A funny sentence has been circulating online for a while now, it says: „The Polish language is friendly, it wags its tails at us“.
Many foreigners learning Polish ask whether all those strokes, dots and tails are necessary. The truth is that the Polish language cannot do without them not only for historical reasons, which are important, or because of Polish spelling rules, but because they are also diacritical marks that make up a completely new letter (there are 9 of such in the Polish alphabet). Therefore you have to remember that a little tail, a small stroke or a dot can completely change the meaning of a word.
SMALL STROKE – BIG CHANGE IN MEANING
Need an example? The statement Idź do kąta! I przynieś karton, który tam stoi (go to the corner and fetch the carton from there) has a completely different meaning from the sentence Idź do kata! (go away, you’re not welcome here). Kąt means „corner“, while kat is a person that used to carry out executions, an executioner. As you can see, the difference is enormous.
There are many more examples like that. When asked: Co masz w dłoni? (What’s that in your hand?“) we can anwer either nic or nić. The former means that we have nothing there (nic – nothing), whereas the latter means that the person we’ve asked is probably planning to sew, since nić means „thread“.
Żona means „wife“, while zona is a word that means „zone“, which is not common, but still in use these days. The word pół (1/2, half) is completely different from pól (genetive form of the noun pola – fields). Kos is a bird (blackbird), whereas koś is an imperative form of the verb kosić (to mow, to scythe). When I want someone to start driving, I call: jedź! (go!, drive!), and if I want to encourage someone to eat, I say: jedz! (if you don’t remember how to conjugate the verbs, or you’re not sure whether to use a stroke or a dot, check it here)
WHAT MAKES THE POLISH LANGUAGE WHAT IT IS
It can be said that without all the tails, strokes and dots the Polish language wouldn’t be itself :)
Therefore, it is advisable that the attention should be drawn to the dots, tails and strokes so that the learners do not confuse nos (nose) with noś (the imperative form of the verb nosić – to wear).
