitable for beginning Polish learners, but for people who are already somewhat proficient in the language it may be an eye-opening experience. It sure was for me!

And the best part? It was also a sales bin find – 14 zł.

Polish Folk Songs – Pognała wołki na bukowinę

Posted by Anna 3 Comments
Jan 19 2010

Do you like to sing in the shower? No? Me neither. So imagine my utter shock and surprise when something possessed me this morning to open my mouth (and immediately get almost choked to death by inhaling a bucketful of water) and start singing (after spitting and coughing out all the water, naturally).

And imagine my even greater shock and surprise when I started singing something that I probably haven’t heard since I was about 5 years old. Yep, we’re talking folk songs here. Polish folk songs. Polskie piosenki ludowe.

My mom and grandma were huge fans of folk songs, and not just Polish folk songs. If it involved fiddles and accordions, you can be almost 100% sure I was subjected to it as a child. Mercifully, I was spared folk dances, probably because even my adoring parents could very clearly see that I had absolutely zero rhythm. They gave me a Rubik’s cube instead, but that’s a story for another time.

So, piosenki ludowe – yes, tańce ludowe – nie.

What surprised me this morning was that after all these years I still remembered the words. Now, that’s what I call imprinting (or brainwashing)! Of course it all got a bit hazy after the first two verses, but it was quite remarkable nonetheless.

And just what magnificent folk song did I decide to butcher in the shower this morning? “Pognała wołki na bukowinę”.

I remember when I was five years old I didn’t know what “bukowina” was and nobody could quite explain it to me. Now, after all these years, I still have no clue.

Yes, I know that Bukovina is a historic region now split between Ukraine and Romania, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the bukowina referred to in the song.

After calling a bunch of friends, we more or less established that this bukowina is some sort of a mountain meadow where this girl decided to take her cows for a bit of a fresh grass munching session. She also took her fiddle with her and while her cows munched, she played and sang. And apparently during this musical interlude, her cows ran away, or she lost them. (Gee, makes you wonder just how bad her playing and singing must have been, right?)

Then a guy shows up, finds her lost cows and demands a kiss for his efforts.

Yeah, that’s more or less how the story goes.

And here is the song itself (as an mp3) if you wish to listen to it. No, don’t worry, it’s not me singing. It’s a disco polo version. (Hey, no laughing! I happen to like disco polo!)

“Pognała wołki na bukowinę”.

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