Polish, as I understand it

One of the first things I learned about Polish was that it does not use articles such as the, a and an. This is simple enough for me, an Englishman, Anglik .  I just need to remember that they are not required. What occurred to me later, is that it can be difficult the other way round.  If your native language, like Polish, does not use a or the , it can be difficult to decide which to use.  Sometimes, if the wrong one is used, it is clear from the context what is meant and the sentence will just stand out as being written or spoken by a non native.  Sometimes, the meaning of the sentence changes completely.  Take the following example: A woman is holding a baby.  She walks into a room full of men and asks a question.  If she asks: "Who here is a father?" it is a very different question from "Who here is the father?" Using a  before a word shows that is isn't defined, it could be any example of its kind.  So asking who is a father, is askin...

😊😔 In English we respond to someone telling us about how well or badly they are doing with little phrases like: I'm glad or Oh, I am sorry to hear that How about in Polish?  What do you want first, the good news or the bad? Let's start with the bad news.  Someone has just told you that they are feeling unwell. Przykro mi to słyszeć - I'm sorry to hear that or just Przykro mi - I'm sorry With any luck, a few days later they will tell us that they are feeling much better. Cieszę się - I'm glad To super - That's super To świetnie - That's great Cieszę się, że jest ci lepiej - I'm glad you are better Cieszę się, że lepiej się czujesz - I'm glad you are feeling better.

Breakfast!  The most important meal of the day.  To the outside world we start our day with a full English here in Blighty.  I know I would every day given half the chance.  Bacon, eggs, sausage, tomatoes, toast... a bit of black pudding if I'm lucky - kaszanka in Polish.  But most days, like most Brits, I will have cereal for breakfast.  How about the Polish, what is a typical breakfast, typowe śniananie? In my head I have it that a common breakfast is kanapki , what we might call open sandwiches or - if we follow etymological routes - giant canapés (the two words have the same origin, see this post on the origin of the words canapé and kanapka .) or maybe a plate of scrambled eggs, jajecznica . I remember, as a student on the French exchange, being surprised by how homogenous the world had become.  I naively expected croissant to be the morning plat du jour, but found that breakfast cereals were the thing.  So how about Poland, is it often brea...

mother matka father ojciec mum mama dad tata daughter córka son syn sister siostra brother brat grandma babcia grandad dziadek aunt ciocia uncle wujek male cousin kuzyn female cousin kuzynka mother-in-law teściowa father-in-law teść sister-in-law szwagierka brother-in-law szwagier

 I have just had a week off work.  Foreign travel was banned, so I did not go anywhere.   I did not vacate my home.  I was not on vacation.  Nie byłem na wakacjach. I was on holiday / leave.  Byłem na urlpie. Declension case singular plural nominative urlop urlopy genitive urlopu urlopów dative urlopowi urlopom accusative urlop urlopy instrumental urlopem urlopami locative urlopie urlopach vocative urlopie urlopy Jadę na urlop - I'm going on holiday. Przydałby mi się jakiś urlop - I could use some time off. (literally: Some leave would be useful to me) Here przydałby się is reflexive.  Note that the conjugation of przydać się agrees with the thing that would be useful.  In this case urlop , which is a masculine noun. Diminutive: urlopik case singular nominative urlopik genitive urlopiku dative urlopikowi accusative urlopik instrumental urlopikiem ...

Two words to use insteal of posiłek. Posiłek, for meal, seems more general, has overtones of the feeding value of food.  Just as when we say meal. So, darmowe posiłki dla bezdomnych is meals for the homeless. To talk about the dishes served, we use potrawa or dania. As in  danie dnia - dish of the day Lubię potrawy z czosnkiem - I like dishes (made) with garlic Declension of potrawa case singular plural nominative potrawa potrawy geniticve potrawy potraw dative potrawie potrawom accusative potrawę potrawy instrumental potrawą potrawami locative potrawie potrawach vocative potrawo potrawy Declension of danie case singular plural nominative danie dania genitive dania dań dative daniu daniom accusative danie dania instrumental daniem daniami locative daniu daniach vocative danie dania