MARIA KOWALSKA OR MARIA KOWALSKI, or HOW TO DEAL WITH POLISH FAMILY NAMES

FUSS OVER POLISH FAMILY NAMES

This post has been inspired by questions concerning Polish family names which are often asked in classes of Polish as a foreign language (check here for information on interesting courses). What seems obvious for the Poles as far as their own family names are concerned may be problematic for foreigners, especially in the beginning. Some confusion, among non-slavic students in particular,  is caused by the fact that Polish first and last names need to be inflected. However, when you get to know the Polish declension and conjugation well (should you need to refresh your knowledge of conjugation of Polish verbs, check here) that fact ceases to surprise.

TWO KINDS OF POLISH FAMILY NAMES

There are two most common groups of Polish family names: those that act like nouns and those that end with -ska, -ski, -cka, -cki. As for the first group, there are no major issues: a man is called Adam Nowak and a woman Ewa Nowak. A questios arises in case of the other group, however: if a man’s name is Jan Kowalski, why is his wife’s name Maria Kowalska, not Maria Kowalski? Why does she have a different family name? No, Maria doesn’t have a different family name, she simply uses its feminine form. Names ending with -ska, -ski, -cka, -cki take the adjective form, and the adjective in Polish ends with -a in the feminine form. As you can see, the answer is simple and logical.

FAMILY NAMES OF MARRIED COUPLES AND FAMILIES

Declension is also to blame for the changes in family names of married couples and families. If you want to invite Mr. Nowak and his wife to an important meeting you should address the invitation Szanowni Państwo Ewa i Adam Nowakowie, which you definitely already know since we have written about that recently.  If you are inviting the whole family of Adam and Ewa Nowak, you should use the form Rodzina Nowaków.
When we refer to Maria Kowalska and her husband, we say państwo Kowalscy, and if we include the children, we get rodzina Kowalskich.
As you can see, what seemed to be complicated in the beginning turns out to be easy, clear and logical. Just memorise a few simple rules and you‘ll know what to call who.

Do you know the answer to this question? More riddles on our FB page.

ŁĄKA, SAD, OGRÓD, or on not so common names of places in Polish

POLISH VOCABULARY YOU WILL NOT LEARN IN A CITY
Early May, spring and weekend getaways give you ample opportunity to practise your Polish with the locals and spark your interest in uncommon Polish vocabulary. Having left the city and spent some time in the countryside you will be surprised to hear that the word pole refers not only to a beautiful recreation area in Warsaw (Pola Mokotowskie) or the main avenue in Paris (Pola Elizejskie), but first of all to a place where farmers grow crops (field).
Right next to a pole (field) there might be a pastwisko (pasture), i.e. a place where farm animals such as cows, sheep or horses graze, and nearby you can often see a łąka (meadow), which is an area covered with grass and flowers. You remember seeing those places, don’t you?

                                                    ŁĄKA – more vocabulary on our FB profile  

                                                POLE  - uprawiać; kupować, pracować na.. - more verbs you will find here

IS SAD SAD AND WHERE DO VEGETABLES GROW?
Now, let’s come closer to the house, where we can also see some flowers. Here they grow in an orderly manner and serve as decoration. This is ogród (garden), of course. And is a place where fruit trees (apple, pear and cherry trees) grow an ogród too? This is was participants of our Polish courses often think. No, this place has a different name, it’s called sad and has nothing to do with the English adjective “sad”. Quite the contrary, Polish sad (orchard) is the essence of joy and life.

If you stay at an agri-tourism farm during your weekend getaway, you will definitely notice that the hostess has a warzywnik (vegetable garden) by the house, which is where she grows vegetables so that the guests can have fresh and healthy food every day.

Have fun on your May getaways!