Learn how to use the accusative case of nouns and adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Betsey:Hello everyone and welcome to PolishPod101.com. This is Beginner series, season 1, lesson 14, How Many Pets do you Have in Poland? I’m Betsey. |
| Joanna:And I’m Joanna. |
| Betsey:In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about your pets, and use the accusative case. |
| Joanna:This conversation takes place at a cafe. |
| Betsey:It’s between Ewa and Jan. |
| Joanna:They’re friends so they’ll be using informal Polish. |
| Betsey:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
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| Jan:Czy masz jakieś zwierzęta? |
| Ewa:Tak, mam dużego psa, czarnego kota i cztery szczury. |
| Jan:Łał! Masz dużo zwierząt. |
| Ewa:To prawda. A Ty masz jakieś zwierzęta? |
| Jan:Ja mam tylko małego i grubego kota. Ale mój młodszy brat ma kameleona i wielkiego pająka. |
| Ewa:Nie lubię pająków |
| Jan:Ja też nie,ale mój brat je uwielbia. |
| Betsey: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jan:Czy masz jakieś zwierzęta? |
| Ewa:Tak, mam dużego psa, czarnego kota i cztery szczury. |
| Jan:Łał! Masz dużo zwierząt. |
| Ewa:To prawda. A Ty masz jakieś zwierzęta? |
| Jan:Ja mam tylko małego i grubego kota. Ale mój młodszy brat ma kameleona i wielkiego pająka. |
| Ewa:Nie lubię pająków |
| Jan:Ja też nie,ale mój brat je uwielbia. |
| Betsey: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Jan:Czy masz jakieś zwierzęta? |
| Betsey:Do you have any pets? |
| Ewa:Tak, mam dużego psa, czarnego kota i cztery szczury. |
| Betsey:Yes, I have a big dog, a black cat and four rats. |
| Jan:Łał! Masz dużo zwierząt. |
| Betsey:Wow! You have many pets. |
| Ewa:To prawda. A Ty masz jakieś zwierzęta? |
| Betsey:That’s true. And do you have any pets? |
| Jan:Ja mam tylko małego i grubego kota. Ale mój młodszy brat ma kameleona i wielkiego pająka. |
| Betsey:I have only a small, fat cat. But my younger brother has a chameleon and a huge spider. |
| Ewa:Nie lubię pająków |
| Betsey:I don’t like spiders. |
| Jan:Ja też nie,ale mój brat je uwielbia. |
| Betsey:Me neither, but my brother loves them. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Betsey:Joanna, do many Poles have pets? |
| Joanna:Yes! More than half of Poles have a pet, and every fifth person has more than one. |
| Betsey:Wow! I assume that dogs are one of the most popular kinds of pet. |
| Joanna:You’re right, I’d say most Poles have a dog. What may be surprising is that mixed breed dogs are probably the majority. But in recent years, the popularity of purebred dogs has been rising, and the most popular among these is the German Shepherd. |
| Betsey:What’s the reason for that? |
| Joanna:First of all, it’s believed to be an extremely intelligent dog, and also there was a very popular post-war TV series where one of the main characters was a brave German Shepherd, which of course had a big influence on popularity of the breed. |
| Betsey:What are the other breeds Poles often choose? |
| Joanna:Golden and labrador retrievers, huskies, rottweilers, and bulldogs. |
| Betsey:I see. Apart from dogs, what other kinds of pets do Poles have? |
| Joanna:Definitely cats. Many Poles have more than one. |
| Betsey:Wow! Poles seem to love animals a lot. And with that, let’s move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Betsey:Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| :The first word we shall see is Joanna:duży [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:large, big |
| Joanna:duży [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:duży [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:to prawda [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:that’s right, it’s true |
| Joanna:to prawda [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:to prawda [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:młodszy [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:younger |
| Joanna:młodszy [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:młodszy [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:zwierzę [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:animal, pet |
| Joanna:zwierzę [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:zwierzę [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:brat [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:brother |
| Joanna:brat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:brat [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:pająk [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:spider |
| Joanna:pająk [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:pająk [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:lubić [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:to like |
| Joanna:lubić [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:lubić [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:tylko [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:just, only |
| Joanna:tylko [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:tylko [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:mieć [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:to have |
| Joanna:mieć [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:mieć [natural native speed] |
| :And last Joanna:czarny [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:black |
| Joanna:czarny [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:czarny [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Betsey:Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Joanna:The first word is ‘pies’ |
| Betsey:“dog” |
| Joanna:‘pies’ is a masculine noun. |
| Betsey:In the dialog, Ewa says “I have a big dog”. But in that sentence the form of the noun “dog” is different. Why’s that? |
| Joanna:In Polish sentences like that, we have to use the accusative case, which makes the form of the noun change. In case of the noun ‘pies’, it’s a little bit special. |
| Betsey:Please tell us more about it. |
| Joanna:The basic rule about making accusative forms is to add the vowel ‘-a’ to animate masculine nouns, like the noun ‘pies’. But in the case of this noun, we have to change the word completely into ‘psa’ |
| Betsey:So let’s hear the sentence again. |
| Joanna:‘Mam dużego psa.’ |
| Betsey:“I have a big dog” |
| Betsey:Okay, and what’s the next word? |
| Joanna:‘łał’ |
| Betsey:“wow” |
| Joanna:As you may have noticed, ‘łał’ is not a Polish word |
| Betsey:It sounds like it was adapted from English. |
| Joanna:That’s right, it was. It’s used mainly by the younger generation, whenever they’re surprised or impressed by something. |
| Betsey:Okay, let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Betsey:In this lesson, you will learn how to talk about your pets, and about one of the cases in Polish. Let’s start with the more difficult part - cases. |
| Joanna:Okay. As we’ve mentioned before, in the Polish language, there are seven cases. The one we will learn about in this lesson is the case we use most often, the accusative case. |
| Betsey:How do we use it? |
| Joanna:The accusative case expresses a direct object in a sentence. The most common type of sentence that always requires the accusative case, is when we say that we have something, for example. |
| Betsey:Like in the dialogue, when Ewa said - “I have a big dog, a black cat and four rats” |
| Joanna:That’s right. It was ‘Mam dużego psa, czarnego kota i cztery szczury’. To make it easier, let’s focus on the first part of this sentence - ‘mam dużego psa.’ |
| Betsey:“I have a big dog” |
| Joanna:The first component of the sentence is the well-known verb ‘mam’, which is the conjugated form of ‘mieć’. |
| Betsey:Which means “have”. |
| Joanna:Then there’s ‘dużego’, the accusative form of the masculine adjective ‘duży’... |
| Betsey:...which means “big”. |
| Joanna:And lastly, ‘psa’, which is the accusative form of the masculine noun ‘pies’ |
| Betsey:“dog” |
| Joanna:‘Mam dużego psa’ |
| Betsey:“I have a big dog” |
| Joanna:To turn a nominative noun into the accusative we have to change the ending of the word, and how you do that depends on the gender of the noun. |
| Betsey:Here we go again! |
| Joanna:(laughs)I know, I know. Many things in Polish grammar depend on the gender. So it’s good that we have many chances to practice it here together! |
| Betsey:That’s true! So we have masculine, feminine and neuter genders in Polish, right? |
| Joanna:Yes, but there are also two kinds of masculine gender - animate and inanimate. Animate masculine nouns are those used for people and animals. Inanimate masculine nouns, on the other hand, are used for objects. |
| Betsey:Okay. This may sound confusing, so listeners, remember that there’s a full table showing the accusative endings for each gender in the lesson notes. Be sure to check it out! |
| Joanna:Let’s explain this some more. In the case of animate masculine nouns that end with a consonant, we add the vowel ‘-a’ at the end. This switches it from the nominative case into the accusative. |
| Betsey:Jan was talking about his cat in the dialogue. What’s the nominative form of the noun “cat”? |
| Joanna:‘kot’, but if we turn it into accusative we will get ‘kota’ |
| Betsey:What about “chameleon”? |
| Joanna:Nominative is ‘kameleon’, and accusative is ‘kameleona’ |
| Betsey:Let’s put those two into a simple sentence. Listeners, please repeat after Joanna. |
| Joanna:‘Mam kota’ |
| Betsey:[pause] “I have a cat” |
| Joanna:‘Mam kameleona’ |
| Betsey:[pause] “I have a chameleon” |
| Joanna:If we want to change a feminine noun from the nominative case into the accusative, we have to change the last vowel ‘-a’ to the vowel ‘-ę’. |
| Betsey:Okay, so how will we say “I have a sister” in Polish? |
| Joanna:‘Mam siostrę’. The nominative form of the noun “sister” is ‘siostra’, but in the accusative it changes into ‘siostrę’. |
| Betsey:That will do it for this lesson. Remember, for more about the accusative forms of adjectives, please refer to the lesson notes. |
| Betsey:That just about does it for this lesson. |
| Joanna:Thanks for listening! |
| Betsey:See you next time! |
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