MASAKRA-the most popular word since a few years

Yes, this word means what you think it means: massacre. 

Anyway we can apply it to completely different situations. Some people use it all the time.:)

1) Nie! Znowu pada! Masakra....- No! It's raining again! Masakra...

2) A: Jak było w pracy?- How was at work?

B: Masakra.

3) Ta restauracja to masakra. Mają okropne jedziene.- This restaurant is masakra. They have horrible food.

I could give millions of examples when you can use the word: masakra. Basically, you can say it in every situation when  something is not perfect and there is even very small problem.

Why Polish is not difficult to learn?

Polish has been named the most difficult language to learn by so many websites, bloggers and people. Yes, they are a couple of tricky things in Polish, but today let's look at reasons why Polish is not difficult to learn:

1) Word order doesn’t really matter. In English, it does.

Dzisiaj jest ładna pogoda. (Today it's a nice weather).

This sentence you can also say this way:

Ładna pogoda jest dzisiaj.

Jest ładna pogoda dzisiaj. etc.

All these sentences above mean the same and all of them are correct.

2) There are far fewer tenses than in English, French, Spanish etc.

In Polish, there is only one way of building the sentence in the past tense and  two ways of building the sentence in the future tense.

For example: 'I have bought', 'I bought', 'I had bought' can all be translated as ' Kupiłem'.

3) We don't use the articles in Polish (the, a, an etc.).

4) Once you master the alphabet (trust me it is not difficult), you can read very easly in Polish. There are no silent letters. Almost all my students can read Polish text after twenty minutes of my explanation and practise.

5) A lot of words has a latin root: informacja, motywacja, inspiracja, komunikacja, edukacja. I don't need to translate these words for you, right?:)

What is more, Poles are usually very encouraging when somebody is attemping to say something in Polish. We never expect a foreigner speaking our language and we are not used to hear foreigners who speak Polish fluenty. That is why we really appreciate every word we hear from you. :)

The best book for self- learning Polish at home

 Today we are looking for the best book for self-learning
if you’re just beginning your Polish learning journey.

If you haven’t learned Polish before, where is a good place to start? Which book I would recommend?

There is no perfect book or even a very good one (in my opinion) for beginners, but you will find good enough to start learning.

Here are my first 3 favourites ones:

NUMBER 1

"Polish doesn't bite" is my favorite book. You can study there a new vocabulary  and also the grammar is explained in quite simple and short way. There are exercises to practice and what is important while self- learning, you can find the key answer at the end of the book. Helpful will be also CD attached to the book.

Each chapter starts with the dialogue translated into English, then there are vocabulary exercises and explanation of grammar plus grammar exercises. It is not overwhelming, quite clear and comfortable to learn.

NUMBER 2

"Survival Polish Crash Course" is mentioned to be a classroom book, however I think it could be fine for self- learning as well. It is not overhelming with the vocabulary. Apart from the instructions, everything else is translated into English (all dialoques and new words).  Each chapter finished with the list of words and expressions and homework. For some exercises, will be good to have a teacher or a Polish person next to you, but most of them you will manage to do by yourself. I quite like some chapters. There is very little grammar in this book, it is more about learning how and what to say to survive in Poland during daily life (in the restaurant etc.).

NUMBER 3

 "Polish in 4 weeks". I think it is a bit too much if you never studied Polish at all, however for very motivated and self-discipline learners it may work somehow. It is not bad for those who are not completely beginners. All the dialogues are in MP3 format as well.

The book consists 28 lessons, each lesson containing around 2 hours work. Each of them, consists of five sections: a) a dialoque, b) words and phrases in the alphabetical order, 3) grammar, 4) exercises.There is an answer key.

There is too much of theory which can make you bored a bit if you want to go through this book page by page. However if you need to search for some grammar rules, it is your best choice.

What is your opinion? Which book would you recommend for other beginners?

Plural of nouns and adjectives

First of all, you should know that all plural nouns – we share into two groups in Polish:

Group 1: a group of males (only men/ boys, don’t mix it with masculine nouns) or a group where at least one male in present, e.g. students, doctors, Polish people.

But for example: sok (juice) although is a masculine word- it is not a man, so it does not belong to this group)!

Group 2: everything else: women, animals, objects, food etc.

Yes, I know girls, it is a discrimination!:D

Here I will teach you how to make a plural for the second group. To make plural for the first group is a bit more complicated and we will worry about it later.:)

In English, we usually add '–s' to form a plural, in Polish we have 4 possible endings:

1) – a, when the words is neutral (ends with –o, -e, -um):

piwo- piwa (a beer- beers)

okno –okna (a window- windows)

centrum- centra (a center- centers)

2) – i, when the last consonant of the word is –k or –g:

sok- soki (juice- juices)

mąka- mąki (flour- flours) 

3) –e, after almost all these "funny":) Polish letters which you can NOT find in English language: ś (also si), ć (also ci), ń (also ni), ź (also zi), ż, sz, cz, rz + c,l,j

noc- noce (a night- nights)

koń- konie (a hourse- hourses)

4) – y (for all other words)

All adjectives which describe the group 2 (women, animals, objects, food etc.) end with –e:

ładne dziewczyny –pretty girls

wysokie budynki- high buildings

More examples for all 4 endings:

rachunek - rachunki

kawa- kawy

wino- wina

masło- masła

chleb- chleby

brzoskwinia- brzoskwinie

Now, it is your turn:

marchewka (a carrot)- ..............................

jabłko (an apple)- .............................

dziewczyna (a girl)-.............................

książka ( a book)- .............................

komputer (a computer)-.............................

płaszcz ( a coat)- .............................

but (a shoe)- .............................

krzesło (a chair)-.............................

sok pomarańczowy (an orange juice)- ...................................

piękna kobieta (beautiful woman)- .....................................

dobra restauracja (good restaurants)- .......................................

Send me your answers in the comments.:)

Two the most common mistakes which are made by beginners

Cześć! Jak się macie?

I really appreciate my students who are trying to say their first words or sentences in Polish. However, I have noticed that many of them make the same two mistakes.

MISTAKE 1

How can we say 'How are you?' in Polish:

1) Jak się masz? (How are you?)

2) Co słychać? (How are you?)

3) Co u ciebie? (How are you?)

4) Co tam? (What's up?)

5) Jak leci? (How it's going?).

Have a  look at the short dialogue:

A: Jak się masz? (How are you?)

B: Dobrze. A ty? (I'm fine. And you?)

A: Świetnie. (Great.)

So: "And you?"- "A ty?" 

But if we somebody starts the conversation with us using the question number 2 or 3 or 4 or 5, we cant say: A ty? We have to say: A u ciebie?

Have a look:

A: Co słychać?

B: Dobrze. A u ciebie?

A: Świetnie.

You have to pay attention which question you hear at the beginning of the conversation to know if you should say: A ty? or A u ciebie?

MISTAKE 2

Miłego dnia! means Have a nice day!

When I say it to my students, they usually answer: Ty też! That's not correct.

You can answer: Nawzajem! or Wzajemnie! Both of them mean sth like: The same for you.

A: Miłego dnia!

B: Nawzajem!

The same for example with: Miłego weekendu! (Have a nice weekend!), Smacznego! (Enjoy your meal!- if you are eating at the same time as well)

Perfective And Imperfective

Many Polish verbs have two forms: perfective and imperfective. 

It means that you need to learn every verb kind of ..... twice!

For example: two forms of the verb 'cook' are 'gotować' and 'ugotować'.

The imperfective- you can use when you speak about the present, the past and the future.

The perfective- you use when you speak about the past or the future.

So, when you speak about the present, you dont have to decide which form to use (always imperfective), but when you speak about the past or the future you should think if you need the imperfective or perfective form.

The imprefective form is used when speaking about continuous, repeated or lasting actions.

The perfective form is used when speaking about single, complete actions.

The imperfective form is more like: I was cooking the lunch for 2 hours (lasting) or: When I was ill, I was cooking lunch everyday. (repeated). I compare it with Past Continuous in English.

The perfective form is more like: I cooked lunch yesterday. (one single action). I compare it with Past Simple in English. 

The imperfective form is the basic one and you can find it in each dictionary. Unfortunaetly there are no rules how to make the perfective one. However, we usually add prefixes at the beginning:

to call: dzwonić (imperfective)- zadzwonić (perfective) 

to write: pisać- napisać

to do: robić- zrobić

to wait: czekać- poczekać

As you see, prefixes are really diffrent, so you just need to learn it by heart.

In some verbs, the change is in the infinitive ending, or within the stem itself:

to borrow/ to lend: pożyczać/ pożyczyć

to order: zamawiać- zamówić

to speak- mówić- powiedzieć

THE LIST OF A FEW MORE 

IMPERFECTIVE AND PERFECTIVE FORMS:

to eat: jeść- zjeść

to drink: pić- wypić

to pay: płacić- zapłacić

to watch: oglądać- obejrzeć

to meet: spotykać się- spotkać się

to call: dzwonić- zadzwonić

to go: iść- pójść

That is enough for today, we will continue this topic soon :) I will prepare some exercises to practise as well!