Polish, as I understand it

Polish words and more I have discovered through crosswords.  In a bid to expand my vocabulary and Polish general knowledge, I have started to, mainly by cheating with Google, complete crosswords (krzyżówki). Clue: Tam bój kościuszkowców - location of the Kościuszko battle. Answer: Lenino .   Lenino is a large village in Belarus and site of the 1943 Battle of Lenino, where the Polish 1st Tadeusz-Kościuszko Infantry Division fought along side the 33rd Soviet army against the Germans. Clue: "Pieprz i ...", z Tonym Halikiem - " Pepper and ..." with Tony Halik.   Answer: Wanilia   Tony Halik was a writer, explorer and documentary film maker.  He co-presented a long running programme with Elżbieta Dzikowska called Pieprz i Wanilia.   There were 300 episodes and they were broadcast over twenty years. The programmes were a way of seeing the world when foreign travel - and certainly travel outside the soviet bloc - was closely controlled by the com...

Happy New Year! Szczęśliwego nowego roku! It's a new year and a new blog.  I'm getting used to the layout and it would seem that for ease of finding my notes, I would be best putting them in pages rather than in blog posts.  So what shall I put in blog posts?  Perhaps rough notes made on the hoof?  Perhaps confessions of gaffs I make as I attempt to use Polish. The first gaff was in calling out a Polish surname.  I hadn't started to learn the language at this point and had only been given a few pointers.  All I had grasped was that sz was a bit like our sh  and cz  was a bit like our ch .  So, faced with the name Pycz, I confidently stride out to call it out.  What I know now, is that there is a very clear difference between shouting Pycz and Picz.  One will attract the attention of the barer of the name, the other will attract quite the wrong sort of attention.  Picz, I am reliably informed, is not at all polite.

These days, one  as a pronoun, tends to be avoided by the English masses, perhaps because it is viewed as sounding pretentious, but for most people it has been replaced by y ou  without much confusion when in context. A Polish friend once told me there is no direct equivalent to one in Polish.  I assume the Polish don't literally say, for example, where do you buy books  (when meaning where does one buy books) which would be Gdzie kupujesz książki?   Which I believe only means, where does the person you are asking buy books?  So, if that's no good and we can't ask where does one buy books?  then a different phrasing is required. Where are books bought?  Typed into Google Translate comes up with Gdzie kupuje się książki?  kupuje is conjugated as for the third person, as you would for one as a pronoun How is bread made? Jak się robi chleb? again, robi is the conjugation for the third person and się pops up again So się acts lik...

I'm starting this blog as a place to keep notes along my journey with the Polish language.  It's really just for me in a bid to help me nail Polish.  If it eventually helps or interests others, then that would be splendid.  I would welcome helpful comments and thoughts if I have misunderstood anything. This is not a learning course for beginners.  I am learning Polish and making notes along the way as I learn things, so it is quite literally as I understand it. If you want to learn Polish, find a patient and helpful Polish friend, use an app like Duolingo , follow bloggers and teachers like the ones listed below, buy a book like Polish for Dummies, watch Polish films and TV, listen to Polish music, and make lots of notes to enable you to get your head around the grammar of this heavily inflected language.  Best of luck! Update: Links to more places and people who have taught me a great deal: Polish teacher, Aleksandra,  Being Ponglish website and on I...