Comments for Polish Blog

Comment on Polish Homonyms (or is it homophones?) by Basia

Basia — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:28:49 +0000

should have bee wschod obviously; can’t spell to save my life

Comment on Polish Homonyms (or is it homophones?) by Basia

Basia — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:04:31 +0000

what about wsod and zachod?
sunrise/east
sunset/west

Comment on Polish Homonyms (or is it homophones?) by Mchl

Mchl — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:13:07 +0000

I assume we don’t speak colloquialisms or jargon here? Like ’szczeniak’ can mean ‘a puppy’ but also ‘a kid’

szybka, płytka (a pattern seems to be emerging here)

por, kostka,

ucho (why can we have ‘uszy’ or ‘ucha’ - that would make for a great blog post Anna!)

Not that easy to come up with something indeed.

Comment on Polish Homonyms (or is it homophones?) by Jake

Jake — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:10:27 +0000

A homophone is where the word sounds the same, but can be spelled differently, e.g. bear/bare.

A homograph is where the word is spelt the same, but can be pronounced differently - unlikely in Polish, but in English examples are bow, read, tear, or even Polish!

Polish hononyms: jezyk (tongue/language). Or how about kanapka - sandwich, or small sofa

Comment on Kombinowanie continued by dks

dks — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:03:28 +0000

@Marta: That’s true! I guess I start thinking of the word kombinowac as a negative one mostly when foreigners ask me about it. It happens so because I know that they might have heard about its negative connotation. However, as the idiomatic expression mentioned above shows, the word doesn’t have to be completely negative. There, it is used in the context of figuring out a good (not necessarily shady) solution to a problem.

Comment on Kombinowanie continued by Marta

Marta — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:25:13 +0000

You know, foreigners have always told me that “kombinować” has shady connotations, yet I’ve usually used it (or heard it used) in a positive way - as a description of figuring out an inventive solution to an unusual problem. Sort of like Macgyvering a solution: “I had to do something difficult/unusual and it was tough, but I _pokombinowałem_ and I did/finished/accomplished it.”

Think of it this way: Polacy kombinują on their own, Americans have to resort to websites like lifehacker

Comment on Heading Into Town by Chad

Chad — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:46:53 +0000

@dks: Great explanation! That, indeed, helped quite a bit for me. Thanks!

Comment on Cases in Polish: Nominative by Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:16:13 +0000

hi anna, i love reading your blog, it is easy to read and the way you include vocabulary without including too much makes a hard language like Polish much easier. and Fran, your poem made cases even easier (even though i’m still confused on what the endings change into).

Comment on Kombinowanie continued by dks

dks — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:25:45 +0000

Anna, thank you for explaining the difference between the noun and the verb.
I just got an idea: maybe we can also mention an idiom that includes the word “kombinować” such as “kombinować jak koń pod górkę” ? You use it often times while talking about the past, when you or someone were unnecessarily testing out different ways of achieving a goal but there was one simple method of doing it and the solution turned out to be easier than you thought. Does it sound about right?
As in: Kombinowałam jak koń pod górkę making multiple phone calls and trying to figure out who could come over and help me put on a sari, but I completely forgot that my next door neighbor is Indian and she is always willing to help.

Comment on Heading Into Town by dks

dks — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:03:29 +0000

It is a very interesting issue! Being Polish, I have heard both versions but never thought of the difference. Maybe because when in Poland, I lived in the city and usually used “na miasto”.

1. Anna wrote: ‘So, you say “idę do miasta” if you are out of town and actually heading into town.’

This is true because “do miasta” simply describes a direction, stressing the fact that you are not in town. “Do miasta” expresses a pure fact of going to Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan, etc (you say “Jade do Warszawy” not “Jade na Warszawe” - it is the same rule).

2. Anna wrote: ‘And you say “idę na miasto” if you are actually in town (as in: you live there) and are leaving your house (apartment, hotel room, whatever) to wander around a bit.’

This one implies some activity. You are going “out there” to do something more or less important: shop for fancy clothes, submit documents to a bank, meet with friends, etc. The only thing I wouldn’t necessarily agree with, is that Anna says “as in: you live there”. To me, even if you are from out of town, once you are already in it, you can say “na miasto” because it expresses the fact that you simply have some business to do somewhere within the town’s boundaries.

So, “do miasta” and “na miasto” have two different meanings and maybe it is better to remember them as if they were “two different words”?

About an outsider who is visiting as opposed to a local using “do miasta” - as mentioned above, I think that it doesn’t matter whether you are in town visiting but you live outside of it at the time of using the expression “do miasta”. If you are within the town’s boundaries, I think you should still say “na miasto” (some activities are implied).

Same with “Jestem w miescie” as opposed to “Jestem na miescie”. Both imply that you are in town but “w miescie” would mean that you simply ARE somewhere in Warsaw (for example). “Na miescie” would mean that you are actually DOING something in Warsaw. Note that in this case it doesn’t matter where you come from either - as long as you already are within the boundaries of Warsaw, you can say “na miescie” because you went there to do something, not just BE.

In terms of “a night on the town”… - based on the English meaning, it is going out, having fun. In Polish “Jade na miasto” or “Jestm na miescie” could mean having fun but it could also imply that you are will be running some errands like going to a bank - not necessarily fun stuff. The idea is the same though - you are out there doing something.

Sorry about the long comment and hope it will be a bit helpful…