Polish Language Course Lekcja czwarta (Lesson 4)

Contents

• Dialogues 1,3 and Text 2. Verb conjugation. Questions.

• Text 4 and dialogue 5. Personal pronouns (continued).

• Grammar

1. Plurals of adjectives and ordinals.

2. Personal pronouns.

3. Polish verbs.

4. Polish verbs. Conjugation - present tense, singular.

5. Reflexive verbs.

6. Declension of nouns, accusative.

7. Declension of nouns, instrumental case of neuter nouns.

8. Pronunciation.

Exercises A

Exercises B

Dialogue 1

Monika: - Cześć! Nazywam się Monika. Jak się nazywasz?
Adam: - Nazywam się Adam.
M: - Co robisz?
A: - Czytam książkę.
M: - Jak on się nazywa?
A: - On się nazywa Robert.
M: - Co on robi?
A: - On pisze list.
M: - Jak ona się nazywa?
A: - Ona się nazywa Barbara.
M: - Co ona robi?
A: - Czyta.

Dialogue 3 (questions)

- Jak się nazywasz?
- Nazywam się Robert.
- Co to jest?
- To jest książka.
- Co robisz?
- Czytam książkę.
- Kto to jest?
- To jest Monika.

Text 2 (verb conjugation)

Ja nazywam się Monika. Ty nazywasz się Adam. On nazywa się Robert. Ona nazywa się Barbara.
Ja czytam książkę. Czytasz list. Barbara czyta podręcznik.
Piszę list. Piszesz opowiadanie. Robert pisze list.
Ja robię śniadanie. Robisz obiad. Ona robi kolację.

Vocabulary

nazywać - name, call (imperfective infinitive)
nazywać się - {name oneself} (reflexive imperfective infinitive)
się - oneself, myself, yourself, himself, herself, etc. (-self)
robić - do, make (imperfective infinitive)
pisać - write (imperfective infinitive)
czytać - read (imperfective infinitive)
co - what
kto - who
jak - how
list - letter (m)
podręcznik - manual, textbook, coursebook (m)
opowiadanie - story (n)
śniadanie - breakfast (n)
obiad - lunch/dinner (m), main meal of the day (taken between 1 pm and 3 pm)
kolacja - dinner/supper (f), evening meal
jak się nazywasz? - what is your name? (word for word translation: how do you name yourself?)
co robisz? - what are you doing?
czytam książkę - I am reading a book
co to jest? - what is this?
kto to jest? - who is this?

Text 4 (usage of personal pronouns, plurals of adjectives)

To jest stół. On jest brązowy. Stół jest brązowy.
To jest książka. Ona jest zielona. Książka jest zielona.
To jest pióro. Ono jest niebieskie. Pióro jest niebieskie.
Stół i długopis są czarne. One są czarne.
Książka i lampa są czerwone. One są czerwone.
Pióro i krzesło są żółte. One są żółte.
Długopis i lampa są fioletowe. One są fioletowe.
Długopis i krzesło są białe. One są białe.
Lampa i krzesło są różowe. One są różowe.
Robert i Adam są wysocy, szczupli i przystojni.
Anna i Karol są grubi, niscy i mili.
Monika i Diana są młode i ładne.

Dialogue 5 (in a zoo)

B: - Co tam jest?
R: - Nie widzisz? Tam jest tygrys.
B: - O tak, widzę tygrysa, a tutaj jest żyrafa.
R: - Jak się nazywa ten tygrys? Jak się nazywa ta żyrafa?
B: - Tygrys się nazywa Jacek. Żyrafa się nazywa Anna.
R: - Jak się nazywa to zwierzę?
B: - Kangur.

Vocabulary

czarny - black
czerwony - red
żółty - yellow
fioletowy - violet
biały - white
różowy - pink
przystojny - handsome
młody - young
ładny - nice, pretty (of a woman), lovely
tutaj - here
tu - here (tu = tutaj)
tam - there
ten, ta, to - this (demostrative pronouns for m/f/n nouns, respectively)
tygrys - tiger (m)
żyrafa - giraffe (f)
kangur - kangaroo (m)
zwierzę - animal (n)
widzieć - see, can see (imperfective infinitive)
nie widzisz? - can't you see?
o tak - oh yes!

Grammar

1. Plurals of adjectives and ordinals.

In the plural, adjectives and ordinal numbers have two forms. I call them virile and non-virile. The former one is used when talking about a group of objects containg at least one man, otherwise the latter form is used (see also the information about personal pronouns below).

The endings are the following -i (generally) or -y for virile and -e for non-virile. However making a virile form could be a little difficult because of possible stem changes (non-virile forms are regular). See tables below to find out how to make the plurals.

gender	singular masculine	plural virile	plural non-virile
stem does not change considerably	-by -py -wy -my -ny	-bi -pi -wi -mi -ni	-e
stem does not change	-dzy -cy -czy -ży	-dzy -cy -czy -ży*	-e
r : rz sz : s' ch : s' d : dz' t : c' st : śc' ł : l sł : śl zł : źl sn : śn' zn : źn'	-ry -szy -chy -dy -ty -sty -ły -sły -zły -sny -zny	-rzy -si -si -dzi -ci -ści -li -śli -źli -śni -źni	-e
g' : dz k' : c	-gi -ki	-dzy -cy	-e
stem does not change	-i (not -gi, -ki)	-i (unchanged)	-e
examples	gruby niebieski pierwszy trzeci ostatni	grubi niebiescy pierwsi trzeci ostatni	grube niebieskie pierwsze trzecie ostatnie

Notes:

1. If a stem of a masculine adjective/numeral ends with k or g then the last letter must be i not y (niebieski, not niebiesky). This i also appears in neuter and non-virile forms (niebieskie) but feminine and virile forms do not take i.

2. There are a few adjectives/numerals (e.g. ostatni, trzeci) which nominative masculine forms end with i however the previous letter is neither k nor g. In this case i belongs to a stem and appears in all forms.

3. * says that there are a few exceptions.

In the first column I have put the key to the stem changes, ie. which letters are replaced in a stem. For example: r : rz means that you should write rz instead of r, similarly sz : s' tells you that sz changes to the soft s, which is written as si here, etc.

2. Personal pronouns.

We will concentrate on the following pronouns only: on, ona, ono, oni and one. Any of these pronouns can replace a nominative noun/nouns.

pronoun	gender	replaces	examples
on	masculine	a masculine noun	długopis
ona	feminine	a feminine noun	lampa
ono	neuter	a neuter noun	pióro
oni	virile	a group of objects containg at least one man	Adam i Robert Adam i Monika
one	non-virile	other groups	Monika i Barbara lampa i pióro

Adjectives agree with the nouns in gender, number and case. It means that you describe oni with virile (and one with non-virile) adjectives.

3. Polish verbs.

Polish verbs have personal and impersonal forms. Personal forms conjugate for

• person (first, second and third)

• number (singular, plural)

• tense (present, past, future)

• voice (active, passive, reflexive)

• mood (indicative, conditional, imperative).

and can be either perfective or imperfective.

Impersonal forms include:

• infinitive (ends with -ć or -c) - does not inflect

• active adjectival participle - inflects for case, number and gender

• passive adjectival participle - inflects for case, number and gender

• present adverbial participle - does not inflect

• perfect adverbial participle - does not inflect

• adverbial form of passive adjectival participle - does not inflect

• past participle - inflects for number and gender

Verbs can be divided into 11 main stem groups (some of them consists of a few subgroups) in accordance with its conjugation. However this division could be useful rather for a verb conjugating computer program than for you, so you will also be shown an easier and convienent division into three conjugations.
From now in the vocabulary section, after an English meaning you will find more information about a verb. It will be indicated if the verb is irregular, perfective or imperfective, and information about the conjugation (I, II or III) and the stem group (I-XI) the verb belongs to will be given. For example

być - be (imperfective, irregular)
robić - do, make (imperf, conjugation: II, stem group: VIa)
pisać - write (imperf, I, IX)
czytać - read (imperf, III, I)
widzieć - see, can see (imperf, II, VIIa)

It is very important to know how verbs inflect because in dictionaries you find only infinitives.

4. Polish verbs. Conjugation - present tense, singular.

Any imperfective verb conjugate in the present tense. The endings are the following (in the singular)

• 1st person: -m, -ę

• 2nd person: -sz

• 3rd person has no ending

But the main problem for you will be the stem, not the ending. Thus you will be given not only the ending but also the last letter of the stem or even the whole word.

Look at the following table to learn how to conjugate the verbs introduced in this lesson. You should memorize the conjugation patterns given in the last column.

infinitive		singular forms		conjugation	patterns
czytać		(ja) czytam (ty) czytasz (on/ona/ono) czyta		III	-am -asz -a	-em -esz -e
robić	widzieć	robię robisz robi	widzę widzisz widzi	II	-ę -isz -i	-ę -ysz -y
pisać		piszę piszesz pisze		I	-ę -esz -e

Notes:

1. The third conjugation (III) is the most regular one, generally with no stem changes.

2. There are only a few verbs of the third conjugation which inflection is described by the second pattern (-em, -esz, -e).

The present tense is used when talking about an action occuring at the time of speaking. The Polish present tense can be translated into English using the following tenses

• Present Simple or

• Present Continuous or

• Present Perfect

The converse translation, however, can be made except for Present Perfect which is translated as Polish present tense or past tense.

5. Reflexive verbs.

Polish verbs can have active, passive or reflexive forms. There are very few reflexive verbs in English (eg. betake oneself, avail oneself), in other languages they are numerous, especially in Spanish (levantarse) or French (se lever). A Polish reflexive verb is easily obtainable from the active by adding a reflexive pronoun się. So the verb nazywać się (third conjugation - see above) is inflected as follows:

2. (ja) nazywam się

3. (ty) nazywasz się

4. (on/ona/ono) nazywa się

The pronoun się is never stressed (see Lesson 1 Grammar 3) and is usually placed before a verb, but never at the beginning of a sencence. It also can be separated from the verb (Jak się ona nazywa? or Jak ona się nazywa?).

6. Declension of nouns, accusative.

In the sentence Czytam książkę the noun książkę is an object. (subject + predicate + object = (ja) + czytam + książkę). If a noun is an objects than it must have a proper form (case) depending on the verb. For example, after robić, pisać, czytać, widzieć an object must be put in an accusative case. After other verbs object can be genitive (G), dative (D), accusative (A), instrumental (I) or locative (L), but never nominative (N) or vocative (V).

	masculine singular		feminine singular	neuter singular
	animate	inanimate
nominative	-0 Polak tygrys	-0 długopis	-a Francuzk-a żyraf-a	-o, -ę piór-o zwierz-ę
accusative	-a Polak-a tygrys-a	-0 (unchanged) długopis	-ę Francuzk-ę żyraf-ę	-o, -ę (unchanged) piór-o zwierz-ę

Notes:

1. The class of animate nouns contains people and animals.

7. Declension of nouns, instrumental case of neuter nouns.

The purpose of this section is to complete the information about the instrumental case. You have already learnt how to make this case for m/f nouns. Study the table below so that you can also know how to do with neuter nouns.

	neuter
nominative singular	-o, -e piór-o	-ę zwierz-ę
instrumental singular	-em piór-em	-em zwierzęci-em
instrumental plural	-ami piór-ami	-ami zwierzęt-ami

Notes:

1. Stems of neuter nouns which end with -ę in the nominative, is extented in the instrumantal: you should add -ęci- or -eni- in the singular and -ęt- or -on- in the plural, respectively. For example: zwierz-ę, zwierz-ęci-em, zwierz-ęt-ami.

8. Pronunciation.

At the end of a word the letter ę is pronounced as e, ie. ę looses its nasality. For example: piszę [p i sz e], książkę [k si ą sz k e].

Exercises A

2. Rewrite dialogues 1 and 5 to your exercise-book.

3. I wrote a dialogue in English and started to translate it into Polish. However, I am a little lazy and left some words not translated. Complete my task and read the dialogue aloud.

• Cześć, co (are you doing)?
  - Nie widzisz? Robię (breakfast).
  - (Who) tam jest?
  - (This is) Robert. On (reads).
  - Jak się nazywa (this) książka?
  - To jest (a coursebook).
  - Co (are you writing)?
  - (A letter).
  - Jak się nazywa (this animal)?
  - To jest żyrafa.
  - Kto pisze (a story)?
  - Monika.
  - (Who) jest przystojny?
  - Robert (and) Adam są (handsome). Oni są (also) mili i (young).

Exercises B

1. Translate into Polish.

What is your name? My name is John.
What are you doing? I am reading a book.
What is this? This is a kangaroo.
Who is here? John.
Who is there? Monika.
What is she writing? She is writing a letter.
What do you see? A giraffe and a kangaroo. They are nice animals.

2. Translate into your mother tongue.

Kto to jest? To Monika.
Jak on się nazywa? Robert.
Robert i Adam są mili i przystojni.
Co czyta Robert? On czyta opowiadanie.
Co robi Monika? Ona robi kolację.
Tygrys jest zwierzęciem.

4. Fill in the table below.

5. Write the conjugation of the verb grać = play (present tense, singular). This verb belongs to the 3rd conjugation.

in English	masculine	feminine	neuter	virile	non-virile
white
	żółty
gold				złoci
silver					srebrne
small			małe
large, big	duży			duzi (exception!)
good				dobrzy
bad					złe
		ładna
beautiful, lovely			piękne

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