Learn about plurals
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1, Lesson 5 - How Are Your Marks in Polish School? John Here. |
| Marzena: Cześć. I'm Marzena. |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn all about plurals. The conversation takes place at home. |
| Marzena: It's between Mark and Alice. |
| John: The speakers are family members, so they’ll speak informal Polish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Marek: No kochanie, nauczyciele są bardzo zadowoleni z twoich postępów w nauce. |
| Ala: Naprawdę? |
| Marek: Oczywiście, że nie! Dwie jedynki, obydwie z matematyki! I trzy dwójki z polskiego! Co ja z tobą mam? |
| Ala: Ale tato, ja będę lekarzem, a lekarze nie muszą uczyć się polskiego i matematyki. |
| Marek: Skąd ci to przyszło do głowy? |
| Ala: Przecież zawsze mówisz, że lekarze brzydko piszą, i że nie muszą liczyć pieniędzy... |
| Marek: Masz areszt domowy! Do pokoju! |
| Ala: Ale tato! |
| Marek: Bez gadania! |
| John: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Mark: Well honey, your teachers are very satisfied with your learning progress. |
| Alice: Really? |
| Mark: Of course not! Two Fs, both from math! And three Ds from Polish! What am I going to do with you? |
| Alice: But Daddy, I will be a doctor, and doctors don't have to learn math and Polish. |
| Mark: How did you come up with this conclusion? |
| Alice: After all, you always say that the doctors' writing is terrible and that they don't have to count money. |
| Mark: You’re on house arrest. Into your room! |
| Alice: But Daddy! |
| Mark: No discussion! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: Sounds like someone’s in trouble. |
| Marzena: With grades like that, I’m not surprised! |
| John: Me neither! What’s the school system like in Poland? |
| Marzena: It used to be an eight plus four system. That means that children would have eight years at elementary school and then four at high school. |
| John: What’s the current system? |
| Marzena: Now, it’s six-three-three, with only the first nine years being compulsory. |
| John: At what age do Polish children start school? |
| Marzena: They start at the age of six, but parents can choose to send their children to “0 class,” which starts at five years old. |
| John: Do children typically stop after their nine compulsory years, or do they continue? |
| Marzena: Education, even at the university level, is free in Poland, so children usually continue. |
| John: Is there anything else special about the Polish education system that you want to tell us? |
| Marzena: Well, children can specialize in high school - they can choose a course that will give them more, for example, science classes. |
| 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: nauczyciel [natural native speed] |
| John: teacher |
| Marzena: nauczyciel[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: nauczyciel [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: zadowolony [natural native speed] |
| John: glad |
| Marzena: zadowolony[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: zadowolony [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: postęp [natural native speed] |
| John: progress |
| Marzena: postęp[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: postęp [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: przyjść [natural native speed] |
| John: to come |
| Marzena: przyjść[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: przyjść [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: głowa [natural native speed] |
| John: head |
| Marzena: głowa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: głowa [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: skąd [natural native speed] |
| John: where...from |
| Marzena: skąd[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: skąd [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: liczyć [natural native speed] |
| John: to count |
| Marzena: liczyć[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: liczyć [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: areszt domowy [natural native speed] |
| John: home arrest |
| Marzena: areszt domowy[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: areszt domowy [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: bez [natural native speed] |
| John: without |
| Marzena: bez[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: bez [natural native speed] |
| John: And last... |
| Marzena: gadanie [natural native speed] |
| John: talking, discussion |
| Marzena: gadanie[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: gadanie [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: być zadowolonym z |
| John: Meaning "to be satisfied with." Can you break this phrase down for us? |
| Marzena: First is the copula być, or "to be." Then there’s the adjective zadowolony, meaning "satisfied" - in an instrumental case. |
| John: The last word is a preposition. |
| Marzena: Yes, z means “from.” |
| John: This phrase means “to be satisfied with” something. So, how can we use it? |
| Marzena: It should be used with a noun in genitive case. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say, Jestem bardzo zadowolony z tego co osiągnąłem. |
| John: ...which means "I'm very satisfied with what I have achieved." |
| John: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Marzena: Co ja z tobą mam? |
| John: Literally meaning, "What do I have with you?" Now this is a sentence. |
| Marzena: Yes, it starts with co, meaning "what." And then is the personal pronoun ja, meaning "I." |
| John: Next is the same preposition that we mentioned in the last key phrase. |
| Marzena: Then is tobą, which is "you" in the instrumental case, and finally mam. |
| John: That means “I have.” |
| Marzena: You can use this phrase to show irritation, but it’s an informal expression that you can use in a light way with family and friends. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this sentence? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say, Oj moja droga, co ja z tobą mam? |
| John: ...which means “Oh my dear, what am I going to do with you?” (Lit.: "Oh my dear, what do I have with you?") |
| John: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Marzena: przyjść do głowy |
| John: Meaning "to come up with a conclusion / something came to one’s mind." What can you tell us about this? |
| Marzena: First is the verb przyjść in perfective aspect. It means "to come," and it’s followed by a preposition do, meaning "to." |
| John: What’s the final word? |
| Marzena: That’s głowy, meaning “head” in the genitive case. |
| John: So it literally means “come to one’s head.” |
| Marzena: Yes, it’s used to say that someone has had an idea. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say, Przyszedł mi do głowy ciekawy pomysł. |
| John: ...which means "I got one interesting idea." |
| John: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn about all about plurals. |
| John: We’ve touched on plurals over the course of this series already, and I’m sure that all of our listeners have come across them several times in their Polish studies. |
| Marzena: Definitely. But, going back and reviewing some basic information before taking a step further is good, I think. |
| John: I think so too. So to begin with, we’ll look at plurals with the nominative case. |
| Marzena: First, a basic rule - in plural form, we have only two genders; nouns are either masculine or they are not. |
| John: That’s simple enough. How do we conjugate nominative nouns into plural ones? |
| Marzena: Firstly, all neuter nouns take an -a ending. For example, drzewo becomes drzewa. |
| John: That’s “tree” and “trees.” |
| Marzena: Secondly, all feminine nouns, and masculine nouns that aren’t the name of a person, follow the same set of rules. |
| John: What are those rules? |
| Marzena: -i after the hard consonants k and g. -y after all other hard consonants. -e after soft consonants, and feminine nouns that don’t end in -a, take -e, -y, or -i. |
| John: Let’s hear a couple of examples. |
| Marzena: stół and stoły, “table” and “tables,” and also twarz and twarze. |
| John: That last example is “face” and “faces.” Now, what about masculine nouns that are naming a person? |
| Marzena: They have -i/-y endings, but soften the stem consonant. Also, -owie is used for some, especially relations. |
| John: An easy way to talk about plurals when there are only two is to use the word “both.” This is especially handy if we want to say that both of the two items are important. |
| Marzena: To say “both,” we add the prefix oby- to the words for “two.” For example, the masculine but not personal word for “both” is obydwa. The non-masculine is obydwie, and the group word is obydwoje. |
| John: Let’s hear an example sentence. |
| Marzena: Obydwie sukienki ci pasują. |
| John: “Both dresses suit you.” |
| Marzena: Oboje rodzice pracowali w policji. |
| John: “Both parents worked in the police.” Now, verbs also have singular and plural forms in Polish, right? |
| Marzena: Yes they do. There is an in-depth review of this in the lesson notes for this lesson, so make sure to check that out. |
| John: Do you have any advice on learning how to conjugate the verbs into their different forms? |
| Marzena: I’d suggest trying to learn the first and second person singular forms. Based on that, we can predict the other forms in the conjugation patterns. |
| John: Good advice! |
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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