Learn how to grade y-adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hello everyone and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 19,What Kind of Polish Animal is That? I’m Gabriella. |
| Joanna: And I’m Joanna. |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn to make comparative and superlative forms of y-adjectives or y-adjectives in English. |
| Joanna: The conversation takes place in the park. |
| Gabriella: It’s between Gosia and Alex. |
| Joanna: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Polish. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Alex: Co to za park? |
| Gosia: To Białowieski Park Narodowy. |
| Alex: I żyją tutaj żubry. Co jest większe? Żubr czy bizon? |
| Gosia: Żubr i bizon są podobne,ale żubr jest wyższy. |
| Gabriella: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Alex: Co to za park? |
| Gosia: To Białowieski Park Narodowy. |
| Alex: I żyją tutaj żubry. Co jest większe? Żubr czy bizon? |
| Gosia: Żubr i bizon są podobne,ale żubr jest wyższy. |
| Gabriella: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Alex: Co to za park? |
| Alex: What park is that? |
| Gosia: To Białowieski Park Narodowy. |
| Gosia: It's Bialowieza National Park. |
| Alex: I żyją tutaj żubry. Co jest większe? Żubr czy bizon? |
| Alex: And wisents live here. Which one is bigger? Wisent or bison? |
| Gosia: Żubr i bizon są podobne,ale żubr jest wyższy. |
| Gosia: Wisent and bison are similar, but wisent is taller. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, Gosia and Alex are talking about wisents and bison. I think everyone knows what bison are but wisents..? Sounds mysterious! |
| Joanna: Well, believe it or not, wisents are the largest animal living in Europe and they belong to the same family as bison, but they’re slightly different in body shape and size...and it just so happens that they exist in Poland! |
| Gabriella: Where in Poland can we see them? |
| Joanna: They live in the biggest and oldest national park, called Białowieski Park Narodowy in Polish. |
| Gabriella: Isn’t that on the UNESCO World Heritage List? |
| Joanna: Yes, it is! It has been since 1979. |
| Gabriella: Can you ride wisents? |
| Joanna: No. They are one of the few animals never to have been tamed by humans! |
| Gabriella: Interesting! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is... |
| Joanna: Park [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: park |
| Joanna: Park [slowly - broken down by syllable] Park [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: Narodowy [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: national |
| Joanna: Narodowy [slowly - broken down by syllable] Narodowy [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: Żyć [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to live |
| Joanna: Żyć [slowly - broken down by syllable] Żyć [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: Żubr [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: wisent |
| Joanna: Żubr [slowly - broken down by syllable] Żubr [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: Bizon [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: bison |
| Joanna: Bizon [slowly - broken down by syllable] Bizon [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: Większy [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: bigger |
| Joanna: Większy [slowly - broken down by syllable] Większy [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: Wyższy [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: taller |
| Joanna: Wyższy [slowly - broken down by syllable] Wyższy [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: And last... |
| Joanna: Podobny [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: similar |
| Joanna: Podobny [slowly - broken down by syllable] Podobny [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let's take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Joanna, what’s the first word? |
| Joanna: ‘park’ |
| Gabriella: I’m pretty sure I can guess what that means! |
| Joanna: Go ahead! |
| Gabriella: “park” |
| Joanna: Yeah, exactly the same as English. |
| Gabriella: There should be more words like this in Polish! |
| Joanna: That would be boring! And even with this noun, we have phrases that are completely different from English |
| Gabriella: What are they? |
| Joanna: ‘park krajobrazowy’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “landscape park” |
| Joanna: or ‘park narodowy’, which means “national park” |
| Gabriella: Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Joanna: ‘żyć’ |
| Gabriella: “to live” |
| Joanna: There are a few pretty interesting sayings that make use of that verb. |
| Gabriella: Let’s hear them! |
| Joanna: ‘żyć na kocią łapę’ |
| Gabriella: “to shack up” |
| Joanna: That’s the English equivalent, but the literal meaning is “to live on the cat’s paw” |
| Gabriella: wow, that’s funny! |
| Joanna: another example of a saying with the verb ‘żyć’ is ‘żyć jak pies z kotem’ |
| Gabriella: “to lead a cat-and-dog life” |
| Joanna: Here English and Polish are very similar, in Polish - “to live like a cat with a dog” |
| Gabriella: Yeah, not so different. Okay, what’s the last word? |
| Joanna: ‘żubr’ |
| Gabriella: “wisent” |
| Joanna: We’ve already talked a little about this animal. |
| Gabriella: Yes. To be honest, I’ve never heard about it before. Anyway, is there anything we should know about the word itself? |
| Joanna: Well, ‘żubr’ is the name of an animal, but it also happens to be the name of a brand of beer in Poland and one other kind of alcohol, but for that, you will have to check the lesson notes! |
| Gabriella: Great! Now, let’s move on to the grammar! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use adjectives to compare things. |
| Joanna: In lesson 7 of this series, we introduced Polish adjectives, and the two groups they belong to. These are so-called y-adjectives, those which end with the Polish vowel ‘y’; and i-adjectives, which end with the Polish vowel ‘i’ |
| Gabriella: In this lesson, we will focus on y-adjectives. First of all here’s some good news for you - there’s a pattern that will help you create comparative and superlative forms out of the basic form. |
| Joanna: That’s right. First, if the adjective ends with ‘ny’ Gabriella: ...in English “ny”... |
| Joanna: to create a comparative form, we have to change the vowel ‘y’ into ‘i’ and add the suffix -ejszy |
| Gabriella: Which is spelled “e,j,s,z,y”. Could you give us an example, Joanna? |
| Joanna: Okay, so for the adjective ‘ładny’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “pretty” |
| Joanna: The comparative form is ‘ładniejszy’ meaning “prettier”. Another example would be ‘zimny’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “cold” |
| Joanna: Its comparative form is - ‘zimniejszy’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “colder”. Okay, then what if we want to make a superlative form? |
| Joanna: In this case we have to modify the comparative form by adding the prefix ‘naj-’, for example ‘najzimniejszy’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “the coldest” |
| Joanna: or ‘najładniejszy’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “the prettiest”. Let’s try saying it together, so that it’s easier for the listeners to hear how we modified the basic word to make the comparative and superlative forms. |
| Joanna: ‘zimny - zimniejszy - najzimniejszy’ |
| Gabriella: “cold - colder - the coldest” |
| Joanna: ‘ładny - ładniejszy - najładniejszy’ |
| Gabriella: “pretty - prettier - the prettiest” Please note that all the forms given here are masculine. |
| Joanna: Yes! If we need to grade feminine adjectives, as you remember, we need to change the last vowel into ‘-a’, in English “a” and for the neuter ‘-e’, in English “e” |
| Gabriella: Let’s give our listeners feminine and neuter versions of all forms of the adjective “cold” |
| Joanna: feminine - ‘zimna - zimniejsza - najzimniejsza’ |
| Gabriella: and neuter |
| Joanna: ‘zimne - zimniejsze - najzimniejsze’ |
| Gabriella: I assume there are some exceptions to this rule. |
| Joanna: Yes, there are and you will find a table of those in the lesson notes, using the adjectives we have just learned. |
| Gabriella: That sounds good! And that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and don’t miss the next lesson in which we will learn... |
| Joanna: Creating comparative and superlative forms out of i-adjectives. |
Outro |
|---|
| Gabriella: We’ll soon master those too! See you back here next time, listeners! |
| Joanna: Pa pa! |
Comments
HideHello Listeners! Have you ever seen a wisent?
Cześć Piotr :)
Ja czasami żubry widuję :) I am lucky to live in the part of Poland where they live :) Come to Bieszczady Mountains and you will also get your chance to see them!
Miłego dnia :)
Pozdrowienia,
Łukasz
Team PolishPod101.com
Cześć,
Dawno nie widziałem żubra.
Do widzenia.
Hi Taran,
Thank you for posting.
Have you checked these assessments?
https://www.polishpod101.com/lesson-library/level-1-polish
Let us know if you have any questions.👍
Cheers,
Lena
Team PolishPod101.com
Hi Romel,
Thanks for posting.
"y" is a vowel. It is a so-called front vowel.
You can read more about it here:
https://www.polishpod101.com/lesson/pronunciation-1-so-many-polish-consonants-so-few-polish-vowels/
Best,
Hanna
Team PolishPod101.com
Hi,
Kindly correct, you mentioned "y" is a vowel instead of a consonant.
Regards,
Romel
Cześć Roxanne,
To be honest, even if I live in Poland I have only seen a wisent in pictures 😅
Let us know if you have any questions.
Best,
Hanna
Team PolishPod101.com
Nie, nigdy nie widziałam żubra 😁
Hi Rafał,
Thank you for posting!
We hope you can reach your goal soon :)
Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Cristiane
Team PolishPod101.com
I do visit Poland several times a year, as my girlfriend is polish. We are not living together, just time to time (basis is 2 weeks every 2 months, and mainly in France). I do feel very good in her native town, which is Gorzów Wielkopolski. So far (already almost 4 years together), unfortunately, we have not enough visited Poland. Warsaw, Szczecin (a little), Kołobrzeg (great)... 99 % Gorzow. (which I like anyway)Next march I will spend two weeks in Poland, we'll try to visit more of it (at least Poznan). With my girlfriend we are always speaking english together. My goal is to, by the end, live in Poland. :)
Cześć Rafal,
Dzięki za komentarz.
So you have not seen neither Bison or Wisent. Then you need to come to Bałowieski Park Narodowy!
By the way, have you been to Poland?
Pozdrawiamy,
Hanna
Team PolishPod101.com
Never seen neither Bison or Wisent, by the way, seems that Wisent is also called European Bison.