Archive by Author
Polish Adjectives, part 1 Posted by Anna on Jul 17, 2008
In my last article, while talking about “grand beaver dwelling places” (oh yes, we talk about some strange things here) I briefly touched on the subject of adjectives. So I suppose it’s only fitting to finally give those adjectives a post of their own. Polish adjectives get a bad rap among foreign speakers, but totally…
Bobrowniki Wielkie Posted by Anna on Jul 14, 2008
One of the readers, Ed, had a question about a village called Bobrowniki Wielkie, located somewhere near Tarnów. Ed’s mother was born in Bobrowniki and he wanted to know more about the place. Initially, I was stumped, I never heard of it myself. But no worries, after a bit of searching, I found some info…
Pronunciation Samples Posted by Anna on Jul 11, 2008
At last! I know you’ve been asking about pronunciation, and I know you’ve been requesting phonetic equivalents for all the Polish words I’m introducing in each post. The problem with phonetic approximations is that if we use English sounds, then for those readers who are not native English speakers, such examples will not make much…
The Many Polish Greetings Posted by Anna on Jul 8, 2008
In all this excitement with grammar and country music, I totally forgot to tell you about the intricacies of Polish greetings. I realized that last night when a friend from Finland skyped me and very indirectly pointed out my oversight. My friend is an older lady whose brand new daughter-in-law is Polish. The girl’s Polish…
Plural, Singular or Something In-Between? Posted by Anna on Jul 4, 2008
This last post about wakacje (holidays) made me a little bit confused. OK, not a little. A lot. While writing it, I was unable to fully determine the grammatical gender of “wakacje”, and a random selection of my countrymen to whom I posed that question just looked at me with utter bewilderment. “You mean it…
A Little Bit About Mrągowo Posted by Anna on Jul 1, 2008
One of our readers is going to Poland this summer, and that in itself is nothing unusual, tons of people visit Poland every year. But not very many of them go to Mrągowo. In fact, I was rather surprised to hear that anyone from abroad would actually know where Mrągowo is. Because I’d bet that…
Cases in Polish: Genitive Posted by Anna on Jun 27, 2008
It’s time for some grammar now, don’t you agree? And since we’ve already started with nouns and declensions a couple of weeks ago, I think we should continue. The case we’re going to discuss today is my least favorite. Why? Because on the surface, it seems deceptively easy. Almost too easy, in fact. Yet when…