Which Polish Grammar Book? Posted by Anna on Nov 17, 2008 in Vocabulary
I really don’t understand why it’s so hard to find a grammar book. A Polish grammar book, that is. In English.
I spent the entire weekend schlepping from one bookstore to another, sometimes in the rain, and the only result was sore feet. My sore feet, that is.
I went to normal bookstores and to “language” bookstores and I would have raided the local libraries, too, except that during the weekend them public libraries were closed. Yes, shame to admit it, but I was ready to nick a book. I am that desperate for a Polish grammar book in English. A GOOD Polish grammar book in English.
It’s relatively easy to find Polish grammar books in Polish. I saw several different editions. It’s even relatively easy to find Polish grammar books in German, Russian and French, or even in Turkish. But not in English. Really puzzling, if you ask me. I wanted to know why it was so but the ladies at the Pol-Anglo bookstore in Wrzeszcz could only offer me their blank stares for an answer. They didn’t know. Nor did they know whether such a book is even currently available. They told me to look on the internet and come back to them with a name of the author and/or publisher – THEN they would be able to tell me if such a book could be ordered.
“Now, proszę Pani, if I had all that info do you really think I’d be asking you?” I said. They stared at me some more. One of them even blinked.
I had more luck at the English Unlimited store on the other side of the street. There, a nice girl behind the counter very helpfully offered me “Gramatyka języka polskiego dla cudzoziemców” (Polish Grammar for Foreigners) by Barbara Bartnicka and Halina Satkiewicz and published by Wiedza Powszechna (ISBN 83-214-1068-5). Alas, the book was written in Polish. Now, I might be a bit slow on the uptake sometimes, but this one has me puzzled even now, which is two days later. What’s the point of writing a Polish grammar book for foreigners in Polish? If someone’s only learning Polish, do you really think he or she can read an entire, complicated (yes, complicated, because after all it’s Polish grammar we’re talking about here) book in Polish?
Poland has advanced by leaps and bounds in so many other areas so is it really that hard to prepare and publish a good, simple, sensible, PRACTICAL book to help foreigners learn our beautiful (well, sometimes it IS beautiful) language?
And while I’m on the subject of advancing, what’s the point of having a new shining airport terminal in Warsaw WITHOUT any wireless hot-spots?
OK, rant over. Words for today:
- księgarnia (feminine, pl. księgarnie) – bookstore
- książka (feminine, pl. książki) – book
Did you notice? The word “księgarnia” begins with the same three letters as the word “książka.” And if you suspect what I think you suspect, you are absolutely right. These words came from the same common source. But wait, there’s more:
- księgowość (feminine, plural, but only theoretically: księgowości) – accounting
- księgowy (masc., pl. księgowi) – accountant (male)
- księgowa (feminine, pl. księgowe) – accountant (female)
- księga (feminine, pl. księgi) – book (big, fat one), tome, volume, ledger
See, it all started with a big, fat book. And I finally found the book I was looking for on the internet – “Concise Polish Grammar for Foreigners” by Magdalena Foland-Kugler (ISBN: 83-89913-51-8). I loathe buying books, and especially language books, without being able to see what’s inside, but I guess in this case I have no choice.
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Comments:
Phil:
Hi Anna.
My Polish teacher of many years ago bought a book called
We Learn Polish.
Published by
Wiedza Powszechna.
ul. Jasna 26. 00-054 Warszawa.
tel./fax 26 85 94
The address may be out of date.
ISBN 83-214-0842-7
Even i can almost understand the grammar, almost. It is the best one I have seen, but the proof will be in the next Polish pudding in a couple of years.
Phil.
Thomas Westcott:
Or you could try the University of Pittsburgh: polish language website.
Thomas Westcott:
The address is http://polish/slavic.pitt.edu/index.html .
Sound files please.
expateek:
I found “Basic Polish” and “Intermediate Polish”, by Dana Bielec, at the American Bookstore in Warsaw a few months ago. It’s billed as “A Grammar and Workbook”, so it’s a bit more of a textbook than a straight grammar. Still, each chapter deals with a different grammatical topic, and thus it’s a lot more systematic than things like “Polish in 4 Weeks”, or “Colloquial Polish”.
It’s published by Routledge, and the ISBN numbers are 0-415-22437-3 and 0-415-22439-X
And yes, the lack of wireless at Okęcie is very irritating, isn’t it?
Lukas:
Very good post! I am currently looking for a good grammar book, the one I use is rather lacking in that aspect. I will check out some of the references mentioned here, thank you.
Thomas: there is a small mistake in the link you posted. This one works: http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/index.html
pinolona:
Isn’t it beautiful how everything is related? It’s one of the things I love about Polish. In fact, if one had time to spare at breakfast, one might even open the dictionary at a random page, take a pencil, and link up all the words containing similar components…(see http://interpreters.free.fr/language/dekalog4.htm)
Dana Bielec also wrote a reference grammar, ‘Polish, An essential grammar’, published by Routledge, ISBN 9780415164061.
A good read at breakfast and you can get it at Foyles in London.
DeeAnn:
Anna,
I have an extra copy of Part 1 of “Wsrod Polakow, Polish for foreign students” published by Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski and written by Brygida Rudzka and Zofia Goczolowa. Email me your address and I will send it to you. It’s much better than Swan’s grammer book, but I can’t really say if it’s great. I really like it.
DeeAnn:
BTW – Beth’s class got your postcard! Thanks! She told me in great detail how the teacher said they had gotten a very special postcard and they needed to pull out the WORLD map to locate where it came from. She was excited.
Marge:
I also use the Polish: An Essential Grammar (Routledge Grammar) by Dana Bielec and the Basic Polish: A Grammar and Workbook (Routledge Grammars) by Dana Bielec as references. I got both of these through Amazon.com. I live in the U.S.
Anna:
Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. I’ve been trying to get the Dana Bielec book but Amazon and I are at odds right now, they say they had sent the book, I say I ain’t got no book. And so it goes…
The Oscar Swan grammar is not all that bad, but it’s poorly organized and very user unfriendly – the author assumes that the reader knows what “morphophonemic abstraction” means and personally I don’t like teachers and authors who feel the need to use words longer than three syllables. And what we need instead is Polish Grammar for Dummies…
I’ve ordered the “Concise Grammar…” by Magdalena what’s-her-face and will tell you about it as soon as I get it.
Barb Rolek:
Hi Anna! I have a Web site on Eastern European food for About.com, a New York Times company. I am 100% Polish but sometimes my Polish language skills are a little muddy. I speak French better than Polish and English better than French! Anyway, can you recommend a good Polish-English dictionary and maybe even a Polish-English culinary dictionary? Thank you.
Olga Helena Latek:
Hi, I am so touched that someone is interested in Polish grammar overthere )). Below I’m pasting references from Wikipedia, which might be helpful. Especially Mrs Iwona Sadowska book should be comprehesive and it is brand new )). Good luck and good love, and best regards with greetings from Warsaw, Poland )).
Olga Latek
Books and links:
Migdalski K. The Syntax of Compound Tenses in Slavic, Utrecht 2006
Jump up ^ Anastasia Smirnova, Vedrana Mihaliček, Lauren Ressue, Formal Studies in Slavic Linguistics, Cambridge Scholar Publishing, Newcastle upon Type, Wielka Brytania, 2010: Barbara Tomaszewicz, Subjunctive Mood in Polish and the Clause Typing Hypothesis
Soerensen, Asmus (1900). Polnische Grammatik mit grammatisch-alphabetischem Verbalverzeichnis. E. Haberland.
Sadowska, Iwona (2012). Polish: A Comprehensive Grammar. Oxford; New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-47541-9.
Polish Pronunciation Audio and Grammar Charts
King’s College London: Polish Language Resources
Kasia:
@Olga Helena Latek Thank you Olga! This is great info:)