Ch 1, p.7 Polish Adjectives

Here's some polish adjectives given first in English, then Polish followed by the approximate pronunciation and a menomic.

bad
zły
ZWI
Imagine eating some really bad ZWIEback crackers.

big
duży
DOO zhi
Imagine looking at something really big and saying, “That’s a real Doozey”

good
dobry
DOB ri
Imagine that it’s good to DUB RIanna with the nickname Ria.

small
mały
MA wi
Imagine staying on the beautiful small Hawaiian island MAUI.

tired
zmęczony
zman CHE ni
Imagine hearing the Zzzs of a tired sleeping MACHINIST.

new
nowy
NO vi
Imagine getting a new car every NOVEmber.


Note: The Polish “ł” sounds like the English “w”.

That's all for today

© 2007 by KGW

Ch 1, p. 6 More Polish animals quiz

What is English for:

• To aligator
• indyk
• byk
• chomik
• Jest delfin
• dinosaur
• foka
• mysz
• ptak
• motyl
• jagnię
• zebra

What is Polish for:

• This is an alligator
• turkey
• bull
• hamster
• This is a dolphin
• seal
• mouse
• bird
• butterfly
• lamb
• zebra

What gender is jagnię ?

Answer: Neuter.

Rember, neuter nouns usually end in e, ę , o or um.

That's all for today.

© 2007 by KGW

Ch 1, p. 5 More Polish Animals

Picture each word in your mind as you read. Imagine the masculine animals in blue wearing a hat and the feminine animals in pink holding a flower.

The word will be given first in English, then Polish, followed by it's gender, aproximate pronunciation and a menomic.

alligator
aligator
m
a lee ga tor
Imagine an alligator blue from the cold of a Polish winter.

turkey
indyk
m
EEN dik
Imagine mEAN DICK bringing a blue turkey for Thanksgiving.

bull
byk
m
bik
Imagine a blue bull writing with a BIC pen.

hamster
chomik
m
KHO meek
Imagine your blue hamster sO MEEK hiding under the chips in its cage.

dolphin
delfin
m
DEL feen
Imagine seeing on the side of a van DEL FENds for blue dolphins.

dinosaur
dinozaur
m
dee no za oor
Imagine a blue dinosaur.


seal
foka
f
FO ka
Imagine using your binoculars to FO CUs on a pink seal.

mouse
mysz
f
mish
Imagine just MISsing stepping on a pink mouse with your bare feet.

bird
ptak
m
pTAK
Imagine a blue cuckoo bird saying tick- TOCK.

butterfly
motyl
m
MO til
Imagine a MOTEL decorated with blue butterflies.

zebra
zebra
f
ZE bra
Imagine a ZE BRA sunburned from the hot Polish summer sun.

Note: Mysz is irregular. Even though it ends in a consonant it is feminine.
Note: Polish “SZ” sounds like English “SH”

Quiz tomorrow!

© 2007 by KGW

Ch 1, p.4 Polish the, a, my, this is

Grammar: Articles "the" and "a"

There are no definite (the) or indefinite (a, an) articles in Polish, so depending on context, krowa, can mean cow, the cow or a cow.

My:

The Polish word for my is mój (moo y)


How would you say?

• my horse
• my dog

Answer:

• mój koń
• mój pies

Note: mój changes to match the gender of the noun so

• Female nouns use moja (moo ya) and
• Neuter nouns use moje (moo yeh)

How would you say?

• my fish
• my chicken
• my lamb

Answers:

• moja ryba
• moja kura
• moje jagnię

The Polish words for “This is” is “To jest” (To yest).

For example:

• "This is my fish." is "To jest moja ryba."
• "This is my cat." is "To jest mój kot."

When “to” is used to indicate an indefinite person or thing (remember there is no indefinite article "a" in Polish), “jest” is sometimes omitted.

For example:

• "This is a cow." is "To krowa."
• "This is a dog." is "To pies."

© 2007 by KGW

Ch 1, p. 3 Polish Gender

Note: A little bit of grammar: Unlike English words, Polish words have gender and their endings usually indicate their gender.

Polish words are either

• Masculine which usually end in a consonant (Picture the animal wearing a blue cap)
• Feminine which usually end in a or i (Picture the animal wearing a pink bonnet) or
• Neuter which usually end in e, ę , o or um (Picture the animal wearing a yellow bib)

1. What are the genders of these words?

• kot
• pies
• koń
• królik

2. What are the genders of these words?

• kura
• krowa
• kaczka
• ryba

3. What gender usually ends in e, ę , o or um?

4. What is the gender of jagnię?

5. How do you say jagnię in English?

Note: The Polish “J” sounds like the English “Y”

Answers:

1. They are all masculine because they end in a consonant.
2. They are all feminine because they end in an a or i.
3. Neuter.
4. Neuter
5. Lamb

That's all for today!

© 2007 by KGW

Ch 1, p.2 Polish Animals Quiz

Do you remember the the Polish animal words from yesterday? Test yourself and find out.

How do you say the following in English?

• kot
• kura
• krowa
• pies
• kaczka
• ryba
• koń
• królik
• jagnię

How do you say the following in Polish?

• cat
• chicken
• cow
• dog
• duck
• fish
• horse
• rabbit
• lamb

That's it for today. If you forgot just review yesterday's post.

© 2007 by KGW

Ch 1, p1. Polish Animals

Imagine each word in your head as you read it first in English, then Polish followed by the approximate pronunciation and a menomic to help you remember the word. (If you have a better menomic, feel free to let me know) Quiz follows tomorrow.

(English, Polish, Pronunciation,
Menomic)

cat, kot, kot
Imagine a blue cat laying on a cot.

chicken, kura, koo ra
Imagine a pink chicken in a cheerleading uniform at a football game yelling “Coo - Rah!”

cow, krowa, kro va
Imagine a pink cow with a Crow driving a Van

dog, pies, pyes
Imagine a blue dog stuttering “P Yes”

duck, kaczka, kach ka
Imagine a pink duck catching you and saying “Got cha!”

fish, ryba, ri ba
Imagine a pink fish croaking like a frog “Ri- ba”

horse, koń, kon
Imagine a blue horse wearing a orange construction cone on his head.

rabbit, królik, kroo leek
Imagine a Crew of Leeks racing on a pink rabbit.

lamb, jagnię, yag nyan
Imagine a yellow lamb sitting in Nan’s lap eating yogurt.

Note: The Polish “W” sounds like the English “V”.

© 2007 by KGW

Introduction to Playful Polish

This is a playful book that I have started many times after I studied a little Polish. Originally my thought was that I would send it out to my mixed Polish relatives to have fun talking with each other. But realistically that's probably not going to happen as they are growing old, so it will be more for the kids, grandkids and great grandkids, etc. I also thought it would be a good review and introduction to Polish. All the other languages that I have studied so far, Spanish, French, Italian and German, have a book like this, but not Polish.

Polish is a very nice language because if you learn the pronunciation rules, you can read it with half-way decent pronunciation and by looking at the words' beginnings you can kind of guess what they mean. It's also very interesting because the ends of the words change depending on the part they play in a sentence.

Polish is also a good introduction to the Slavic language family for English speakers as it uses mostly the same letters as English.

So here I go one page a day, Monday to Friday. See you tomorrow.

© 2007 by KGW