CHLEB I BUŁKA (bread and bread roll), OR POLISH IDIOMS AND BAKERY PRODUCTS

SHOPPING IN POLISH CLASSES 
Students of Polish very often ask not only how to do the shopping in Polish (check here for more on that), but also what to call some basic foodstuffs. One of the nouns that are taught at the very beginning within this vocabulary range is chleb (bread). Later, during the course you will find out in what idioms this noun is used. Let’s take a closer look at some of them.

LEARNING POLISH. CIĘŻKI KAWAŁEK CHLEBA?! 
When we’re talking about people who go abroad to look for better job opportunities, we say that they wyjeżdżają za chlebem (that is to improve the standard and conditions of their lives). Living far from home and friends, in new environment, must be ciężki kawałek chleba (literally: a tough piece of bread; a hard way to make a living). This idiom may refer not only to the issue of labour migration, but any activity or task that is difficult for you or involves mental or physical effort. One of the advantages of such travel is the possibility to get to know new cultures  and customs, and after some time the traveller can say that he or she z niejednego pieca chleb jadł (literally: has eaten bread from more than one oven; he/she has seen quite a few things), i.e. they have a lot of life experience.
Just as the expression ciężki kawałek chleba this idiom does not only refer to travel experience.  Anyone who has a wealth of experience in any area of life may say z niejednego pieca chleb jadłam/jadłem. And gaining new experience is chleb powszedni for people like that (i.e. nothing unusual, something common, natural).
We can encounter obstacles in every part of our lives (our relationship, work, hobby, project), and then we can comment, discouraged: z tej mąki chleba nie będzie (literally: one can’t make bread with this flour), i.e. it’s a fruitless effort, with no chance of success.

                                                    more vocabulary on our FB profile

POLISH COURSE. BUŁKA Z MASŁEM?
When we are not frightened by the obstacles and believe that we’ll overcome them easily, we say it’s bułka z masłem (literally: a roll with butter; a piece of cake), which means it’s easy, not too complicated. Reading a crime story in Polish may turn out to be bułka z masłem. If the crime story is popular we can imagine it rozszedł się jak świeże bułeczki (sold like hot cakes), i.e. it sold very well. And if the author of the book complains about the loss of privacy as a result of their success, we can state that they chciał(a)by on/ona zjeść ciasto i mieć ciastko (would like to have their cake and eat it, too), which means they want things that can’t possibly go together, they exlude each other.
As you can see, we use the names of foodstuffs to say something more than just describe what we had for breakfast.

TARG, BAZAR, RYNEK, OR WHERE TO DO THE SHOPPING

SHOPPING AFTER A LESSON OF POLISH
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.

                         Targ or bazar? More on Polish vocabulary and grammar on our FB profile

„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.

I’D LIKE A KILO OF APPLES (POPROSZĘ KILO JABŁEK), OR SHOPPING IN POLISH

A FEW PHRASES AND NUMBERS

It would seem that doing the shopping is more or less the same wherever in the world we are. It’s enough to learn the names of several products, numbers and some practical phrases in a language, e.g. Polish, and you’re ready to go to the shops. Naturally, you can always “take the easy way out” and go to a supermarket. However, even before going there it’s a good idea to look up the names of departments, because the Polish piekarnia sounds nothing like the German “Backerei”, English “bakery” or Spanish “panderia”. Apart from piekarnia you might need words like pieczywo(bread and bread-like goods), nabiał (dairy products) or chemia gospodarcza (household chemicals). Having learned those words you won’t be confused once in a shop, and it’ll spare you the unnecessary run around the shop in search of one product.

KILO MEANS KILOGRAM

However, if you decide to go to a corner shop, you should do your homework and go over the „weight“ topic. Obviously, the official unit of mass in Poland is a kilogram, whose prototype is in Sevres, France. The question is, how it works in the Polish language. It is generally known that users of every language have habits of their own.
First of all, all Polish shoppers use the short form of the word kilogram. Therefore, a Pole buys 2 kilos (dwa kilo), not 2 kilograms, of apples, potatoes or plums at the market. For the same reason you should ask for pół kilo (half a kilo – 500 grams) of cheese.

BETWEEN GRAMS AND DEKAGRAMS

We hardly ever buy half a kilo of ham, though, unless we are throwing a big party. When we feel like a sandwich with ham we should ask for (attention!) 15 dekagrams (15 deka) of it. And here’s when many foreigners ask themselves: „What is DEKA?“. The answer is simple, it’s short for „dekagram“ (=100 grams). The Polish use dekagrams, not grams. That’s why when in a shop we ask for 20 deka, not 200 grams of cheese. Shop assistants will definitely understand if the customer says: Poproszę 250 gramów tych pysznych ciastek (I’d like 250 grams of those delicious biscuits), but it does sound a bit unnatural.

                                    In Polish we ask for „20 deka“ of cheese rahther than „200 gramów“

You will definitely learn about this habit in classes of Polish for foreigners (see here for more information on courses). If you’re not sure of something, ask your teacher, one of your Polish colleagues, check out our facebook profile, or remember to read our blog regularly.