Learn the diffrence between tę or tą in Polish
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Intro |
|---|
| Michael: Should I say tę or tą? |
| Igor: And why do so many Polish speakers confuse the two? |
| Michael: At PolishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following scenario: Mieczysław Michalski is at Zofia Zielińska's Coffeeshop. She points at the menu with her finger and says, ""This" coffee, please." |
| Mieczysław Michalski: Poproszę tą kawę. |
| Dialogue |
| Mieczysław Michalski: Poproszę tą kawę. |
| Zofia Zielińska: Tę kawę? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Mieczysław Michalski: Poproszę tą kawę. |
| Michael: ""This" coffee, please." |
| Zofia Zielińska: Tę kawę? |
| Michael: "Do you mean "this" coffee?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will be looking at the question: “Should I say |
| Igor: tę |
| Michael: or |
| Igor: tą? |
| Michael: We’ll also be discussing why these are so easily confused. As you will have heard from this lesson’s dialogue, it is not really possible to translate these two words into English. They both end up being translated as “this.” The best way to explain how to use them is by discussing them in the context of their grammatical cases. |
| Our focus will be on two cases: |
| Igor: biernik |
| Michael: or the accusative case and |
| Igor: narzędnik |
| Michael: or the instrumental case. These are the cases that decide which of these two forms of the word “this” we must use. Let’s begin with the accusative case. The accusative case refers to the direct object of a sentence. This is the receiver of an action: the object which is being acted on. For instance, if I say, “He ate this porridge,” then the word “porridge” is the direct object. Let’s listen to the same sentence in Polish: |
| Igor: Zjadł tę owsiankę. |
| Michael: I am sure you would have noticed that Igor used the word: |
| Igor: tę |
| Michael: This is because he is using the accusative case. The noun “porridge” is also feminine. We can now see that Polish speakers use the word: |
| Igor: tę |
| Michael: when the noun is feminine and it is in the accusative case. When the noun is in the instrumental case, we use the word: |
| Igor: tą |
| Michael: But what do we mean by “the instrumental case?” It’s actually not that tough to understand because the answer is in the word “instrumental”. We use an instrument to accomplish something. It is the means by which we accomplish that thing. So, in the instrumental case, the noun is the instrument that is used to accomplish the action. We can often identify the instrumental case by asking if the noun tells us “how”, “with what,” or “by what means” the action was accomplished. Let’s look at an example: If I say, “He ate his porridge with this spoon,” then the word “spoon” denotes the instrument by means of which the action of eating the porridge was accomplished. Let’s listen to the same sentence in Polish: |
| Igor: Zjadł swoją owsiankę tą łyżką. |
| Michael: I’m sure you will have noticed that, in this sentence, Igor used the word: |
| Igor: tą |
| Michael: before the word: |
| Igor: łyżką |
| Michael: which means “spoon”. He did this because the word for “spoon” is feminine. It should now be clear that, when the noun is feminine, and it is in the instrumental case, a Polish speaker will use the word: |
| Igor: tą |
| Michael: to mean “this”. |
| Just to help you consolidate the idea, let’s look at one or two other examples. The first one means “Peter wrote this note.” Listen for the word meaning “this:” |
| Igor: Piotr napisał tę notatkę. |
| Michael: In this sentence, Igor used the word: |
| Igor: tę |
| Michael: because it refers to a direct object and is therefore in the accusative case. The noun “note” is also feminine. Now, let’s add another noun that tells us what he used to write the note; in other words, the instrument he used. I wonder if you already know the word. Listen carefully: |
| Igor: Piotr napisał notatkę tą kredką. |
| Michael: This means: "Peter wrote the note with this crayon". The noun that Igor used was: |
| Igor: kredką |
| Michael: and, in case you didn’t already know, this means “crayon”. “Crayon” is a feminine noun and it is in the instrumental case, so Igor used the word: |
| Igor: tą |
| Michael: to mean “this”. |
| And just to make sure you really get it, here’s a final example: |
| Igor: Rzuciłem tę piłkę tą ręką. |
| Michael: This means “I threw this ball with this hand.” I am sure you noticed the two different ways to say the words meaning “this”. |
| One other thing I should point out is how, in English, the preposition “with” is used to indicate the equivalent of the instrumental case. In Polish, this is not necessary. No preposition is used. |
| It’s really not very difficult to understand how to use these two words, but it will take some practice getting used to using them in the right context. Keep at it and soon it will become second-nature. |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. Do you remember how Mieczyslaw Michalski says ""This" coffee, please." |
| Igor: Poproszę tą kawę. |
| Michael: If you understood my explanation previously, you will now understand why Mieczyslaw is using the wrong word here. The noun meaning “coffee” |
| Igor: kawę |
| Michael: in this sentence is a direct object, meaning it is in the accusative case. This means that the word: |
| Igor: tą |
| Michael: is the wrong one to use. |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Zofia Zielinska says, "Do you mean "this" coffee?" |
| Igor: Tę kawę? |
| Michael: In this reply, Zofia has corrected Mieczyslaw with the word: |
| Igor: tę |
| Michael: because this is the correct accusative form of the pronoun “this” to use a feminine noun. Why then do so many people make this mistake? This is because in Polish an adjective declined for accusative for first person singular always takes the ending |
| Igor: ą, |
| Michael: such as in the below example: |
| Igor: żółtą gruszkę. |
| Michael: Being used to adjectives coming before the noun taking the ending “ą”, we also expect to see the pronoun declined in the same way, especially that this pronoun in most cases conforms to the declination rules proper for adjectives,the accusative case being the only exception—here, the pronoun |
| Igor: ta |
| Michael: is declined to |
| Igor: tę. |
| Michael: So, when we use an adjective, such as in the sentence "A yellow pear, please". |
| Igor: Poproszę żółtą gruszkę, |
| Michael: we use the ending |
| Igor: -ę, |
| Michael: but when we use the pronoun |
| Igor: ta, |
| Michael: we have to use the ending |
| Igor: -ą, |
| Michael: such as in the sentence "This pear, please," or |
| Igor: Poproszę tą gruszkę. |
| Michael: How about when we want to use both the pronoun and the adjective? We decline each part of speech respectively. So, when we want to buy a yellow pear, we will say "This yellow pear, please,” or |
| Igor: Poproszę tę żółtą gruszkę. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: It is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between the dative case and the instrumental case. In fact, it wouldn’t be technically wrong to say that the instrumental case can be seen as a form of the dative case. This is because both cases are based on the indirect object in sentences. In order to understand the difference between these two cases, let’s compare them. We’ll begin with a look at the dative case. In the dative, the indirect object is a person to whom or for whom the action is done. This person is the recipient or beneficiary of the action. In fact, the Latin root of the word “dative” means “giving”. Let’s expand on a previous example to make this clear: |
| Igor: Piotr napisał do mnie tę notatkę. |
| Michael: This sentence means “Peter wrote this note to me.” In this instance, the word “me” is an indirect object. Previously, as an example, we used the sentence: |
| Igor: Piotr napisał notatkę tą kredką. |
| Michael: As you may recall, this sentence means “Peter wrote the note with this crayon.” In this instance, the word “crayon” is also an indirect object. This is why the dative and instrumental can be so easily confused. Remember, the instrumental noun is the one that denotes the “instrument” or the means by which the action is achieved. The dative noun, on the other hand, indicates the recipient or beneficiary of the action in the sentence. Let’s combine them and see what the sentence looks like: |
| Igor: Piotr napisał mi notatkę tą kredką. |
| Michael: What this means is: “Peter wrote the note to me with this crayon.” Now the sentence contains two indirect objects, but they are each in a different case—the dative and the instrumental. I am sure this will give you a better idea of what exactly is meant by the instrumental case and how it is different from the dative. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: If you don't get it right away, don't worry. Using |
| Igor: tą |
| Michael: instead of |
| Igor: tę |
| Michael: is one of the most common mistakes made by Polish natives. While in Poland, you'll often hear people using it incorrectly. |
| But our advice is to remember it the right way. |
| Igor: Yes, definitely. Some people take the difference very seriously. |
| Michael: So, if you meet such a person, you can already catch some points. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Igor: Do zobaczenia! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide