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!

PAŃSTWO KOWALSCY (Mr and Mrs Kowalski) in PAŃSTWO POLSKIE (Polish state)

DWA PAŃSTWA (two meanings of „państwo“)

Today we are going to start with a riddle:

Państwo na K i osiem liter?
Kowalscy!

Wait! Everyone learning Polish not only as a foreign language (information on courses you can find here) knows that państwo is the same as kraj, which means a politically organised group that lives in a territory defined by borders. Hence, there is państwo polskie (literally: Polish state/Poland), państwo niemieckie and państwo francuskie. Does that mean then that a state that starts with K and consists of 8 letters is... Kambodża (Cambodia)? Is the answer to the riddle wrong? Well, no! The answer is correct. The word państwo means not only a form of political organisation but is also the plural of pan and pani. Pan Kowalski (Mr. Kowalski) and pani Kowalska (Mrs. Kowalska) are państwo Kowalscy (Mr. and Mrs. Kowalski); pani Nowak and pan Nowak are państwo Nowakowie.

POLISH GRAMMAR TO THE RESCUE

How do we differentiate between these two meanings then? And here’s where grammar comes to your rescue. We say that państwo polskie prowadzi ciekawą politykę zagraniczną (Poland/Polish state pursues an interesting foreign policy); historia państwa polskiego jest bardzo ciekawa (the history of Poland is very interesting); razem z państwem polskim współpracują państwa sąsiednie (neighbour countries are cooperating with Poland); słyszałem wiele dobrego o państwie polskim (I’ve heard many good things about Poland). As you can see, the word państwo here is used in the singular (to państwo is neuter).
When we’re talking about pan and pani Kowalski, they are ci państwo and we need to use the plural verb form (if you don’t remember verbs conjugations, check here) and the plural of the last name. Consequently, we say: państwo Kowalscy przyszli na spotkanie (Mr. and Mrs. Kowalski came to the meeting); to są dzieci państwa Kowalskich (these are the children of Mr. and Mrs. Kowalski); dałem zaproszenie państwu Kowalskim (I have given the invitation to Mr. and Mrs. Kowalski); lubię państwa Kowalskich (I like Mr. and Mrs. Kowalski); słyszeliśmy o państwu Kowalskich wiele dobrego (we have heard a lot of good things about Mr. and Mrs. Kowalski).
As you can see, grammar can be really useful in everyday situations :)

More interesting facts on the Polish language you can find on our FB page.

Let’s not forget about one more thing: the word państwo can also be used to refer to a larger group consisting of men and women. When we would like to welcome participants of a conference or meeting we can say: „Szanowni państwo! Cieszę się, że państwo przybyli na spotkanie.“ (Ladies and gentlemen, I am glad you have come to the meeting). If you want to ask whether you could join the discussion you say: „Czy państwo pozwolą, że zabiorę głos?” (literally: Will you, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to say something?). And at the end you say: „Dziękuję państwu za uwagę.” (Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your attention).

So which państwo starts with K and has 8 letters?

CLASSROOM, COURSE AND LESSON, OR LEARNING THE POLISH LANGUAGE

POLISH LANGUAGE LESSONS IN SPRING
Spring is an awakening after winter, it means new energy and new plans. Among resolutions there start to appear things like going on a diet, doing sports or starting a Polish course at a good language school. After such a beginning we can proudly say later that we are attending a polish language course or we can excuse ourselves saying: nie mogę się spotkać, bo mam klasę polskiego. Wait a minute!!! Klasę języka polskiego? Yes, this mistake is made quite often. Let us make it clear, step by step, what the difference between klasa - kurs – lekcja is.

INTERESTING LESSONS AND COURSES IN BUSINESS POLISH
Klasa, simply means a room where a lesson (e.g. of the Polish language) takes place or a group of people of (more or less) the same age learning together for several years in the same primary school, gymnasium or high school. That is actually why we say mam zjazd mojej klasy maturalnej. As for the first context, it appears most frequently in sentences like: jestem już w klasie; czekam na ciebie w klasie; wejdź do klasy, w klasie było 10 uczniów. Lekcja is just a single unit (that usually lasts 45 or 60 minutes) which is part of a course. Kurs can be an individual or a group one. We have  intensive courses or regular ones, standard or concentrated on a specialist vocabulary (e.g., business Polish). Every time, however, it refers to a total of lessons which have a concrete goal, duration and frequency.

We say therefore: chodzę na kurs (języka) polskiego; mam kurs (języka) polskiego; mam lekcje (języka) polskiego; uczęszczam na kurs (języka) polskiego; miałam interesującą lekcję o narzędniku; zrobiłem kurs "Polski w biznesie" w Po Polsku. 

      You can get familiar with our materials during the courses, but for the time being test your Polish on our FB profile. 

A FEW WORDS ON POLISH PISANKI (Easter eggs)

WHAT DO WE CALL EASTER EGGS IN POLISH?

The period before and after Easter is the perfect time to talk about Polish Easter tradtions in your Polish classes.
If we think „Easter“ we mustn’t forget coloured eggs called pisanki in Polish. They appear in Polish homes together with catkins (bazie, aka kotki, literally kittens, because they remind us of these fluffy animals), first spring flowers, garden cress (rzeżucha) and figures of bunnies (zajączki), chickens (kurczaczki) and a lamb (baranek). Traditionally, they are symbols of new life.

However, not everyone knows (it may be interesting for both foreigners and Polish native speakers) that the coloured eggs have different names depending on the technique used to make them.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN „PISANKA” AND „KRASZANKA”

Pisanki were initially eggs on which the patterns were painted (pisane) with hot wax and which where next put into a homemade dye. Nowadays this name is used to talk about coloured Easter eggs in general.
The single coloured eggs are called kraszanki. Traditionally, natural dyes were used to colour them, such as onion skins to get red or bark of young apple trees to get golden colour.
You need to put a lot of effort into making a drapanka, which is made by scraping patterns in the soft layer of the egg shell. Oklejanki are eggs that have been covered with (oklejone) coloured pieces of fabric or yarn. The most challenging and time-consuming, however, are ażurki, which at first glance seem to be made of lace but are actually made from empty egg shells in which fine patterns are cut out.

This is a drapanka of course :) Check out our FB profile for more information on Easter traditions and the Polish language

No matter what name we call Easter eggs, they are beautiful items decorating Easter tables not only in Poland.

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

A FEW WORDS ABOUT RZECZY IN POLISH LANGUAGE

RZECZ IN POLISH LANGUAGE MEANS MORE THAN JUST A MATERIAL OBJECT
Today it’s going to be brief and do rzeczy (to the point), because I will tell you about the word rzecz.
The majority of foreigners learning Polish (If you are looking for an interesting Polish language course here, you will find some useful information.) get to know this word quite early on. It denotes an object and it’s very easy to translate it into another foreign language (die Sache in German, thing in English, or вещь in Russian). We say moje rzeczy (here, we usually use the plural form) when we refer to objects belonging to us. However, in Polish rzecz appears in contexts which go beyond this first, elementary meaning. In fact, we can often hear that someone has dużo rzeczy do zrobienia, that is someone has to tackle many issues or tasks (the word sprawy is also popular in Polish and one can use the expression zająć się wieloma sprawami in the same context).

Would you like to practise Polish language in an easy and pleasant way? Have a look at our FB profile.

WHO IS TALKING DO RZECZY?
If during a discussion about a certain topic someone starts digressing and drifting away from the original subject of the conversation, it’s enough to say: Do rzeczy, proszę and our interlocutor will quickly return to the interrupted thread. Mówić do rzeczy conveys as much as talking sense and straight to the point. Someone, who mówi od rzeczy, says something unrelated to the subject matter and often what is said doesn’t make sense. Yet, when that someone realises it and we begin to hear meaningful and interesting words, we can comment: Teraz mówisz do rzeczy. Likewise, we can describe sensible people, good ideas and anything that makes sense as będące do rzeczy, while when we want to express the contrary, we describe these people, ideas and issues as będące od rzeczy.

WHAT ELSE IS GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT RZECZY IN THE POLISH LANGUAGE?
People that call a spade a spade, nazywają rzeczy po imieniu, and rzeczą oczywistą jest (there is no doubt about) that the communication with them is brief, succinct, but also difficult.

Polish has endowed rzecz with multiple meanings. This small word can stand for an object, a task, an activity or a subject of a conversation. Cała rzecz w tym (literally: the whole thing is, meaning: the point is) to remember to always use rzeczy do rzeczy :).