And it all looked so simple! I was talking about body parts, more specifically, those body parts that come in twos.

There was little problem with hands and legs:

• dwie ręce – two hands
• dwie nogi – two legs

What was enough for a trip to an insane asylum was when I got to those body parts that are neuter in gender (when singular). You know, stuff like eyes and ears.

In English, it’s all so easy: one eye, two eyes. One ear, two ears. And your work here is done.

In Polish, first you have to figure out what kind of ear or eye you’re talking about.
When the noun is singular, it’s fairly easy.

• ucho (noun, neuter) – ear: the organ that detects sound, OR: something shaped like an ear, like a handle on a jug, for example.
• oko (noun, neuter) – eye: the organ that detects light, and sends electrical impulses along the optic nerve to the visual and other areas of the brain, OR: something shaped like an eye.

Confused yet? No? OK, you just wait. You will be.

So far so good. Then I tried to use these words as plural nouns. And remember, I was talking about body parts.

• uszy – ears, when talking about body parts
• oczy – eyes, when talking about body parts.

but:

• ucha – ears, when talking about something shaped like an ear
• oka – eyes, when talking about something shaped like an eye.

OK, that wasn’t too bad, right? Yeah, I thought so, too. And then I tried to say, or rather – write: two ears and two eyes. (And here, feel free to insert your favorite curse word, or two.)

It took me two słowniki ortograficzne and quite a bit of googling to get it right. And that was just in the nominative case! I’m not going to touch the other cases with a ten foot pole (or a Hungarian, for that matter).

Ok, so how do we say “two ears” when talking about body parts?

• Dwoje uszu.

Yeah, where did that come from?

And how about “two eyes” (body parts again)?

• Dwoje oczu.

Finally, my friend, trying to be helpful suggested: “Oh, what the heck, just say ‘a pair of eyes’ and ‘a pair of ears’.”

Yeah, easy for you to say.
Is it “para uszu” or “para uszów”? And is it “para oczu” or “para oczów”? Or maybe “para ócz”?

I give up. I need to call an expert. Where is Maciej Malinowski – mistrz polskiej ortografii, when you need him?

Post from: Polish Blog

What this Valentine’s Day made me realize was how confusing the word “sympatia” is for both Poles (when speaking English) and foreigners who are learning Polish.

I was reading a blog by a Polish woman, but written in English, and she mentioned something along the lines of “I am going to spend the day with my sympathy.”

At first it didn’t even register. “Sympathy”? Somebody died on Valentine’s Day?

And then I remembered my high school days and figured it out what she was talking about. And what she was talking about was her “sympatia” – boyfriend.
Sympatia is a handy all-purpose word, it can mean “boyfriend” or “girlfriend”, or generally, somebody you have a crush on and are not even at a boyfriend-girlfriend level (yet).

So, what about “sympathy”? That’s współczucie in Polish.

Confusing? Just a little.

“Sympatia” (noun, pl. sympatie) comes from the word “sympatyczny” (adjective, feminine: sympatyczna).

Sympatyczny chłopak (when talking about a guy), or sympatyczna dziewczyna (when talking about a girl) is someone who is nice, fun, loveable, pleasant and helpful. In other words, all the qualities we want in our prospective mates, right?

So there you have it, sympathy and sympatia are definitely two different things. And just because they sound vaguely similar in both languages, it doesn’t mean they can be used interchangeably.

Post from: Polish Blog

That proposed ending “-a” makes it very easy to assume that Polish feminine nouns should end in “-a”. And yes, many indeed do. But not all.

There are some nouns that even though they don’t end in “-a”, you can more or less guess that they are feminine in gender. For example:

• pani (plural: panie) – lady, Mrs or Ms.
• gospodyni (plural: gospodynie) – landlady (or a woman who runs a household)
• bogini (plural: boginie) – goddess

Those are the easy ones. And there aren’t that many of them.

The problem is that there’s also a multitude of nouns who look like they might be anything but feminine in gender. They end in a consonant, and there’s no other way, but to simply learn them one by one. And unfortunately, there’s quite a few of them.

Here are some of the most popular ones you may see:

• krew (usually only singular) – blood
• mysz (plural: myszy) – mouse
• twarz (plural: twarze) – face
• rzecz (plural: rzeczy) – thing
• noc (plural: noce) – night
• sól (plural: sole) – salt
• myśl (plural: myśli) – thought
• kolej (plural: koleje ) – railway

And those are still the easy ones. The biggest group of those “odd” feminine nouns end in those goofy soft consonants that most Polish learners grow to hate. And yes, this group is full of commonly used popular nouns.

For example:

• jesień (plural: jesienie) – autumn
• nić (plural: nici) – thread
• wieś (plural: wsie) – village
• kość (plural: kości) – bone
• odpowiedź (plural: odpowiedzi) – answer
• łódź (plural: łodzie) – boat
• powieść (plural: powieści) – novel

There’s plenty more, unfortunately.

And then there are a few nouns that simply can’t decide whether they are feminine of masculine:

• rodzynek (masculine) or rodzynka (feminine)– raisin
• pomarańcz (masculine) or pomarańcza (feminine) – orange

Though with “orange” when you say “pomarańcz” you mean the color orange. Pomarańcza is an orange (fruit). But Polish raisins swing both ways, I guess.

Post from: Polish Blog