Everybody who has been learning Polish, whether during a group course (you can learn more abort courses for foreigners here), or in individual lessons, must have noticed that there are words in Polish that sound or are spelled the same but have a different meaning. Obviously, we are talking about homonyms that can sometimes amuse students but at other times simply confuse them.
MAMY MAMY – REPETITION OR A DIFFERENT MEANING?
Let us take a closer look at the word mamy, which in the Polish language is the 1st person of plural form of the verb mieć in the present tense and looks quite innocent. What does then mamy mamy mean then? Is it just an erroneous repetition or a piece of information stating that we have mothers? Mamy is also a plural form of the noun mama (mother).
Thanks to homonyms one can state while playing cards with friends: nie dam dam, that is I’m not going to give away the queens (in Polish, the playing card called queen is referred to as a lady i.e. dama). The word dam denotes here both the 1st person singular form of the verb dać (to give) in the future tense and the genitive plural form of the noun dama (literally a lady; in cards, meaning a queen). Here we are dealing with the similarity between two distinct forms resulting from inflection of two different words.
MOŻE ON MOŻE POJECHAĆ NAD MORZE
In the beginning some of you might be surprised by the information that the word może is the 3rd person singular form of the verb móc as well as a way to express uncertainty. Additionally, there comes yet another morze (this time spelled with rz), which means sea. We have here then as many as three words that sound the same and on top of that two of them are spelled identically, however, their meanings have nothing to do with each other. There are many such words in the Polish language. Sometimes two different verbs can have identically pronounced forms in different tenses:
Po podróży goście długo myli się przed kolacją
(the verb myć się – to wash oneself - in the past tense 3rd person plural form).
but
Saper myli się tylko jeden raz
(the verb mylić się – to make a mistake - in the present tense 3rd person singular form).
CONTEXT IS YOUR BEST FRIEND
To avoid making mistakes related to homonyms, when we have any doubts it is worth paying extra attention to the context. From the context we will know whether our interlocutor is using the word ranny meaning something that takes place in the morning hours:
Tuż po wschodzie słońca słuchałem śpiewu rannych ptaków
Or meaning “wounded”:
Kilka rannych ptaków czekało na pomoc lekarza.
To był duży bal charytatywny, w którym wzięło udział wielu znanych ludzi (bal – a big dance party, a ball).
To był duży bal drewna i ludzie nie mogli go podnieść bez pomocy maszyn (bal – a log of wood).
