Archive for 'Grammar'
Verb Aspect – one more time Posted by Anna on Jul 28, 2009
Agnieszka left a comment asking for help with explaining the difference between pomóc and pomagać (to help), and prosić and poprosić (to ask). And when a reader asks – I dig out my fat Swan’s “Polish Grammar” book and get cranking. We’ve talked about this verb aspect thingie before. Because that’s what it’s called –…
Wredna gramatyka – evil grammar Posted by Anna on Jul 16, 2009
When learning a new language, grammar is one of those hideous things that you’re stuck – with regardless of how much you may despise it (or not). Kind of like taxes, as my friend sometimes says. And it seems that when it comes to foreign grammars, Polish rates quite high on the hate-o-meter. I’m not…
Swój or mój? – possessive pronouns continued Posted by Anna on Jul 3, 2009
Ha! I see that “swój” and its different forms are not going to win any popularity contests when it comes to Polish grammar for foreigners. And honestly, I can’t blame you guys. Those little buggers are really annoying. I’ve seen some really convoluted explanations of ”swój” and so I’m not all that surprised by your…
Polish Possessive Pronouns – are they really that difficult? Posted by Anna on Jun 30, 2009
Are Polish possessive pronouns really that difficult? I need an honest opinion here. I have always thought they were one of those relatively straightforward bits in our convoluted language. But it turns out I might have been either mistaken or overly optimistic. Yesterday I was asked this very complicated question: Ok, so you say “moja…
Concise Polish Grammar – A Handbook for Foreigners – book review Posted by Anna on Jun 12, 2009
I finally managed to get my hands on “Concise Polish Grammar – A Handbook for Foreigners” by Magdalena Foland-Kugler (ISBN 978-83-89913-51-7) published by Exlibris. I haven’t read this book from cover to cover yet, just briefly paged through the sections that interested me the most. What immediately jumped out at me is the fact that…
Who’s Who in the Family Posted by Anna on May 22, 2009
Today’s post is about something that even I have problems with. Brother’s wife wife’s brother and sister’s husband and husband’s sister and sister’s daughter’s best friend’s neighbor’s son. Or something like that. Either I’m monumentally stupid, or it’s really easy in English. Just stick “in-law” at the end of anything you’re not quite sure of…
Readers’ Questions – “bez” and “nie” Posted by Anna on May 4, 2009
Yesterday was a public holiday in Poland to celebrate the Constitution of May 3rd, 1791 (Konstytucja Trzeciego Maja). And it made me realize that I didn’t really know all that much about this historical event. So off to google I went. And what did I learn? A whole bunch of really boring historical bits of…