Juicy Polish - a language course with an attitude

What you're witnessing here is the preliminary version of a Polish language course, a very special one, at least in my eyes. How it will develop depends strongly on what feedback will I get from you, the readers. My intention is to provide an introduction to the world of vivid, witty and humorous language and not dry, bookish and 'correct' structures. I won't give you any pronunciation hints, because I don't want to indulge in pedanterie (and that's where phonetics leads); besides, you can find them elsewhere.

A word on the structure: sections are marked by Roman numbers (such as I, V or MDCXXXVIII); in each section first goes text; then its dissection with Polish words in bold, 'too literal translations' in 'single quotation marks' and quite literal translations in normal script; then its translation with English equivalents in italics. Lastly, the bulleted list marks

• notes on pesky words, with special ways of usage and/or numerous meanings (which are separated by Arabic numbers)
• grammatical nuts and bolts. 

My particular gratitude I owe to Mr. Leon Leszek Szkutnik, whose excellent handbook of German, "In Deutsch erlebt", gave me the ideas needed to create this page. The Mingo Survival Kit, written by Thomas McElwain was my second source of inspiration and a great fun to read.

Jestem sam, bo Ciebie tu nie ma.
Ciebie tu nie ma, bo jesteś z nim.
Dlaczego z nim, a nie ze mną ?
Dlaczego życie jest tak okrutne ?

jestem - I am; sam -  alone (masc. sg.); bo - because; Ciebie - you (Gen. sg.); tu - here; nie ma - there aren't/isn't; jesteś - you (sg.); z nim - with him (Ins); dlaczego - why; a - and (contrastive); ze mną - with me (Ins); życie - life (neuter); jest - is; tak - so; okrutne - cruel (neuter).

I am alone, 'cause you're not here. You're not here, 'cause you're with him. Why with him, and not with me ? Why is life so cruel ?

• jestem, jesteś, jest - these are the singular forms of the verb być = "to be". Full singular conjugation -> ja jestem / Ty jesteś / on jest / ona jest / ono jest / Pan jest / Pani jest
• sam - "alone" (masc.). Polish adjectives inflect for number and gender. Sam is a masculine singular form. The other forms are: sama - feminine singular, same - neuter singular; sami - masculine-personal plural and same - non-masculine-personal plural 
• bo - colloquial "because".
• Ciebie tu nie ma - if we want to say that something is not there the construction used is: (noun/pronoun in the Genitive form)+(verb nie ma). Nie ma stays the same, no matter which person is absent. E.g. "dziś nie ma mnie w Warszawie"= today I'm not in Warsaw 
• z nim, ze mną - here z (changing to ze before some consonant clusters) is a preposition meaning with. In this meaning it takes noun/pronoun in the Instrumentative form.
• życie... okrutne - neuter noun takes neuter adjective.

Jestem naprawdę beznadziejny.
I wy też jesteście beznadziejne.
Wszyscy jesteśmy równie beznadziejni.
Wątpię, czy są bardziej beznadziejne przypadki niż my.
Chyba nigdy nie nauczymy się polskiego.

jestem - I am; naprawdę - truly; beznadziejny -  hopeless (masc. sg.); i - and;  wy - you (pl); też - too; jesteście - you (pl.) are; beznadziejne - hopeless (non-masc. pl.); wszyscy -  everyone; jesteśmy - we are; równie - equally; beznadziejni - hopeless (masc. pl.); wątpię - I  doubt; czy -  if; są - they are; bardziej - more; przypadki - cases; niż - than; my - we; chyba - probably; nigdy - never; nie - not;  nauczymy się - we will learn; polskiego - Polish (Gen.);

I am truly hopeless. And you girls are hopeless, too. We all are equally hopeless. I doubt if there are cases more hopeless than us. I guess we will never learn Polish.

• jesteśmy, jesteście, są - these are the plural forms of the verb być = to be. Full conjugation -> my jesteśmy/ wy jesteście /oni są /one są /Państwo są.
• beznadziejny, beznadziejne - Polish plural adjective has its pecularities - a. there are two genders only in the plural - masculine-personal used when talking about men (but see below) and non-masculine-personal used when talking about anyone and anything else (incl. masculine beings which are not considered persons - dogs for instance) b. when talking about group of people non-masc-pers forms are used only when the group is composed exclusively of females. A single male present is enough to make the usage of the masc-pers forms obligatory.
• czy - 1. forms questions of the yes/no type 2. in subordinate clauses means "whether" "if"
• chyba - a word expressing the speaker's uncertainity. It means more than "maybe" but less than "surely". I guess "I guess" is a good approximation.
• nigdy nie nauczymy się - 'we never won't learn'. double (or triple, or even quadruple) negation is a rule in Polish. 

- Co robisz, kiedy masz czas ?
- Jak mam czas, to sobie siedzę i myślę
- A jeśli nie masz czasu ?
- To tylko siedzę.

co - what ?; robisz - you (sg.) do; kiedy - when; masz - you have; czas - time (acc.); jak - as, when; mam - I have; to - then; sobie - to/for myself; siedzę - I sit; i - and; myślę - I think; a - and (contrastive); jeśli - if; nie - not; czasu - time (Gen.); tylko - only

-What do you do when you have time ? -When I have time, I just sit and think. -And if you don't have time ? -Then I only sit.

• jak - 1. "how", "in what manner" 2. "like", "as" As I already said = Jak już powiedziałem 3. colloquially, "when"
• mam, masz - the verb mieć = "to have" is conjugated as follows -> ja mam / Ty masz / on ma / ona ma / ono ma // my mamy / wy macie / oni mają / one mają. Polite forms - Pan ma / Pani ma / Państwo mają
• sobie - 1. "to my/your/oneself" 2. shows that the action is done casually, without... say, external motivation
• masz czas vs. nie masz czasu - in Polish the object of a transitive verb stands in the Accusative if the verb is positive (ie. not-negated) and in the Genitive if there is a nie around.
• to - 1. "this" (neuter) 2. "then" (as in pair with "if") 3 and many more - different, tricky uses...

[...]
poniedziałek - jeść mi się chce
wtorek - jeść mi się chce
środa - jeść mi się chce
czwartek - jeść mi się chce jak diabli
piątek - stypendium !
sobota - nic nie pamiętam
niedziela - jeść mi się chce
[...]

poniedziałek - Monday;  jeść - to eat;  mi - to me (Dat.) chce się - 'wants itself'=feels like;  wtorek - Tuesday; środa - Wednesday; czwartek - Thursday; jak diabli -'like devils'=like hell, very much; piątek - Friday; stypendium - scholarship; sobota - Saturday; nic - nothing; nie - not; pamiętam - I remember; niedziela - Sunday 

...Monday - I'm hungry; Tuesday - I'm hungry; Wednesday - I'm hungry; Thursday - I'm hungry like hell; Friday - scholarship money; Saturday - I don't remember a thing; Sunday - I'm hungry...

• chce mi się... - literally 'it wants to me' means "I feel like" and is followed (or preceded) by verb in the infinitive form. In conjugation only the pronoun form changes -> chce mi się / chce Ci się / chce mu się / chce jej się // chce nam się / chce wam się / chce im się. Polite forms (note changes in word order) -> chce się Panu / chce się Pani / chce się Państwu. 
• jak diabli - literally 'like devils', is a colloquial intensifier. 
• stypendium - 1. scholarship 2. scholarship money which in state universities is issued monthly to the best students
• nic nie pamiętam - 'I don't remember nothing'. Do remember that in Polish negative words (never, nowhere, nothing, noone and such) can and should be stocked in sentences with negated verb.  

- Na razie słabo mówię po polsku, ale... 

na razie - 'on one-time' = as for now; słabo - weakly; mówię - I speak; po polsku - 'Polish-wise' = in Polish; ale - but

As for now, I speak Polish poorly, but...

Most likely you'll be interrupted with one of the following answers (A, B or C) : 

A. Faktycznie. 

faktycznie - in fact; 

That's a fact.

B. No i co z tego ?

no - well ?, so ?; i - and; co - what ?; z tego - from this (Gen);

So what ?

C. A co mnie to obchodzi ?

a - and (contrastive); co - what ?; mnie - me (Acc); to - this; obchodzi - 'it walks around' = it's being cared about;

Like I care.

• na razie - 1. it's used along the lines of "so far", "as for now", "for the time being" 2. is also a casual farewell greeting, corresponding to "see you"
• no - 1. means casual "yes" 2. is used when urging someone to perform some action (e.g. continue speaking), like English "c'mon" 3. is a void filler - ie. a word you use, when the correct one is on the tip of your tongue and you need some time to fetch and utter it.
• co z tego - 1. literally means 'what from this' 2. usually means "so what"
• obchodzić - 1. means "to walk around a place" 2. more often it is used in meaning "to be cared for by someone". In this function it takes pronoun in the Genetive form. Thus e.g. "Wcale Cię nie obchodzę", literally 'at all you not I-am-cared-for' is You don't care for me at all.

My other learning resource is "The adventures of Pe" - a bunch of short littlesensical texts with translations.

If you like this page, do check my other projects. The index is here.

Don't forget to write me (peterlin -at- peterlin -dot- pl) your opinions and comments.

I owe this page, as I owe everything, to K.D. , whose smile makes the impossible happen