Shopping is a great opportunity to practise the vocabulary you have learned in Polish courses (more on shopping in Polish here). But how to do that if we are surrounded by supermarkets, where we hardly need to communicate, and buying things online these days is... a piece of cake? The easiest way to do that is to go to a targ (market). But ... wait... targ or bazar? Well, it depends what part of Poland we are in. The inhabitants of southern Poland go to a targ, and the inhabitants of central Poland go to a bazar (in Cracow, for instance, they have Targ na Kleparzu and you can go to Bazar Różyckiego in Warsaw) Both words refer to a place where people buy and sell goods, mostly food, in the open air. The word bazar is derived from the Persian language and its variants are commonly used in many other languages, and in the Polish language it probably appeared through Turkish. This noun is often used to describe a place here you can buy not only food but also clothes and other everyday objects.
WHERE DOES THE WORD TARG COME FROM?
Targ came into Polish from behind the southern border (our Czech neighbours use the word trh) and became the root of the verb targować się (negocjować cenę, to haggle over the price of something), component of the phrase pchli targ or targ staroci (flea market) and expressions targ rybny (fish market), targ warzywny (vegetable market) or targ koński (horse market), which you can encounter while reading a guidebook. Let us not forget about the plural form, targi, which refers to exhibitions, trade shows, fairs, e.g. targi książki (book fair), targi mieszkaniowe (housing fair), targi pracy (job fair) etc.
„MARKET PROBLEMS“ OF STUDENTS OF POLISH
Polish people sometimes say Kupiłam te pomidory na rynku (I bought these tomatoes at the market), by which they confuse foreigners, who have heard the word many times before on holiday trips. In fact, in the modern Polish language the noun rynek (market square) refers to the central, historical part of a town or city. Let us not forget, however, that in the old days it was in this part of town that people bought and sold goods (hence they have Rynek Solny, the salt market, in Wrocław). Later, the word rynek has taken on a broader meaning, and, the same as in other languages, it is now also an economic term, e.g. rynek pracy (job market), rynek nieruchomości (real estate market), rynek finansowy (financial market), wolny rynek (free market), czarny rynek (black market), etc.
Next time you go shopping, pay attention to what the locals call the place where you can not only do the shopping, but also practise your Polish.
