Learn how to spell words
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Betsey:Hello everyone and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Beginner series, season 1, lesson 21, Can You Spell in Polish? I’m Betsey. |
| Joanna:And I’m Joanna. |
| Betsey:In this lesson, you’ll learn about spelling in Polish. |
| Joanna:The conversation takes place in a hotel. |
| Betsey:It’s between Kate, and a receptionist. |
| Joanna:They don’t know each other, so they’ll be using formal Polish. |
| Betsey:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Kate:Dzień dobry. Mam rezerwację. |
| RecepcjonistBetsey:Pani imię i nazwisko? |
| Kate:Kate Brozowski. |
| RecepcjonistBetsey:Proszę przeliterować nazwisko. |
| Kate:B-R-O-Z-O-W-S-K-I. Brozowski. |
| RecepcjonistBetsey:Narodowość? |
| Kate:Polsko-amerykańska. |
| Alisha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Kate:Dzień dobry. Mam rezerwację. |
| RecepcjonistBetsey:Pani imię i nazwisko? |
| Kate:Kate Brozowski. |
| RecepcjonistBetsey:Proszę przeliterować nazwisko. |
| Kate:B-R-O-Z-O-W-S-K-I. Brozowski. |
| RecepcjonistBetsey:Narodowość? |
| Kate:Polsko-amerykańska. |
| Alisha: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Kate:Dzień dobry. Mam rezerwację. |
| Betsey:Good morning. I have a reservation. |
| RecepcjonistBetsey:Pani imię i nazwisko? |
| Betsey:Your first and last name, ma’am? |
| Kate:Kate Brozowski. |
| Betsey:Kate Brozowski. |
| RecepcjonistBetsey:Proszę przeliterować nazwisko. |
| Betsey:Spell your last name, please. |
| Kate:B-R-O-Z-O-W-S-K-I. Brozowski. |
| Betsey:B-R-O-Z-O-W-S-K-I. Brozowski. |
| RecepcjonistBetsey:Narodowość? |
| Betsey:Nationality? |
| Kate:Polsko-amerykańska. |
| Betsey:Polish-American. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Betsey:What shall we talk about this time? |
| Joanna:Hmm, let’s talk about the Polish language and where in the world we can use it. |
| Betsey:Okay, so where can we use Polish? |
| Joanna:In Poland, of course, where roughly 40 million people live. |
| Betsey:Are there any other countries? |
| Joanna:Polish is an official language only in Poland, but it’s also used in countries such as Lithuania and Belarus, where many ethnic Poles live. There are also many Poles in Russia and Kazakhstan. |
| Betsey:Why those countries? |
| Joanna:Mostly because of resettlements, forced migrations and border changes during and after World War II. Many Poles were forced to live there, and just continued their lives in those countries after the war. |
| Betsey:What about more recent times? Are there any other countries where Poles form significant minorities? |
| Joanna:For sure! You can find Polish communities in the US, Great Britain, Australia, Brazil, and Canada. |
| Betsey:Wow! It seems like almost anywhere you go, you can meet Poles! |
| Joanna:I think that’s true. We even say in Poland, that Poles are everywhere in the world. |
| Betsey:Okay, it’s time for us to move to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Betsey:Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| :The first word we shall see is Joanna:imię [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:name |
| Joanna:imię [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:imię [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:nazwisko [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:surname |
| Joanna:nazwisko [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:nazwisko [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:narodowość [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:nationality |
| Joanna:narodowość [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:narodowość [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:recepcjonista [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:receptionist (male) |
| Joanna:recepcjonista [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:recepcjonista [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:i [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:and |
| Joanna:i [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:i [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:prosić [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:to ask, please |
| Joanna:prosić [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:prosić [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:przeliterować [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:to spell |
| Joanna:przeliterować [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:przeliterować [natural native speed] |
| :And last Joanna:Amerykanka [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:American (female) |
| Joanna:Amerykanka [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:Amerykanka [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Betsey:Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Joanna:The first word is ‘przeliterować’ |
| Betsey:“to spell” |
| Joanna:In the dialogue, the receptionist used this word when asking Kate to spell her last name. |
| Betsey:This verb derives from some other word, doesn’t it? |
| Joanna:Yes, from the noun ‘litera’ |
| Betsey:Which means “letter”. |
| Joanna:Since “to spell” means to say some word letter by letter, that’s why we call this action ‘przliterować’ |
| Betsey:Literally, “to spell”. |
| Betsey:Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Joanna:‘rezerwacja’ |
| Betsey:“reservation” |
| Joanna:This is a very easy noun, since the usage is exactly the same as in English |
| Betsey:That’s definitely good news! But what if we want to use “reserve” as a verb? |
| Joanna:The noun is ‘rezerwacja’ ,and the verb, “to reserve” or “to make a reservation”, is ‘zarezerwować’ |
| Betsey:They sound quite similar. Let’s hear some sample sentences. |
| Joanna:Okay, for example - ‘Mam rezerwację’ |
| Betsey:“I have a reservation” - you can use this sentence when you’re at a hotel or restaurant |
| Joanna:Next example - ‘Chciałbym zarezerwować pokój’ |
| Betsey:“I would like to reserve a room” - male speaking |
| Joanna:If it’s a female speaking, the sentence will sound like this - ‘‘Chciałabym zarezerwować pokój’’ [emphasize where it’s different] |
| Betsey:“I would like to reserve a room” - female speaking |
| Betsey:Great! Now it’s time to move to the grammar! |
Lesson focus |
| Betsey:In this lesson, you’re going to learn about the Polish alphabet. |
| Joanna:The Polish writing system uses the Latin alphabet, the same as English, but with some modifications. |
| Betsey:What kinds of modifications? |
| Joanna:We call them diacritical marks, and they represent the sounds characteristic to the Polish language. |
| Betsey:You can see all of them in the lesson notes, and it may be a good idea to look at those now. Let’s go through them one by one. |
| Joanna:Acute mark - we write it above the letter and it marks softness. To many it will look like an accent, but don’t be mistaken, it’s NOT an accent! it’s added to - “c, n, o, s and z” |
| Betsey:what’s next? |
| Joanna:A dot - it appears above the consonant “z” and creates a completely new sound - [sound repeat] |
| Betsey:what’s next? |
| Joanna:A hook - hooks are added to the letters “a” and “e”, we stick them underneath the vowel and their purpose is to mark the nasal sound of the vowel. |
| Betsey:What’s the last one? |
| Joanna:A slash - it’s added to the letter “l” and it makes it sound like “w” in English - [sound] |
| Betsey:Okay, are there any other modifications? |
| Joanna:Yes, there are also so-called consonant clusters, which represent sounds that don’t exist in Latin. |
| Betsey:Can you give us a few examples? |
| Joanna:Sure! for example “c” and “z” put together will be “cz”. or “s” and “z” are read - “sz”. or “r” and “z” are read - “rz” |
| Betsey:I have a question about consonant clusters. Can a word start with consonant clusters? |
| Joanna:Yes, of course. |
| Betsey:So, in that case, how do we look for such a word in a dictionary? |
| Joanna:We have to take the first letter. Let’s take the noun ‘czapka’ as an example. |
| Betsey:it means “hat” |
| Joanna:if we spell the noun it will go like this - c-z-a-p-k-a |
| Betsey:“c-z-a-p-k-a” |
| Joanna:the first letter of the word is “c”, so that’s the letter we have to search it by in the dictionary. |
| Betsey:Okay, that’s all for this lesson! Thanks for listening, everyone! |
| Joanna:See you next time! |
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