SAY "TAK" OR ABOUT DIFFERENT WAYS OF SAYING "TAK" IN POLISH.

(POSSIBLY) THE MOST POPULAR POLISH WORD
Keep calm, it’s not a post on matrimony. It’s just an innocent blog entry about how we can express consent and acceptance in Polish. Tak is perhaps the most popular Polish word. The majority of those who start learning the Polish language know it very well already even before the first lesson. We can, however, express consent in many ways, more on which you will hear during the Polish language courses. In the meantime, get familiar with a short list of alternative phrases.

SYNONYMS OF TAK IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE
Instead of tak, we can use the international ok, and also more Polish expressions: oczywiście, jasne, pewnie, naturalnie, owszem, właśnie, słusznie, faktycznie, rzeczywiście, spoko, wporzo. Rzecz jasna (it’s a synonym oczywiście!) between these phrases there are quite important differences. So, spoko is a colloquia expression, and wporzo is a slang word, used mainly by (very) young people in informal situations. Jasne and pewnie can mean an enthusiastic acceptance; we use właśnie, faktycznie, rzeczywiście when we agree with someone’s opinion or when we realise something after hearing someone’s opinion (Poles use very often the phrase  no, właśnie!); owszem is a higher register, an expression appearing mostly in written language, but also in speech during debates; naturalnie, is a tak which is old-fashioned, ceremonial, but which has its charm. .

NO IS NOT NO! WHAT DOES NO MEAN IN POLISH?
Some of the above expressions can raise confusion, but none of them as much as no does.  - Masz czas jutro?,  - No. /   - Rozmawialiśmy o tym.,  - No, tak! The person answering in the first dialogue is not saying that he or she doesn’t have time, on the contrary: in a very colloquial way, perhaps not very elegant-sounding but still popular, they confirm their availability. In the second dialogue, the person giving the answer firmly confirms that the conversation has taken place. In short, no is a very colloquial and nonchalant, though extremely frequently used by the Polish way to say tak.

                   Say tak and many other things with us! Practise your Polish on our FB profile

REST AFTER THE COURSE OF POLISH. THE BIESZCZADY MOUNTAINS.

BIESZCZADY: NOT ONLY POLISH WAS SPOKEN THERE

The summer’s coming to an end and you have deserved some rest after the course:) Before you start attending regular classes you can visit the parts of Poland that are not that  popular with foreigners. You must have been to the Tatra Mountains already, you might have been to the ski slopes of the Beskids. Have you heard of Bieszczady, the mountains in the south-east Poland, where the three borders come together: Polish, Slovakian and Ukraine? They’re the so-called Southern Bieszczady, the eastern part of which is in Ukraine.
The Bieszczady Mountains are lower than the Tatra Mountains, but they are known for their unique landscape: wild valleys, beech forests covering the mountain slopes and pastures, which are vast areas covered with grass, they look like huge meadows. When hiking in Bieszczady you will come across deserted villages, graveyards, Catholic and Orthodox churches, since the area is an ethnic and religious melting pot (Polish and Ukrainian people, Lemkos and Boykos).

                                        In such places you can practise not only the Polish language

CLIMB TO THE TOP: TARNICA

Go past Lake Solina (Jezioro Solińskie), do not stop there although it’s beautiful, and keep going until you reach Ustrzyki Dolne. This little place, which is something between a village and a small town, is a perfect starting spot to set off (ruszyć) to the highest peak of Bieszczady – Tarnica (1346 masl). On the way to the top beware of  strong winds, though :) and that’s what you can see from the the top of the mountain:
                                                           

                              on the way to Tarnica you will always run into people you can speak Polish with

It was worth it, wasn’t it?

THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN PASTURES WITH POLISH

From Ustrzyki Dolne you might head for  the breathtaking Carynska Pasture (Połonina Caryńska)

And then, hiking along the Wetlińska Pasture (Połonina Wetlińska), you can stay for the night at a charming hostel called „Chatka Puchatka“,

which is located at 1232 masl. If you arrive there around 7pm the only place available will be ... the one on the floor, in your own sleeping bag. There’s no electricity or running water. Despite the lack of basic facilities you can be sure to spend a charming evening in a cozy atmosphere, speaking Polish, watching a stunning sunset and drinking tea with rum. At the crack of dawn you can set off to Orłowicz Pass (Przełęcz Orłowicza).

At this early hour you’ll see the mist over the valleys,

                             a difficult Polish word mgła (mist): jest mgła, nie ma mgły, we mgle; mglisty dzień

desterted trails, pastures covered in morning sun, and who knows, you might spot (dostrzeżecie) a deer or a lynx.
When you have come back to the real world and to your homes you can review and repeat  the words that have been used in the text (see the Polish version of the blog): tygiel (melting pot) – połoniny (pastures) – wejść na szczyt (climb to the top) – wędrować po górach (to hike in the mountains)– przełęcz (pass) – śpiwór (sleeping bag)– świt (dawn)– ruszyć (to set off)– dolina (valley)– szlak (trail). And practise the conjugation of verbs used, here are the links :) They may prove useful next time you go hiking in the Polish mountains. See you on the trail.

                                     

BEWARE OF FALSE FRIENDS WHEN LEARNING POLISH

THE WORDS THAT SOUND SIMILAR IN POLISH AND ANOTHER LANGUAGE

Everyone who is taking up a foreign language is very happy to hear the words that sound similar in both his native language and the language they are learning. It‘s all fine as long as the words not only sound similar but also mean similar or the same things. Otherwise we’re dealing with everyone’s nightmare called false friends.

THE PROBLEM CONCERNING NOT ONLY SLAVIC LANGUAGE SPEAKERS

I would seem that in case of the Polish language the problem arises when the Slavs take it up. Obviously, there’s plenty of false friends within the same language group (we’re going to devote a separate entry to these), however, we should not think that the speakers of English, Italian or Finnish have nothing to worry about. At first sight these languages seem very different from Polish and it’s hard to find the words that sound similar. But just listen to an everyday conversation in Polish and you’ll change your mind. Examples?

                        When learning any foreign language, not only Polish, we should look out for false friends.

CONSULT A DICTIONARY BEFORE USING WORDS

Imagine that an English speaker needs to go to the doctor’s. He or she is sitting in the waiting room and overhears a conversation between two other patients:
- Bardzo dziś boli mnie bark – one of them complains.
The English speaker has been living in Poland, so he or she has definitely attended a Polish language course and has understood almost everything. But the „bark“ doesn’t seem to fit here. Was the dog barking so loudly that the person started to feel pain? Strange structure. Not at all! The structure is nothing complex. The word „bark“ is the key to understanding the sentence. In Polish the word means „shoulder“, and in English it is the sound that dogs make.
We should also watch out for what we’re saying when taking to an attractive Italian man or woman; our invitation to kolacja (dinner/supper) may be understood as an invitation to colazione, which means „breakfast“ in Italian. A Finn may look in surprise at the form he or she is trying to fill out, because one of the questions is about the name of the trip. All the confusion is caused by the word „matka“, which in Finnish means „trip“ and in Polish it’s „mother“ and it’s the mother’s name that the Finn needs to put in.
Therefore, before we use a Polish word that sounds similar to a word in our language, we’d better look it up in a dictionary to make sure it’s not a false friend.