Learn how to talk about the genders of adjectives and nouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina: Hello everyone and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, season 1, lesson 7, What Kind of Polish Mobile Phone Do You Have? I’m Gina. |
| Joanna: And I’m Joanna. |
| Gina: In this lesson you'll learn about nouns and adjectives’ genders. |
| Joanna: This conversation takes place on the street.. |
| Gina: It’s between Gosia and Alex. |
| Joanna: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal Polish. |
| Gina: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Gosia: Alex, masz polski telefon? |
| Alex: Mam. |
| Gosia: Jaka marka? |
| Alex: LG |
| Gosia: O! Ja też mam LG! |
| Alex: Nowy model? |
| Gosia: Nie, mój LG jest stary. |
| Gina: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Gosia: Alex, masz polski telefon? |
| Alex: Mam. |
| Gosia: Jaka marka? |
| Alex: LG |
| Gosia: O! Ja też mam LG! |
| Alex: Nowy model? |
| Gosia: Nie, mój LG jest stary. |
| Gina: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Gosia: Alex, masz polski telefon? |
| Gosia: Alex, do you have Polish mobile phone? |
| Alex: Mam. |
| Alex: I do. |
| Gosia: Jaka marka? |
| Gosia: What brand? |
| Alex: LG |
| Alex: LG |
| Gosia: O! Ja też mam LG! |
| Gosia: Oh! I have LG too! |
| Alex: Nowy model? |
| Alex: New model? |
| Gosia: Nie, mój LG jest stary. |
| Gosia: No, my LG is old. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina: So what are the most popular mobile phones in Poland, Joanna? |
| Joanna: Nokia has been and still is one of the most popular brands with Poles. Samsung and Sony Ericsson are also very popular. |
| Gina: When did mobile phones first appear on the Polish market? |
| Joanna: In 1992, but of course they were completely different from what we have now. |
| Gina: Yes, they were much bigger and heavier, right? |
| Joanna: Definitely - they weighed about half a kilogram back in those days! And they also cost more than an average Pole earned a year! People gave them pretty funny names too! |
| Gina: Like what? |
| Joanna: ‘cegła’ or ‘kaloryfer’ |
| Gina: So “a brick” or “a radiator” [laughter]. Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Gina: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is... |
| Joanna: polski [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Polish |
| Joanna: polski [slowly - broken down by syllable] polski [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: telefon [natural native speed] |
| Gina: phone |
| Joanna: telefon [slowly - broken down by syllable] telefon [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: też [natural native speed] |
| Gina: also, too |
| Joanna: też [slowly - broken down by syllable] też [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: ja [natural native speed] |
| Gina: I |
| Joanna: ja [slowly - broken down by syllable] ja [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: nowy [natural native speed] |
| Gina: new |
| Joanna: nowy [slowly - broken down by syllable] nowy [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: stary [natural native speed] |
| Gina: old |
| Joanna: stary [slowly - broken down by syllable] stary [natural native speed] |
| Gina: Next |
| Joanna: mój [natural native speed] |
| Gina: my, mine |
| Joanna: mój [slowly - broken down by syllable] mój [natural native speed] |
| Gina: And last... |
| Joanna: marka [natural native speed] |
| Gina: brand |
| Joanna: marka [slowly - broken down by syllable] marka [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina: Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Joanna, what’s the first word? |
| Joanna: ‘telefon’ |
| Gina: “phone” |
| Joanna: there are still two kinds of phones out there - ‘telefon stacjonarny’ |
| Gina: “landline phone” |
| Joanna: and ‘telefon komórkowy’ |
| Gina: “mobile phone” |
| Joanna: Another way to use the noun ‘telefon’ is when we talk about someone’s phone number. Poles like making things short, so instead of saying ‘numer telefonu’ |
| Gina: which means “phone number” |
| Joanna: we often say - in a casual setting - ‘telefon’ |
| Gina: Let’s hear it in a sentence |
| Joanna: ‘podaj mi swój telefon’ or ‘podaj mi swój numer’ |
| Gina: both would mean “give me your phone number” |
| Joanna: Another word I want to tell you about is ‘marka’ |
| Gina: “brand” |
| Joanna: The adjective that derives from that noun, is used a lot - ‘markowy’ |
| Gina: What does it mean? |
| Joanna: It describes everything that is made by some brand, for example brand-name shoes or brand-name bags |
| Gina: How do we say those in Polish? Let’s start with “brand shoes” |
| Joanna: ‘markowe buty’ |
| Gina: and “brand bag” |
| Joanna: ‘markowa torebka’ |
| Gina: I noticed that the end of the word changes slightly |
| Joanna: Yes, that’s because every adjective and noun has a gender. That’s what we’re learning about it in this lesson. |
| Gina: Great! Let’s get right into the grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Gina: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the genders of Polish adjectives and nouns |
| Joanna: In Polish, both adjectives and nouns have gender. There are 3 kinds of gender in singular - masculine, feminine, and neuter. And 2 kinds in plural - masculine-personal, and non-masculine-personal |
| Gina: For now, we will focus on the singular form genders. |
| Joanna: So here’s the basic rule about how to recognize the gender of nouns! |
| Gina: I’m all ears. |
| Joanna: All you have to do, is pay attention to the letter the word ends with. Masculine nouns end in a consonant. |
| Gina: For example? |
| Joanna: let’s take a word from the dialogue - ‘telefon’ |
| Gina: meaning “phone” |
| Joanna: It’s masculine noun. Why? It ends with the consonant, in this case ‘-n’ |
| Gina: How do we recognize feminine nouns then? |
| Joanna: They usually end with the vowel “a”, in Polish, ‘a’. For example - mapa |
| Gina: meaning “map” |
| Joanna: It’s a feminine noun, and it ends with the vowel -a |
| Gina: What about neuter nouns? |
| Joanna: They end with the vowels -o, -e, -ę, -um |
| Gina: Let’s hear a few examples. |
| Joanna: Okay. A noun ending with “o”, in Polish ‘o’ is ‘dziecko’ |
| Gina: meaning “child” |
| Joanna: A neuter noun ending with an “e”, in Polish ‘e’ is - ‘słońce’ |
| Gina: meaning “sun” |
| Joanna: It isn’t very complicated, is it? As long as you remember which ending goes with each gender, you’ll be fine! |
| Gina: But there must be some exceptions, right? |
| Joanna: Yes, there are, but just a few, so be sure to check them out in the lesson notes. |
| Gina: Okay. What about adjectives? |
| Joanna: Adjectives are even easier than nouns! It’s all about replacing the last letter with the one that’s characteristic for the feminine or neuter gender. |
| Gina: Please note that we’ll always give the most basic dictionary form, which is the masculine form |
| Joanna: So then, you can create the feminine and neuter forms, without learning them by heart - all you have to do is change the last letter. You already know, for example, that all feminine nouns end with -a, so just replace the masculine letter ending with the -a. |
| Gina: Can you give us an example? |
| Joanna: ‘nowy’ |
| Gina: meaning “new” |
| Joanna: ‘nowy’ is in the masculine form. So to make it feminine, you replace the last letter to get ‘nowa’ |
| Gina: It really is easy! |
| Joanna: See?? Polish is easy! |
| Gina: Well - there’s a little bit of good news, listeners! Okay, everyone, in the lesson notes, you will find lots of examples of nouns and adjectives in all three forms. |
| Joanna: So be sure to check them out. |
Outro |
|---|
| Gina: Well, that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Joanna: Papa. |
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