Polish
Polish
Polish is a slavic language, mother tongue of about 38 million poles and secondary language in large parts of Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, the UK and Ireland (in fact, polish speakers in Ireland are more than those that can speak Gaeilge).
Polish is the sixth language that I'm learning after Spanish, English, German, French (which I gave up), and Italian. It has the great advantage of being a phonetic language (unlike English), which means that the words are pronounced in the same way in which they are written.
Alfabet (Alphabet)
Polish uses the Latin script, setting aside Qs, Vs and Xs.
In addition, there are three nasal vowels:
- Ąą, which sounds like a nasal oun, as in en in rendez-vous, or ão in coração
- Ęę, which sounds like a nasal eun, which is a nasal e
- Łł, which sounds like ué, as in well
and six accented consonants:
- Ćć, which sounds like a Spanish ch
- Ńń, which sounds exactly like a Spanish ñ
- Óó, which sounds exactly like a Spanish u
- Śś, which sounds like a Spanish sh
- Źź, which sounds like a Spanish yi
- Żż, which sounds like a Spanish j mixed with an argentinian y
Some letters together sound differently:
- ch and h sound like a soft Spanish j
- ci sounds exactly as in Italian
- cz sounds like a Spanish ch
- dz sounds like a Spanish dse
- dzi and dź sound like a Spanish yi
- dż sounds like a Spanish ye
- rz sounds the same as ż
- w sounds like a Spanish v (which is different from the b!)
- y sounds like a wide e or a German ö
Soft, hardened and hard consonants
Additionally, consonants are separated into two categories, hard and soft, and in some cases, the declensions vary depending on wether the stem of the word ends with a hard or a soft consonant.
soft | ś | ź | ć | dź | ń | j | |||||||||
hardened | sz | ż | cz | rz | c | dz | l | ||||||||
hard | b | d | f | g | h/(ch) | k | ł | m | n | p | r | s | t | w | z |
Liczby (Numbers)
1: jeden | 11: jedenaście | 10: dziesięć | 100: sto | 1000: tysiąc |
2: dwa | 12: dwanaście | 20: dwadzieścia | 200: dwieście | |
3: trzy | 13: trzynaście | 30: trzydzieści | 300: trzysta | |
4: cztery | 14: czternaście | 40: czterdzieści | 400: czterysta | |
5: pięć | 15: pietnaście | 50: pięćdzieściąt | 500: pięćset | |
6: sześć | 16: szesnaście | 60: sześćdzieściąt | 600: sześćset | |
7: siedem | 17: siedemnaście | 70: siedemdzieściąt | 700: siedemset | |
8: osiem | 18: osiemnaście | 80: osiemdzieściąt | 800: osiemset | |
9: dziewięć | 19: dziewiętnaście | 90: dziewięćdzieściąt | 900: dziewięćset |
Poland's currency is the złoty (which in the stores is abbreviated as zł), and the pennies are called grosz.
- 1 złoty or grosz
- whenever the number ends with 2, 3 or 4 (except 12, 13 and 14): złote or grosze
- all the other numbers: złotych or groszy
When speaking about the age
- 1 rok
- whenever the number ends with 2, 3 or 4 (except 12, 13 and 14): lata
- all the other numbers: lat
New Year is nowy rok
Gender of the nouns
There are three genders that a noun can have: feminine, masculine or neutral, and the letter with which the word ends gives a hint about its gender:
- If it ends with a, the noun is feminine
- If it ends with o, the noun is neutral
- If it ends with any other letter, the noun is masculine
There are, however, some exceptions to these rules:
- kierowca (driver) is masculine
- poeta (poet) is masculine, poetka is feminine
- dentysta (dentist) is masculine, dentyska is feminine
Days of the week (Dni tygodnia)
- Poniedziałek — w poniedziałek
- Wtorek — we wtorek
- Środa — w środę
- Czwartek — w czwartek
- Piątek — w piątek
- Sobota — w sobotę
- Niedziela — w niedzielę
Months of the year (Miesiące roku)
- styczeń — w styczniu
- luty — w lutym
- marzec — w marcu
- kwiecień — w kwietniu
- maj — w maju
- czerwiec — w czerwcu
- lipiec — w lipcu
- sierpień — w sierpniu
- wrzesień — w wrześniu
- październik — w paźdizerniku
- listopad — w listopadzie
- grudzień — w grudniu
Polish cases
Polish grammar is the most involved that I have dealt with so far. Romance languages do not have declensions (cases or declinaciones)—which dictate the way in which the nouns and adjectives are written—but German has (albeit only four). Polish has seven:
- Mianownik (nominative)
- Narzędnik (instrumental)
- Biernik (accusative)
- Celownik (dative)
- Dopełniacz (genitive)
- Miejscownik (locative)
- Wołacz (vocative)
What they are all about can be found here.