Archive for 'Grammar'
Advanced Grammar – Participles – imiesłowy Posted by Anna on Apr 25, 2010
Today Adam and Anna jointly attempt to tackle Polish participles. Hang on, it will be a crazy ride! 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 –…
From Readers’ Comments – How to tell someone off Posted by Anna on Mar 15, 2010
One of our American readers was bragging in the comments section not so long ago that “i can honestly say polish is one of the easiest languages ive learned so far. its not harder than any other language” (punctuation and spelling his, not mine). And then he went on to say that: “people that tell…
Talking About Travel Posted by Anna on Mar 12, 2010
Adam’s last post about different vacation options in Poland made me think about travel in general. 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…
Two Ears and Two Eyes Posted by Anna on Feb 25, 2010
I was writing something yesterday, in Polish, as it happens, and I almost had a nervous breakdown. Why? Plural forms of “number + noun” combinations are enough to drive anyone insane, even a native Pole. And it all looked so simple! I was talking about body parts, more specifically, those body parts that come in…
Why Polish Feminine Nouns Can Be Confusing Posted by Anna on Feb 9, 2010
Adam’s post about feminine endings for occupations and positions held by women made me think about feminine gender nouns in general. That proposed ending “-a” makes it very easy to assume that Polish feminine nouns should end in “-a”. And yes, many indeed do. But not all. There are some nouns that even though they…
Verbs Expressing Feelings and the Nouns that Follow Them Posted by Anna on Jan 31, 2010
So, what were we talking about last time? Ah yes, verbs that express emotions. You know, stuff like love (kochać), hate (nienawidzieć), like (lubić), dislike (nie lubić), etc. In English, it’s simple, whether you like or don’t like someone (or something), the noun that follows the verb expressing your feeling doesn’t change. I like winter…
Adverbs of Time Posted by Anna on Dec 10, 2009
One of the readers (What would I do without you guys? I’d have nobody to hurry me up!) reminded me that I had promised to continue our little adverb lesson. I guess the lure of an easy Polish part of speech is hard to resist, huh? Is that why you want more adverbs? But all…