Mr. Geremek’s Funeral Posted by Anna on Jul 23, 2008
This past Monday I was listening to the funeral services for Bronisław Geremek. Only listening, because I’m not into state funerals with full honors, unless of course, it’s one of the world’s famous despots who’s dead – their funerals are always fun. But the service on Monday was very dignified, sad and solemn. Bronisław Geremek…
Genitive Case, part 2 Posted by Anna on Jul 21, 2008
Since we’re in the midst of a little grammar kick, I thought we might as well continue. But to keep things interesting, we should let the adjectives rest for a while and talk about something else. Remember when we discussed the genitive case – dopełniacz? Yes, I know, it was a while back. So here…
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…