This blog has, for some time, concentrated on cultural issues. Therefore I thought it would be a good idea to focus on grammar for a change. Today we will look into the mystical entity called imiesłów – participle. If you asked me whether you absolutely needed to know this, I would say no. Moreover, I absolutely do not expect you to understand the concept of imiesłów just by reading this post. What I want to do, is to show you that there is a whole world of Polish grammar out there

It’s an exciting challenge to get there and get it. Some things I don’t think are even possible to be explained in English, as examples don’t really translate.

imiesłów (masc.; pl. imiesłowy) – participle – is a part of speech. Imiesłów is a form of a verb, that possesses qualities of an adjective OR an adverb.
Its counterpart in English is a participle, but unfortunately, participles in English don’t look anything special at all. Usually they look like pretty innocent verbs. And there are just two types of participles in English:
- present participle (ends with -ing, like talking)
- past participle (ends with -ed, like talked, with many irregulars, like done)

Of course things are much different in Polish, where verbs inflect like crazy. Imiesłowy have distinctive forms and further complications arise when we try to negate them.

There are several types of them, but in general, they can be divided into two major groups:
1. adjectival
2. adverbial

In both of those groups, there are several sub-groups. Because it simply wouldn’t be Polish, if things didn’t get all complicated.

But first things first.

Adjectival participles are declined just like adjectives, and must agree with a noun they modify in gender, number and case. Are you still with me?
Fortunately, adverbial participles are a little bit easier, because they don’t decline. Instead they kind of act like uninflected verbs.
And fortunately, both kinds of participles are mainly used in formal writing, or formal speech. In everyday, casual speech, you can get away with using normal conjugated verb forms instead.

But, let’s get back to our participles. The story doesn’t end with “adjectival” and “adverbial”. Oh no! Nothing is ever so simple in Polish.

We can further divide them according to aspect – imperfective and perfective, and action – active or passive.
And then there are such gems as “verbal adjectives of changed state” and “verbal adjectives of ability”.

In our next installment we will look at some very exciting (not!!!) examples.

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Podróże (travels, journeys, trips) is a plural noun. Singular – podróż (feminine).
And podróżować (to travel) is the verb we need here.
So, what do you call a person that travels? Podróżnik, but that implies someone who travels seeking excitement, adventure and really wild things in unexplored lands. Someone who just goes somewhere by PKP, that’s “podróżny”.

Though from what I’m seeing and hearing, all the hip and cool kids who like to travel use the word “wyprawa” these days. Literally it means an expedition, and personally I’m not fond of hearing that someone is planning a “wyprawa” to Koh Samui in Thailand to sit on the beach and drink cocktails with little paper umbrellas in them. In my eyes, that’s not “wyprawa”, but “wycieczka”.

Wycieczka (feminine, plural: wycieczki) can be any trip of any length, but generally (at least in my eyes) does not imply any hardships along the way the way “wyprawa” would. Or maybe I’m simply a snob when it comes to travel.

And then we have these two confusing verbs:

• zwiedzić (zwiedzać, imperfective), and
• odwiedzić (odwiedzać, imperfective).

odwiedzić – to visit.
You can “odwiedzić” your babcia in Pcim Dolny, or you can odwiedzić Tokyo or Paris.

And once you are in Tokyo or Paris, then what you want to do is “zwiedzać”.

zwiedzać – to engage in the activity of sightseeing, to see the sights

But zwiedzić (perfective) implies not just sightseeing, but actually the whole enchilada of traveling and seeing a place. For example:
Zwiedziłam Tajlandię.
That would suggest that I visited more than just Koh Samui and in fact traveled around and saw a bit more of the country.

Confusing? Yes, it is. Even for me. And frankly, instead of talking about it, I would much rather go somewhere. Preferably somewhere warm.

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Such a magical part of speech does exist. Even in Polish.

And yes, you guessed right. It’s adverb time!

I love adverbs. Always have and always will. Not only do they make sentences pretty, they are also fairly easy and uncomplicated. And in Polish, as I’m sure you already know, that counts for a lot. And not just any a lot, but a lot a lot.

So yes, adverbs.

• przysłówek (noun, masculine, plural: przysłówki) – adverb

Just like in English, they answer to the questions “how?” – “jak?”, “when?” – “kiedy?” and “where?” – “gdzie?”.

So far so good. But wait, it gets better. Just like in English, Polish adverbs don’t change. For example:

• spokojnie (adverb) – calmly
• powoli (adverb) – slowly
• głośno (adverb) – loudly

And by and large, these three endings: -e, -i (this one rather rarely, too) and -o are all that’s involved in simple adverbs (because adverbs of time and place can have other endings).

I know that some people who are learning Polish tend to confuse adverbs with adjectives. And I can see why it could happen. Our adjectives can end in -e, too (neuter singular and non-masculine plural). But the biggest difference is that while Polish adjectives decline, adverbs do not. Sweet, isn’t it? So basically, all you need to learn is to tell them (meaning adverbs) apart from adjectives and your work here is done.

Here are some adjective-adverb combinations, so you can see the difference for yourself:

• spokojny – spokojnie (calm)
• głośny – głośno (loud)
• zimny – zimno (cold)
• gorący – gorąco (hot)
• ładny – ładnie (pretty)

See, it’s not all that complicated.
Next time we’ll take a look at adverbs of time and place.

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So here I am, at your service.

What the reader wanted was this: please tell me how to count (in Polish, of course) the following nouns: dziecko (child, neuter), nauczycielka (teacher, female), pisarz (writer, masculine), jesień (autumn, feminine), mysz (mouse, feminine), and słoń (elephant, masculine). Though I am not entirely sure if the reader wanted słoń (elephant) or słońce (sun), so just in case I think I’ll do both.

Initially, I wrote back and told him to look up my previous posts on this subject, but he responded that this is the time when grammar explanations are not enough, he needs to see how it’s actually done in practice. OK, fine by me. And actually, I just wanted to throw those words at you (all my readers in general) and see what you could come up with in terms of counting them from one to five. But since the email had the “the world is going to end on Thursday at 3PM if you don’t help me” tone, I thought I’d just get up and do it myself.

But why do I have this strange feeling that I’m doing somebody’s homework here, huh?

Ok, but here we go.

• dziecko (child) from one to five:
• jedno dziecko, dwoje dzieci, troje dzieci, czworo dzieci, pięcioro dzieci

• nauczycielka (female teacher) from one to five:
• jedna nauczycielka, dwie nauczycielki, trzy nauczycielki, cztery nauczycielki, pięć nauczycielek

• pisarz (writer, male) from one to five:
• jeden pisarz, dwóch pisarzy, trzech pisarzy, czterech pisarzy, pięciu pisarzy

• jesień (fall/autumn, feminine) from one to five:
• jedna jesień, dwie jesienie, trzy jesienie, cztery jesienie, pięć jesieni

• mysz (mouse, feminine) from one to five (this is a tricky one and I hope I got it right):
• jedna mysz, dwie myszy, trzy myszy, cztery myszy, pięć myszy

• słoń (elephant, masculine) from one to five:
• jeden słoń, dwa słonie, trzy słonie, cztery słonie, pięć słoni (and we have a whole circus!)

• słońce (sun, neuter) from one to five:
• jedno słońce, dwa słońca, trzy słońca, cztery słońca, pięć słońc

OK, dear reader, I hope this is what you had in mind. And I hope I managed before your doomsday deadline.

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Oddly enough, whenever such complaints come (via email normally, not in the comments section on this blog) they come from native Polish speakers. And boy, are those speakers furious!

So, I thought it might be time to address this issue. And of course, as always, to ask your (meaning ALL my readers, not just the Polish natives who read this blog) opinion, because if there are problems with how I explain grammar, then I better rectify this issue, and I better do it fast.

So let’s begin.

• 1.    Do I mock grammar? Far from it, actually. Actually, I’m terrified of the thing. Really. If you’re terrified of something, you generally try to avoid any contact with it whenever possible. Just like you’d do with your neighbor’s rottweiler. If you try mocking it, you may lose an arm. That’s how I feel about grammar. Except that instead of an arm, I may lose the chance to write this blog. And I wouldn’t want that to happen.

• 2.    The lack of proper terminology. Hmmm… If that’s what you want, then read Prof. Swan’s “Polish Grammar” book. He has that terminology bit covered. Trust me! I do try to smuggle proper names for things whenever possible, but I try to do it in such a way that wouldn’t scare too much a casual learner of the language (and reader of this blog). You know, the person who just wants to study it for fun and pleasure and to communicate with the cute Polish girl next door. Also, and it’s been my experience when learning a couple of other foreign languages, many people simply don’t know any proper grammar-book terminology at all. Not even in their native lingo.

• 3.    And that brings us to my “too simplistic” approach and “for dummies” explanations. Oh yeah? It’s easy for you to say, native Poles, but do you realize that there is a difference in how grammar is taught to native and non-native speakers of the language? Also, another thing to consider are the levels of my readers. Some are advanced learners, or already speak Polish perfectly, and some are just starting out on their Polish language adventure. And of course, I want to keep everybody happy. And let’s be realistic – it’s Polish grammar we’re talking about here. Might as well try explaining quantum physics. Though incidentally, there are nice popular science books dealing with quantum physics, explaining it in a fun and easy to understand way. The fact that there aren’t any for Polish grammar should tell you something…

And now, of course, I want to know what I should do. Should I make my grammar posts more serious and sophisticated, use fancy terminology and treat them with the respect they deserve? Or should I keep them as they are, even if Polish natives will no doubt complain that they are “for dummies”? It’s entirely up to YOU!

PS. And just so we are perfectly clear how I feel about my neighbor’s rottweiler – I hate that beast.

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