Posts tagged with "reflexive verbs"

Polish Word of the Week – Przeprowadzka

Posted by Anna 3 Comments
Mar 10 2009

Hi guys! I’m back in the land of internet again! I promise to respond to all your comments shortly. And a couple of them gave me ideas for new blog posts – thanks Pinolona and Jennifer! And audio files are coming back, too! I just need to unpack my boxes to find the mic.

But for now, let’s talk about przeprowadzka (moving house). You have to admit, it can be a very exciting experience. Yes, it’s also awfully stressful and tiresome. Plenty of stuff to do and to take care of. First pakowanie (packing), which can be a total disaster when done wrong. And it definitely went wrong in our case, or at least – not quite right. Being too cheap to hire a moving company, pakowaliśmy wszystko sami (we packed everything ourselves).

Today, when unpacking, I was faced with such life mysteries as socks inside a rice cooker (to economize space, I presume) and a cat carrier stuffed with assorted bathroom items (luckily, we have more than one cat carrier case, otherwise the furry ones would have been in trouble).

After this przeprowadzka, I can honestly say that I’ve had enough of moving house for a long while.

So, because I’m really not looking forward to more rozpakowywanie (unpacking) tonight, let’s talk about przeprowadzka vocabulary instead. Don’t worry, you’ll see it’s a very interesting word.

The word “przeprowadzka” is of course a noun, a feminine noun at that (plural: przeprowadzki). But where does it come from? From a verb. The verb is “przeprowadzać się.” And here is where it gets interesting.

You see, “przeprowadzać się” is an imperfective form of “przeprowadzić się.”

These two guys in turn come from other verbs – “prowadzać się” and “prowadzić się” respectively.

But the meaning of those stem verbs is totally different. And then different again, if you drop the reflexive “się” bit.

Take a look:

  • prowadzić (imperfective) – to drive (as in “prowadzić samochód” – to drive a car), to lead (as in “prowadzić naprzód” – to lead forward), to run (as in “prowadzić firmę” – to run a business), to guide (as in “prowadzić wycieczkę”) and so on…

  • prowadzić się – to behave, to conduct oneself

And see what happens when you stick “prze-“ to the front of this verb?

  • przeprowadzić – to lead (escort) someone across (as in “przeprowadzić babcię przez ulicę” – to escort grandma across the street), to carry out something (as in “przeprowadzić eksperyment” – to carry out an experiment)

and

  • przeprowadzić się – to move house

See? I told you this is an interesting word. How it managed to morph from “to drive” to “to move house” I’m not entirely sure. It’s one of those quirky little things that make Polish so much fun.

Się, Part 1

Posted by Anna No Comments
Jan 8 2009

Are you ready for another installment of Polish grammar? No? Don’t worry, I’m not ready either. We’ll get through it together.

A couple of posts back I started to talk about “się.” That was when I told you how this little word could alter the meaning of a verb. You have a verb without “się” and it means one thing. You stick “się” at the end and it means something else.
I gave “uczyć” (to teach) and “uczyć się” (to learn) as examples.

Here’s another one of such verbs: stawać.

  • stawać – to stand (up) – as in this expression: stawać na głowie (literally – to stand on one’s head) – to bend over backwards or to do one’s darnest

and then you have:

  • stawać się – to become, to happen – as in this expression (past tense): co się stało? – what happened?

By the way, did you notice how in this last example “się” migrated to the FRONT of the verb? “się” is like that, sometimes it can move, and sometimes it even HAS TO move. But that’s something we’ll talk about another day.

Let’s focus on the verbs for now.
OK, we need a verb. How about “myć” – a nice, short word.

  • “myć” means simply “to wash,” but
  • “myć się” – to wash oneself.

You want to see them in action? Sure thing!

  • Myję ręce. – I am washing (my) hands. See? No “się” here.
  • Myję się. – I am washing myself.

At least these two didn’t change in meaning. They’re still both about washing, right?

But apart from those verbs that can exist with or without “się,” there is a whole bunch that occurs almost exclusively with “się.” Here are just a few most popular ones:

  • domagać się – to demand
  • modlić się – to pray
  • domyślać się – to guess, to presume
  • dziać się – to happen
  • wahać się – to hesitate
  • upierać się – to stubbornly insist on something
  • opiekować się – to take care of
  • zgadzać się – to agree
  • zakochać się – to fall in love
  • nudzić się – to be bored
  • martwić się – to worry
  • cieszyć się – to be glad
  • dziwić się – to be surprised
  • denerwować się – to get upset
  • bać się – to be afraid (never occurs without “się”)
  • wstydzić się – to be embarrassed (never occurs without “się”)
  • śmiać się – to laugh

Do you notice anything particular about the verbs in the second group? Yes, many of them describe a state of mental agitation or feelings. Such verbs are almost always followed by “się” and in fact, as you can see, the two that I listed – bać się and wstydzić się do not occur without “się” at all.

To Be Continued…

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