ON THE TRAIL OF THE LETTER Y

POLISH ALPHABET - LETTER Y
It’s going to be a very short text about a very intriguing letter. Y – the twenty-ninth letter of the Polish alphabet intrigues many students of Polish language courses. The most surprising thing for them turns out to be the fact that in Polish Y never occurs at the beginning of a word except for loanwords (Yeti, Yale, yuppie, Yamaha). In Polish, we read this letter as [i] with the exception of words such as Ypsilon and ylid, when it is pronounced as [y].

Y or I?
Foreigners speaking Polish frequently confuse [i] and [y]. When speaking and writing in Polish we have to keep in mind that in the Polish language there are no letter compounds such as - ly - ,  - ky - ,  - gy -  (exceptions are dialects or for instance the word kynolog), but only  - li  -,  - ki - ,  - gi - (linia, kino, ginekolog, gimnastyka, gigantyczny, oni byli/rozmawiali). It is particularly important when one faces a dilemma over the choice of the ending for a feminine singular genitive or a plural nominative. We say therefore dwie puszki kukurydzy, torebka Agnieszki, dwa pociągi. We also have to remember that in Polish there are compounds  - łi - , but only  - ły -  (i.e.,  łyżka, łykać, łyżwy, były, rozmawiały) do not exist, either.  We also never use [y] as an equivalent of the conjunction [i]. So we mustn’t write kawa y herbata, but exclusively kawa i herbata. This last mistake is quite typical of the students from Spain and Italy :)

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CONVERSATIONS ABOUT SNOW IN POLISH

EXPANDING POLISH VOCABULARY
The time has come when apart from carnival parties, keeping New Year’s resolutions (such as taking a course of Polish as a foreign language – you can find more information about the courses here), conversations about … snow begin to take place.
Frequently, during Polish lessons, the students seeing whirling, white flakes outside the window ask: How do you say it in Polish? Today we would like to present a handful of practical phrases so that you can be prepared for the winter season also in terms of language.

WHEN IT SNOWS, OR HOW TO SAY IT IN POLISH
Śnieg pada. However, the Polish language is very precise in terms of the white fluff. Pada śnieg indicates that the precipitation is neither too heavy nor too light. When the snow falling from the clouds on the ground is fine grained and there is not too much of it, we say prószy śnieg. And when the flakes become large and it starts to snow heavily, we will say that śnieg sypie.
After all those weak and heavy precipitations, we have to odśnieżyć, that is to remove the snow from steps, doormats, pavements, streets, cars, etc.
All this is fine as long as there is mróz, that is the temperature is below zero. It’s worse when it turns warmer. Next the white fluff starts melting, and odwilż comes. Then, on the streets and pavements, appears an even and smooth layer of ice. We call this phenomenon gołoledź. If you happen to go to your Polish class in such weather, make sure to check whether the pavement is posypany with sand. And when you finally reach the place safely, you will be able to boast that you know what gołoledź 
means.

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CHARMS OF POLISH WINTER 
Luckily, low temperature has its charms as well. After a frosty night szron appears on the windowpanes, bus stops and trees, which can be seen in the beautiful images created by nature from needle ice.
It is best, from point of view of safety, to zeskrobać szron that settled on our car’s windshield. The well prepared for this situation car drivers use a special skrobaczka. Those who don’t have them often reach for anything they happen to have at hand, e.g.: for … credit cards:)
Anther winter phenomenon is szadź, which picturesquely wraps tree branches with ice crystals. How do you tell the difference between szadź and szron? The best thing to do is to go outside on the streets and listen to the words the Polish use.

We hope that after reading this text you have enriched your winter-related vocabulary.