Learn about comparatives and superlatives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gabriella: Hello everyone and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 25, The most famous in Warsaw, I’m Gabriella. |
| Joanna: And I’m Joanna. |
| Gabriella: In this last lesson of the series, you'll learn more about comparative and superlative adjectives. |
| Joanna: This conversation takes place at the metro station. |
| Gabriella: It’s between Gosia and Alex. |
| Joanna: The speakers are friends, so they will be speaking informal Polish. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Gosia: To warszawskie metro. |
| Alex: Ok. Gdzie jedziemy? |
| Gosia: Do centrum. Pokażę ci Pałac Kultury i Nauki. |
| Alex: Czy to miejsce jest bardziej znane niż Łazienki Królewskie? |
| Gosia: Chyba tak. Ten pałac to symbol Warszawy. |
| Alex: Już się nie mogę doczekać! |
| Gabriella: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Gosia: To warszawskie metro. |
| Alex: Ok. Gdzie jedziemy? |
| Gosia: Do centrum. Pokażę ci Pałac Kultury i Nauki. |
| Alex: Czy to miejsce jest bardziej znane niż Łazienki Królewskie? |
| Gosia: Chyba tak. Ten pałac to symbol Warszawy. |
| Alex: Już się nie mogę doczekać! |
| Gabriella: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Gosia: To warszawskie metro. |
| Gosia: It's Warsaw's metro. |
| Alex: Ok. Gdzie jedziemy? |
| Alex: Ok. where are we going? |
| Gosia: Do centrum. Pokażę ci Pałac Kultury i Nauki. |
| Gosia: to the city center. I'll show you Palace of Culture and Science. |
| Alex: Czy to miejsce jest bardziej znane niż Łazienki Królewskie? |
| Alex: Is it better known place than Łazienki Park? |
| Gosia: Chyba tak. Ten pałac to symbol Warszawy. |
| Gosia: I guess so. That palace is a symbol of Warsaw. |
| Alex: Już się nie mogę doczekać! |
| Alex: I already can't wait! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gabriella: What shall we talk about this time? |
| Joanna: Well, in the dialogue Alex and Gosia talked about two famous places in Warsaw, which is the capital city of Poland |
| Gabriella: Yes, they mentioned some palace, right? |
| Joanna: It was ‘Pałac Kultury i Nauki’, which isn’t really a palace, but a skyscraper |
| Gabriella: How tall is it? |
| Joanna: 237 meters, with 42 floors |
| Gabriella: As we already know, it’s not the tallest building in Poland. |
| Joanna: No, it isn’t. But it’s quite special, because it was built in 1952 by the Soviet Union. And so many people, especially the older generations, have negative feelings about it |
| Gabriella: What about young people? |
| Joanna: Of course it depends on the person, but generally speaking we don’t mind, since for us, it’s always been there and it’s somewhat a symbol of Warsaw |
| Gabriella: Interesting. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gabriella: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is... |
| Joanna: gdzie [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: where |
| Joanna: gdzie [slowly - broken down by syllable] gdzie [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: pałac [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: palace |
| Joanna: pałac [slowly - broken down by syllable] pałac [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: pokazać [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to show |
| Joanna: pokazać [slowly - broken down by syllable] pokazać [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: znany [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: well-known |
| Joanna: znany [slowly - broken down by syllable] znany [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: symbol [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: symbol, sign |
| Joanna: symbol [slowly - broken down by syllable] symbol [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: móc [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: can, to be able to |
| Joanna: móc [slowly - broken down by syllable] móc [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: Next |
| Joanna: jechać [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: to go (by means of transportation) |
| Joanna: jechać [slowly - broken down by syllable] jechać [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: And last... |
| Joanna: bardziej [natural native speed] |
| Gabriella: more |
| Joanna: bardziej [slowly - broken down by syllable] bardziej [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: ‘warszawski’ |
| Gabriella: English translation can a little bit tricky here, but we could say it means “Warsaw’s” |
| Joanna: Yes. In Polish, we often make an adjective that derives from the name of the city. Just like in this case. The capital city of Poland is ‘Warszawa’, so something that is in ‘Warszawa’ can be described as ‘warszawski’ |
| Gabriella: Can you give us an example? |
| Joanna: In the dialogue we heard the phrase ‘warszawskie metro’, right? |
| Gabriella: Yes, and it means “Warsaw’s metro”. To describe that metro, we used the adjective that derives from the name of the city, where the metro is located. Can we do that with the names of other Polish cities? |
| Joanna: Of course. Let me tell you a few examples. Another famous city in Poland is - ‘Kraków’ |
| Gabriella: Cracow. So if we talk about something that is located in or characteristic for that city we can use the adjective... |
| Joanna: ‘krakowski’. For example - ‘krakowski zamek’ |
| Gabriella: “Cracow’s castle”. For more examples and all gender forms, please refer to the lesson notes. Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Joanna: ‘pałac’ |
| Gabriella: “palace”. In Poland there are many palaces, which are usually very beautiful examples of Polish architecture. |
| Joanna: In the case of this noun, we can also create an adjective, which is ‘pałacowy’ |
| Gabriella: How can we use it? |
| Joanna: When we talk about something that belongs to the palace, is inside or in its grounds. For example, a garden that’s by the palace will be called - ‘ogród pałacowy’ |
| Gabriella: I must admit that this is a little bit difficult, but let’s not lose our motivation, and move on to the grammar! |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gabriella: In this final lesson, you’ll learn more about adjectives |
| Joanna: We will learn the last type of conjugation and the rules for it - actually, it’s quite similar to the English. |
| Gabriella: How is it similar? |
| Joanna: We will be making comparatives and superlatives by adding words like ‘bardziej’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “more” |
| Joanna: and ‘najbardziej’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “most” |
| Joanna: In the lesson notes, you will find a table demonstrating the comparatives and superlatives of this type of word. For now, we will focus on some that were used in the dialogue. |
| Gabriella: Good idea! |
| Joanna: Alex asked Gosia - Czy to miejsce jest bardziej znane niż Łazienki Królewskie? |
| Gabriella: “Is this place more famous than Łazienki Park?” |
| Joanna: The components of this question are - ‘czy’, a word that has no meaning, but is very similar to the English “do”. Then there was ‘to miejsce’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “this place” |
| Joanna: followed by ‘jest’, the third person singular form of the verb ‘być’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “is” |
| Joanna: then ‘bardziej znane’ |
| Gabriella: meaning ”more famous” |
| Joanna: and then the noun ‘miejsce’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “place” |
| Joanna: and the rest of the sentence ‘niż Łazienki Królewskie‘ |
| Gabriella: “than Łazienki Park” |
| Joanna: As you can see, there was a comparative form of the adjective here - ‘bardziej znany’ |
| Gabriella: meaning “more famous” |
| Joanna: the adjective ‘znany’ is one of those that is graded by ‘bardziej’ and ‘najbardziej’ |
| Gabriella: Can we hear all three forms then? |
| Joanna: Of course. It goes like this - ‘znany - bardziej znany - najbardziej znany’ |
| Gabriella: “famous - more famous - the most famous” |
| Joanna: As you can see, there are no modifications when it comes to the adjective itself, we just need to add ‘bardziej’ or ‘najbardziej’ depending on the grade |
| Gabriella: Let’s practice more with some other adjectives |
| Joanna: Okay.. Let’s try with ‘interesujący’ |
| Gabriella: meaning ‘interesting’ |
| Joanna: Now everyone, please repeat the basic form after me - ‘interesujący’ (pause).. and now the comparative form - ‘bardziej interesujący’ .. (pause) and finally, the superlative form - ‘najbardziej interesujący’ |
| Gabriella: let’s hear them once more together |
| Joanna: ‘interesujący - bardziej interesujący - najbardziej interesujący’ |
| Gabriella: “interesting - more interesting - most interesting” |
| Joanna: There are also some adjectives that cannot be graded, especially those which describe a material, or a place of origin of something |
| Gabriella: You will find a table with those in the notes for this lesson. Well listeners, that’s all for this lesson, and for this series! We hope you’ve enjoyed it and found it useful. Remember, you can always leave a post on any of the lesson pages if you have comments or questions. |
Outro |
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| Joanna: We’re happy to help. For now, thank you for listening everyone! |
| Gabriella: And we’ll see you in another series. Bye! |
| Joanna: Pa pa! |
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