{"id":460,"date":"2009-01-03T15:53:35","date_gmt":"2009-01-03T19:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=460"},"modified":"2014-06-10T14:59:39","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T14:59:39","slug":"teach-and-learn-polish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/teach-and-learn-polish\/","title":{"rendered":"Teach and Learn Polish"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2009\/01\/polish-books.jpg\" aria-label=\"Polish Books\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-461\"  alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"233\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2009\/01\/polish-books.jpg\"><\/a>I was talking to my friend today, and as always, she does her best to express herself in Polish. She\u2019s been studying the language for quite some time now, and generally does a very good job when writing in Polish. However, when it comes to speaking, things can get a bit confusing at times.<\/p>\n<p>Today she was explaining to me that she got a new job.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">She: <em>\u201c<strong>Mam now\u0105 prac\u0119.<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 I have a new job!<\/em><br \/>\nMe: <em>\u201c<strong>\u015awietnie! Gdzie?<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 Great! Where?<\/em><br \/>\nShe: <em>\u201c<strong>W szkole \u015bredniej.<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 In a high school.<\/em><br \/>\nShe: <em>\u201c<strong>B\u0119d\u0119 uczy\u0107 si\u0119 matematyki.<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 I\u2019ll be learning (studying) math.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Huh?<\/p>\n<p>Of course what she meant to say was:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>B\u0119d\u0119 uczy\u0107 matematyki.<\/strong> \u2013 I\u2019ll be teaching math.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, by adding that pesky reflexive \u201c<strong>si\u0119<\/strong>\u201d in Polish, the sentence got a totally different meaning.<\/p>\n<p>I explained it to her, and she said it probably came from the fact that she\u2019d been saying \u201c<strong>Ucz\u0119 si\u0119 polskiego<\/strong>\u201d (I\u2019m learning Polish) for a very long time.<\/p>\n<p>You see, while \u201c<strong>si\u0119<\/strong>\u201d following a verb tells us it\u2019s a reflexive verb, some of those verbs can and do exist without \u201c<strong>si\u0119<\/strong>\u201d as well. And some of those verbs without \u201c<strong>si\u0119<\/strong>\u201d actually mean something else in English than their \u201c<strong>si\u0119<\/strong>\u201d equivalents.<\/p>\n<p>I hope I didn\u2019t totally confuse you now.<\/p>\n<p>Just take a look:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>uczy\u0107 si\u0119<\/strong> \u2013 to learn, to study<\/li>\n<li><strong>uczy\u0107<\/strong> \u2013 to teach<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is a very common mistake even for Poles who learn English. While Polish students confuse &#8220;learn&#8221; and &#8220;teach&#8221; their foreign counterparts get stumped by <strong>uczy\u0107 <\/strong>and <strong>uczy\u0107 si\u0119<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>We will talk more about \u201c<strong>si\u0119<\/strong>\u201d very soon. It\u2019s a very handy word, as you\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n<p>For now, I\u2019ll give you all the \u201c<strong>uczy\u0107 (si\u0119)<\/strong>\u201d verb forms.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Future tense:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ja &#8211; b\u0119d\u0119 uczy\u0107 (si\u0119) <\/strong>or<strong> b\u0119d\u0119 uczy\u0142a (si\u0119) \/ uczy\u0142 (si\u0119)<\/strong> (fem. \/ masc.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>ty &#8211; b\u0119dziesz uczy\u0107 (si\u0119) <\/strong>or<strong> b\u0119dziesz uczy\u0142a (si\u0119) \/ uczy\u0142 (si\u0119)<\/strong> (fem. \/ masc.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>on \u2013 b\u0119dzie uczy\u0107 (si\u0119) <\/strong>or<strong> b\u0119dzie uczy\u0142 (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>ona \u2013 b\u0119dzie uczy\u0107 (si\u0119) <\/strong>or<strong> b\u0119dzie uczy\u0142a (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>ono \u2013 b\u0119dzie uczy\u0107 (si\u0119) <\/strong>or<strong> b\u0119dzie uczy\u0142o (si\u0119<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>my \u2013 b\u0119dziemy uczy\u0107 (si\u0119) <\/strong>or<strong> b\u0119dziemy uczy\u0142y (si\u0119) \/ uczyli (si\u0119) <\/strong>(fem. \/ masc.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>wy \u2013 b\u0119dziecie uczy\u0107 (si\u0119) <\/strong>or<strong> b\u0119dziecie uczy\u0142y (si\u0119) \/ uczyli (si\u0119) <\/strong>(fem. \/ masc.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>oni \u2013 b\u0119d\u0105 uczy\u0107 (si\u0119) <\/strong>or<strong> b\u0119d\u0105 uczyli (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>one \u2013 b\u0119d\u0105 uczy\u0107 (si\u0119) <\/strong>or<strong> b\u0119d\u0105 uczy\u0142y (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">present tense:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ja \u2013 ucz\u0119 (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>ty \u2013 uczysz (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>on\/ona\/ono \u2013 uczy (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>my \u2013 uczymy (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>wy \u2013 uczycie (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>oni\/one \u2013 ucz\u0105 (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">past tense:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ja \u2013 uczy\u0142am (si\u0119) \/ uczy\u0142em (si\u0119) <\/strong>(fem. \/ masc.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>ty \u2013 uczy\u0142a\u015b (si\u0119) \/ uczy\u0142e\u015b (si\u0119) <\/strong>(fem. \/ masc.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>on \u2013 uczy\u0142 (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>ona \u2013 uczy\u0142a (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>ono \u2013 uczy\u0142o (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>my \u2013 uczy\u0142y\u015bmy (si\u0119) \/ uczyli\u015bmy (si\u0119) <\/strong>(fem. \/ masc.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>wy \u2013 uczy\u0142y\u015bcie (si\u0119) \/ uczyli\u015bcie (si\u0119) <\/strong>(fem. \/ masc.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>oni \u2013 uczyli (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>one \u2013 uczy\u0142y (si\u0119)<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And as you can see, this is an imperfective verb, because it occurs in all three tenses.<br \/>\nAlso, it\u2019s more or less regular, and I\u2019m sure by now, if you\u2019ve followed our verb posts, you can spot the pattern of how the regular verbs change according to person (<strong>ja, ty, on,<\/strong> etc.) and number (plural and singular) in all the tenses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"250\" height=\"233\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2009\/01\/polish-books.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p>I was talking to my friend today, and as always, she does her best to express herself in Polish. She\u2019s been studying the language for quite some time now, and generally does a very good job when writing in Polish. However, when it comes to speaking, things can get a bit confusing at times. Today&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/teach-and-learn-polish\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[306825,7556,177,166],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-grammar","tag-reflexive","tag-tenses","tag-verbs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5431,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions\/5431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}