Learn how to ask for specification, clarification, and confirmation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1, Lesson 2 - Meeting Your Polish Namesake. John here. |
| Marzena: Cześć. I'm Marzena. |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn about some discourse tactics: asking for specification, clarification, and confirmation. The conversation takes place in a coffee shop. |
| Marzena: It's between Thomas and Tomasz. |
| John: The speakers are strangers, so they’ll speak informal Polish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Tomasz: Thomas, prawda? |
| Thomas: Tak, miło mi cię wreszcie poznać. |
| Tomasz: Mi również, mamy tak samo na imię. |
| Thomas: Jak to? |
| Tomasz: Tomasz po angielsku to Thomas. |
| Thomas: No tak. To skąd jesteś? |
| Tomasz: Ze Śląska, a konkretnie z Katowic. |
| Thomas: O, będę niedługo w Katowicach na szkoleniu. |
| Tomasz: Naprawdę? To świetnie! |
| John: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Tomasz: Thomas, right? |
| Thomas: Yeah, nice to finally meet you. |
| Tomasz: Same here, we have the same name. |
| Thomas: How so? |
| Tomasz: Tomasz in English is Thomas. |
| Thomas: Oh right. So where are you from? |
| Tomasz: From Silesia, Katowice to be more specific. |
| Thomas: Oh, I'm going for a training in Katowice soon. |
| Tomasz: Really? That's great! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: We just heard a conversation between Thomas and Tomasz. |
| Marzena: Yes, same name but different languages! |
| John: When the Polish Tomasz introduced himself, he also said where he was from. |
| Marzena: That’s right, he said he was from “Silesia," or Śląsk, which is in the south part of Poland. |
| John: How far is that from Warsaw? |
| Marzena: It’s about three to six hours away. |
| John: Is it a nice region? What’s it famous for? |
| Marzena: It’s known for its mineral and natural resources. |
| John: How’s the food there? That’s the most important question when asking about a place! |
| Marzena: It’s great! It’s known for good food, such as kluski, a type of dumpling. |
| John: What’s the landscape like there? |
| Marzena: It has some beautiful mountains. I also recommend the town Opole, as it has some amazing canals and a lovely city square. |
| John: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Marzena: prawda [natural native speed] |
| John: truth |
| Marzena: prawda[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: prawda [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: mieć [natural native speed] |
| John: to have |
| Marzena: mieć[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: mieć [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: Śląsk [natural native speed] |
| John: Silesia |
| Marzena: Śląsk[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: Śląsk [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: Katowice [natural native speed] |
| John: Katowice |
| Marzena: Katowice[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: Katowice [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: niedługo [natural native speed] |
| John: soon |
| Marzena: niedługo[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: niedługo [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: szkolenie [natural native speed] |
| John: training |
| Marzena: szkolenie[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: szkolenie [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: naprawdę [natural native speed] |
| John: really |
| Marzena: naprawdę[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: naprawdę [natural native speed] |
| John: And last... |
| Marzena: świetnie [natural native speed] |
| John: excellently |
| Marzena: świetnie[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: świetnie [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| John: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is... |
| Marzena: mieć na imię |
| John: Meaning "to be called." Can you break this phrase down and tell us what each word means? |
| Marzena: Sure. Mieć means "to have," while imię is "first name." The word in the middle is a preposition meaning “for.” |
| John: When do we use this phrase? |
| Marzena: We use it when we meet someone and want to give them our name. |
| John: As it means “first name,” can we use it to give our surname? |
| Marzena: No, you can’t. To do that you should say either nazywam się or jestem. |
| John: Can you give us an example using our original phrase? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say, Mam na imię Ewa. |
| John: ...which means "My name is Ewa." |
| John: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Marzena: naprawdę |
| John: Meaning "really." What can you tell us about this word? |
| Marzena: Actually, this is made of two words. First is the preposition na. |
| John: This means “on” or “for.” |
| Marzena: Second is the noun prawda, meaning "truth." |
| John: When do we use this word? |
| Marzena: You can use it to check things. Although I broke it down into two words, remember that it’s actually one word. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say, Naprawdę nie chcesz tam iść? |
| John: ..which means "Really? You don't wanna go there?" |
| John: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Marzena: a |
| John: Meaning "and." How can we use this word in Polish? |
| Marzena: It can be used at the start of a sentence, or in the middle. |
| John: Does it need a comma when writing it, if it’s in the middle? |
| Marzena: Yes, it does. The comma should go before. |
| John: What function does it serve at the start of a sentence? |
| Marzena: At the start, it can be used to change a topic. In the middle, it connects two parts of the sentence. We don’t use it to connect nouns. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say, Kasia lubi lody, a Marysia czekoladę. |
| John: ...which means "Kasia likes ice creams and Marysia likes chocolate." |
| John: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn some discourse tactics, such as asking for specification, clarification, and confirmation. |
| John: Usually, there are some set phrases you can use to ask for clarification and so on. So Marzena, can you give us a few examples? |
| Marzena: Sure! You can say Poważnie? To super! |
| John: “Seriously? That’s great!” |
| Marzena: Or To nie może być prawda! |
| John: “This cannot be true!” |
| Marzena: Both of those sentences show surprise at the news, but the second one is negative. |
| John: Are these phrases, plus the extra ones in the lesson notes, good to use in all circumstances? |
| Marzena: These are informal, so they shouldn’t be used in business settings. In that case, you should make them more formal. |
| John: You may have learned before that by making sentences third person, they become more polite and formal. |
| Marzena: That’s right! So you’d say something like Może mi pan podać więcej szczegółów? |
| John: “Can you give me some more details, sir?” Next, let’s look at some prepositions. |
| Marzena: Some prepositions have short and long versions. For example, z and ze, or w and we. |
| John: The first is used with the genitive case, and the second with the locative case. Why are there two versions? |
| Marzena: It’s because over time, some weak vowels disappeared from words. So, if the noun begins with a group of consonants, we use the longer versions, ze or we. |
| John: So if there’s one consonant, use the short version. If there are two or more, use the long version. |
| Marzena: There are exceptions and times when you can use either. But, that’s a good, general rule to follow. |
| John: Let’s hear some examples. |
| Marzena: On podróżuje ze wschodu na zachód. |
| John: “He travels from the east to the west.” |
| Marzena: Przede wszystkim to nie możesz tak mówić. |
| John: “First of all, you cannot talk like that.” |
| Marzena: One thing that’s difficult for all Polish learners is Polish spelling. |
| John: Is there a particular mistake that people often make? |
| Marzena: Yes, one common mistake is writing the particle nie, meaning “not,” with the following word instead of separately, or the other way around. |
| John: Oh, so writing it separately when it should be joined, or writing it joined when it should be separate. |
| Marzena: Yes. There are some exceptions, but generally, we always write nie separately from the adverb when the adverb comes from an adjective and is in the comparative or superlative form. |
| John: Let’s hear two examples. One joined, and one not joined. |
| Marzena: Okay. Trochę się uczyłem, ale niedostatecznie. |
| John: “I studied a little bit, but not enough.” |
| Marzena: Nie najmądrzejszy ten twój przyjaciel. |
| John: “Your friend is not the brightest.” |
Outro |
| John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Marzena: Cześć. |
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