Learn how to grade Polish i-adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hello everyone and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 20, Where’s The Tallest Building in Poland? I’m Gabriella. |
| Joanna: And I’m Joanna. |
| Gabriella: In this lesson you'll learn to make comparative and superlative forms from Polish i-adjectives or i-adjectives in English. |
| Joanna: This conversation takes place at home, where two friends are looking at a Polish tourism website. |
| Gabriella: It’s between Gosia and Alex. |
| Joanna: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Polish. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Alex: Co to za budynek? |
| Gosia: To Sky Tower. Najwyższy budynek w Polsce. |
| Alex: W którym mieście? |
| Gosia: We Wrocławiu. |
| Gabriella: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Alex: Co to za budynek? |
| Gosia: To Sky Tower. Najwyższy budynek w Polsce. |
| Alex: W którym mieście? |
| Gosia: We Wrocławiu. |
| Gabriella: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Alex: Co to za budynek? |
| Alex: What building is that? |
| Gosia: To Sky Tower. Najwyższy budynek w Polsce. |
| Gosia: It's Sky Tower, the tallest building in Poland. |
| Alex: W którym mieście? |
| Alex: In which city? |
| Gosia: We Wrocławiu. |
| Gosia: In Wroclaw. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: Joanna, I’m sure we have some listeners who are into architecture! What was the name of the building we heard in the dialogue again? |
| Joanna: Sky Tower! |
| Gabriella: What’s so special about it? |
| Joanna: It’s in a city called Wroclaw, which is in western Poland. It’s the tallest building in Poland, and the tallest residential building in European Union |
| Gabriella: Wow! Sounds impressive! How tall is it exactly? |
| Joanna: It’s 212 meters tall. |
| Gabriella: What can we find in the building? |
| Joanna: There are apartments and offices, but also a shopping center which consists of more than 80 brand shops, restaurants, a fitness club, spa, and much more |
| Gabriella: Sounds like a cool place to visit. |
| Joanna: For sure it is, if you go to Wroclaw city! |
| Gabriella: Listeners, be sure to note the name and check it out when you go to Poland! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is... |
| Joanna: Budynek [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: building |
| Joanna: Budynek [slowly - broken down by syllable] Budynek [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: Polska [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Poland |
| Joanna: Polska [slowly - broken down by syllable] Polska [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: Najwyższy [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: the tallest |
| Joanna: Najwyższy [slowly - broken down by syllable] Najwyższy [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: W [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: in |
| Joanna: W [slowly - broken down by syllable] W [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: Miasto [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: city |
| Joanna: Miasto [slowly - broken down by syllable] Miasto [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: Co [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: what |
| Joanna: Co [slowly - broken down by syllable] Co [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: To [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: this, it |
| Joanna: To [slowly - broken down by syllable] To [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gabriella: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Joanna, what’s the first word? |
| Joanna: ‘miasto’ |
| Gabriella: “city” |
| Joanna: There’s one more meaning of ‘miasto’ |
| Gabriella: What is that? |
| Joanna: “town” |
| Gabriella: Oh I see, so in Polish, there’s only one word for the English “town” and “city”. Is that correct? |
| Joanna: Yes. |
| Gabriella: What’s the gender of that noun? |
| Joanna: It’s a neuter noun |
| Gabriella: Is there anything else you can tell us about this word? |
| Joanna: There is an adjective that derives from the noun ‘miasto’. It’s ‘miejski’. |
| Gabriella: meaning “urban” |
| Joanna: We can use it as in the phrase - ‘park miejski’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “urban park” |
| Joanna: Please repeat after me - ‘miasto’ |
| Gabriella: (pause) “city, town” |
| Joanna: ‘miejski’ |
| Gabriella: (pause) “urban” |
| Joanna: Now let me tell you a few phrases, which may come in handy, but can be a little bit tricky |
| Gabriella: we’re all ears! |
| Joanna: ‘plan miasta’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “city map” |
| Joanna: please note that in this case, in Polish, we don’t use the noun ‘mapa’ |
| Gabriella: which means “map” |
| Joanna: another useful phrase is - ‘jechać do miasta’ |
| Gabriella: “to go/drive to the city”. Very often what you mean when you say this is, going to the city center, not to the city itself, because you are already in the city. Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Joanna: ‘budynek’ |
| Gabriella: “building” |
| Joanna: there are a few other parts of speech linked to this masculine noun |
| Gabriella: I’m guessing one’s a verb |
| Joanna: good guess!! |
| Gabriella: so how do we say “to build” in Polish? |
| Joanna: ‘budować’ |
| Gabriella: it can also mean “to construct” |
| Joanna: exactly! |
| Gabriella: For more examples, be sure to check the lesson notes. Now, it’s high time to move on to the grammar! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gabriella: In this lesson you will continue learning about the comparative and superlative forms of Polish adjectives. In the last lesson we learned all about grading so-called y-adjectives and now it’s time to learn about i-adjectives. |
| Joanna: Unfortunately in this group, there are quite a few irregularities, so there’s no choice but to memorize them |
| Gabriella: That’s not such good news. |
| Joanna: But a little bit of memorizing won’t hurt anyone! |
| Gabriella: That’s true. |
| Joanna: Now, one thing that all i-adjectives have in common is the suffix -szy, “s,z,y”, which we will find at the end of every comparative form. |
| Gabriella: Can you give us an example? |
| Joanna: Sure! Let’s take ‘słodki’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “sweet” |
| Joanna: The comparative form of ‘slodki’ is ‘słodszy’. We replace the last two letters with the suffix -szy. Then, to make the superlative form, you just need to add the prefix naj-, “n,a,j”, to the comparative form |
| Gabriella: Can we hear them altogether? |
| Joanna: ‘słodki - słodszy - najsłodszy’ |
| Gabriella: In English - “sweet - sweeter - the sweetest” |
| Joanna: Another example could be - ‘krótki’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “short” |
| Joanna: All the forms go like this - ‘krótki - krótszy - najkrótszy’ |
| Gabriella: In English - “short - shorter - the shortest” |
| Joanna: Let’s have a look at one of the adjectives that requires more changes. For example - ‘niski’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “short, low” |
| Joanna: Here the main pattern stays the same, but there’s one more additional change. In the comparative form, the letter ‘s’ is changed into ‘ż’, so it sounds like this - ‘niższy’ |
| Gabriella: Can we hear all the forms now? |
| Joanna: ‘niski - niższy - najniższy’ |
| Gabriella: “short - shorter - the shortest” |
| Joanna: In the dialogue, Gosia was talking about the tallest building in Poland. |
| Gabriella: How do we say - “the tallest in Poland”? |
| Joanna: ‘najwyższy w Polsce’ |
| Gabriella: Can we hear the all the forms of the adjective “tall” |
| Joanna: Sure! It goes like this - ‘wysoki - wyższy - najwyższy’ |
| Gabriella: “tall - taller - the tallest” |
| Joanna: Here again we needed to replace the letter ‘s’ with the letter ‘ż’ |
| Gabriella: Yes, but let’s not get discouraged and check the notes of this lesson for more examples of adjectives and their comparative and superlative forms! |
| Joanna: Make sure you learn them, because they will come in handy in further lessons! |
Outro |
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| Gabriella: And that’s going to do it for this lesson, thanks for listening, everyone! Bye! |
| Joanna: Pa pa. |
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