The English language, with its modest origins on a rainy island in the North Atlantic, has always punched above its weight. The English language was the British Empire’s most successful export. Its adoption as the first language in the United States played a major role in rise to prominence. With the advent of the internet, …
When you first start learning German, you might feel quite upbeat and optimistic, thinking “Ok, this doesn’t look that hard, some of it is quite similar to English, like “Good morning” = “Guten Morgen” or “Monday” = “Montag”, I can do this!”. What’s an article? And then you come across a little something called ARTICLES …
Polish imperative verbs are special verb forms whose purpose is issuing commands, giving advice, making requests and many others. In English, you would usually use the infinitive verb form, as in “Clean your room.” Alternatively, the verb “to let” is used to make imperative-like suggestions, usually as “let’s”: “Let’s go for a walk.” In Polish, you have to …
Many learners find Polish verbs of motion to be one of the most confusing aspects of the language. And no wonder: to use them correctly, you need to pay attention to a bunch of distinctions that do not even exist in English. Let’s try to make them less scary by analyzing some of their defining …
Polish Verbs of Motion “iść”, “jechać”, and Other Related VerbsRead More »
Który and jaki as interrogative pronouns The Polish pronouns który and jaki – mostly translated as which or what – have several uses. Probably the most straightforward one is asking questions. Below are two example sentences with który and jaki as interrogative pronouns: Który samochód podoba ci się bardziej, mój czy Toma? (“Which car do you like more, mine or Tom’s?”) …
Polish Relative Pronouns “który“ and “jaki” Made (Relatively) EasyRead More »
The Polish negative indefinite pronouns nikt and nic are roughly equivalent to the English negative pronouns nobody (or no one) and nothing. As the name would suggest, the pronouns are used to negate things or declare their non-existence. Here are some sentences with nikt and nic in context: Nikt nie jest doskonały. (“Nobody is perfect.”) …
The Polish Negative Pronouns “nikt” and “nic”: A Short GuideRead More »
The Polish interrogative pronouns kto and co correspond to the English question words who and what, so their main purpose is asking questions about personal (human) and impersonal agents. Kto wygrał konkurs? (“Who won the contest?”) Co jeszcze widziałeś? (“What else did you see?”) On a basic level, Polish interrogative pronouns are very much like …
The Polish Interrogative Pronouns “kto” and “co” and Related PronounsRead More »
The way reflexive pronouns work in Polish might not seem too intuitive to an English speaker. After all, English reflexive pronouns – words like oneself, himself, yourselves etc. – are only used in very specific contexts. On a basic level, reflexive pronouns are used to signal that the object of a clause is the same …
The Beginner’s Guide to Polish Reflexive Pronouns and VerbsRead More »
The purpose of possessive pronouns – like my, your, and their in English – is indicating possession or ownership. It may be useful to think of possessive pronouns as a cross between adjectives and personal pronouns. First, they attach to other parts of speech in order to describe them, just like adjectives do – good …
The No-Nonsense Guide to Polish Possessive PronounsRead More »
Demonstrative pronouns are used to point at things, usually in order to distinguish them from other things. In English, the basic demonstrative pronouns are this, that, those and these. In Polish, there are two types of pronouns. The so-called proximal demonstrative pronoun ten is used to point to things which are close to the speaker. On the …
The Polish Demonstrative Pronouns “ten” and “tamten”: A Simple GuideRead More »