Polish Language Blog

In the comments to the previous post, Yellerbelly made a very valid point regarding “co się stało?”

He said that he thought it meant “what’s wrong?”

I think it’s a reflection of our collective Polish psyche that something so innocent as “what happened” can imply “what’s wrong?” in our language. Just goes to show you that we, as Poles, always expect the worst.

Let’s take a closer look at “co się stało?”

• co – what
• się stało = stało się – happened, 3rd person singular, neuter, past tense

Now imagine this:
Your teenage daughter calls you and with a serious dose of panic in her voice says, “Dad, please don’t be mad…”
Your immediate reaction is “co się stało?” which here can be translated as “what’s wrong?”
“I totaled the car,” your daughter answers.

And this:
Your teenage daughter calls you and says, “Dad, ohmygod, you’re not gonna believe this!”
You ask “co się stało?” and here it simply means “what happened?”
“I got accepted to Stanford!” your daughter squeaks happily while you’re frantically trying to calculate in your head how on earth you’re going to pay for it.

“Stawać się,” as this verb looks in its basic dictionary form, also means “to become.”

For example, when in one of my moments I misspelled the name of the street I live on, and then can’t figure out why the mail is not getting to me, I can say “ostatnio staję się coraz głupsza i głupsza.” – I’m becoming stupider and stupider lately. Duh!

So, when you see this verb used in any other form than 3rd person singular, neuter, past tense, it will most likely mean “to become.”

In that 3rd person singular, neuter, past tense – “stało się” – it will most likely mean “to happen.”

And while we’re on the topic of “stało się,” here’s a handy Polish saying:

• Co się stało, to się nie odstanie.

Literally, it means something like “what happened/what’s done, can’t be undone.”

So, when your daughter totaled your car and is crying over the phone, after asking her if she’s OK, you think to yourself “co się stało to się nie odstanie, but next time she’s definitely NOT borrowing MY car.”

And speaking of, have you noticed what happened here?
“Zauważyliście co się tutaj stało?”

The blog got a face-lift. Do you like the new design? I love it!

And now we’re also on Twitter!
Polish Blog on Twitter

So between blog posts here, you’ll be able to find me there, twitting away.

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…

So… it’s that time of the year again. The time of parties, bigger parties and totally massive parties. What are your plans for New Year’s Eve (Sylwester)? Going anywhere? Doing anything special?

We’ll stay at home and watch TV. And then watch our terrified cats as they try to hide under the bed when the fireworks go off.

This is also the time of New Year’s resolutions, and I do believe I mentioned this phrase in my previous post.

• Postanowienia noworoczne =

• postanowienia, which is plural of “postanowienie” – noun, neuter, can be translated as “resolution” or “decision.”

+

• noworoczne, which is plural of “noworoczny” (sing. fem. noworoczna, sing. neuter: noworoczne, pl. person-masculine: noworoczni, pl. all others: noworoczne) – adjective, which in turn consists of these two words:

• nowy + roczny = new + yearly.

Ok, that was a bit convoluted. But you see how these phrases are constructed – you can take them apart word by word, and then you can take the words apart, too, until you get the basic building blocks.

Anyway, let’s move on.
I don’t normally do the whole New Year’s resolutions bit, but this year I thought I’d give it a try. And then hold myself accountable. Maybe it will finally force to me to do the things I’ve been so diligently avoiding so far.

So, here are Anna’s resolutions for 2009:

• Go to Kościerzyna and Kartuzy and visit an elementary school, or two. I want to see kids being taught the Kashubian language. I won’t believe it until I see it with my very own eyes. Incidentally, I had a conversation about it with my father not so long ago, and he totally surprised me by breaking into a Kashubian folk song. He said his mother had taught him and while he can sing it and recite the words, he doesn’t understand what they mean. Not all of them, anyway.

• Don’t begin every other sentence with “so.” It’s annoying.

• Stop thinking about going back to school and actually DO something about it. But that, on the other hand, prompts questions to which I don’t know the answers. Like, “What should I study? English or Polish? Or maybe something else altogether? Russian perhaps?” and “Where should I study?” and all that. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

• Read more books in Polish. After seeing glowing reviews of Dorota Masłowska pretty much everywhere I turned, I got my hands on her debut novel “Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną” in Polish and the English translation – “Snow White and Russian Red” (US version) and meh, not my type at all. I read both books side by side, and disliked both of them equally. But this little exercise did inspire me to read more books by Polish authors. So, (yes, I know, don’t start every other sentence with “so.” But it’s not 2009 yet, ok? I’ll work on it next year) that’s on my to-do list for 2009.

Those were the big resolutions. I have a few less important ones, as well.
And how about you, my dear readers?

• Jakie są Wasze plany, postanowienia i cele do osiągnięcia w 2009?

What are your (plural of “wasze”) plans, resolutions and goals to achieve in 2009?

See you next year!