Learn about diminutives in Polish
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Intro |
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| Michael: |
| What are diminutives and how are they formed in Polish? |
| Igor: |
| And are they commonly used? |
| Michael: |
| At PolishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Consider the following situation. Kasia Majewska and Maciek Majewski are attending acting classes. Their newest practice is to play a Hollywoodesque romantic scene. |
| "Kitty, I'll be leaving now." |
| Kasia Majewska: Kotek, wychodzę. |
| Dialogue |
| Kasia Majewska: Kotek, wychodzę. |
| Maciek Majewski: Misiu, zostań dziś w domu. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Kasia Majewska: Kotek, wychodzę. |
| Michael: "Kitty, I'll be leaving now." |
| Maciek Majewski: Misiu, zostań dziś w domu. |
| Michael: "My little bear, stay home today." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Did you notice how Kasia replaces the word, |
| Igor: Kot, |
| Michael: With |
| Igor: Kotek? |
| Michael: She attaches the suffix |
| Igor: -ek |
| Michael: to the masculine noun “kot” to create what’s called a “diminutive,” or |
| Igor: Zdrobnienie |
| Michael: in Polish. The word “diminutive” means “small,” and this reflects exactly what these expressive suffixes do to a noun. They are used in two situations: first, when we want to indicate that something is small in size or young, or second, to indicate our positive feelings we carry towards it. Thus, they are often used in common Polish affectionate names. |
| We create diminutives by attaching the suffixes |
| Igor: -ek, -ik |
| Michael: to masculine nouns or the suffix |
| Igor: -ka, |
| Michael: to feminine nouns. As for the neuter nouns, we will turn them into diminutives by adding the suffix |
| Igor: -ko |
| Michael: Diminutive suffixes are commonly used to express that something is small, young, and cute or to give a positive connotation to the things. In this case, Kasia is expressing her feelings towards Maciek by using a diminutive of the word “cat.” |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look. Do you remember how Kasia says, “Kitty, I’m leaving.” |
| Igor: Kotek, wychodze. |
| Michael: Here, she’s attached the suffix, |
| Igor: -ek, |
| Michael: to the masculine noun |
| Igor: Kot. |
| Michael: meaning “cat.” This suffix is used to turn masculine nouns into diminutives, as in the above example. To change a feminine noun into a diminutive noun, one would instead attach the suffix |
| Igor: -ka. |
| Michael: For instance, we can attach it to the feminine noun “girl”, |
| Igor: dziewczyna, |
| Michael: to say “a young girl” or |
| Igor: dziewczynka. |
| Michael: In case of neuter nouns we would attach the suffix -ko as in, |
| Igor: Jeziorko, |
| Michael: Coming from the word lake, or |
| Igor: Jezioro |
| Michael: And meaning "a small lake." Next, we will have a look at a masculine noun again, |
| Igor: liścik. |
| Michael: "A short letter" |
| And is the diminutive of “letter” or, |
| Igor: list. |
| Michael: Did you hear a difference in both words? Listen to them again, |
| Igor: List, liścik |
| Michael: The original noun ends with a “t”, which is replaced with a “c” while forming the diminutive. The trickiest thing about forming diminutives in Polish is that sometimes we need to modify the stem noun in order to get a diminutive. This is probably because some words would be too difficult to pronounce if the only alteration was an addition of a suffix. |
| This is the case with feminine nouns that often end with a “ka,” like, |
| Igor: rzeka |
| Michael: or “river”, where the letter “k” will be replaced by the digraph |
| Igor: -cz |
| Michael: And will be followed by the diminutive suffix “ka” that will replace the ending “a.” Thus, a small river is called |
| Igor: rzeczka |
| Michael: in Polish. The digraph |
| Igor: -cz |
| Michael: softens the stem noun and helps us to avoid duplication of the “ka” suffix, which would be confusing. Let’s look now at the word |
| Igor: lustro |
| Michael: meaning “mirror.” |
| Merely replacing the ending “-o” with the diminutive ending “-ko” would make this word virtually impossible to pronounce. That’s why we need an extra “-e-“ before the letter “-t-,” and the diminutive form is |
| Igor: lusterko, |
| Michael: meaning a small mirror. It might take you some time to get a feeling for creating diminutives, so don’t worry if you make some mistakes in the beginning. |
| Michael: So far, we have learned that the diminutives are expressive suffixes that emphasize small size, young age, or the speaker’s emotional attachment. We can create a diminutive noun by adding one of the suffixes |
| Igor: -ek, -ik, -ka, -ko |
| Michael: at the end of a noun. The choice of suffix is determined by the noun’s gender. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: The Polish language has some unique features related to diminutives. Let’s have a look at one of the most common challenges you’ll face while learning Polish. You’ll probably come across some words that contain a diminutive suffix, and thus sound like diminutives even though they are just proper nouns. Such nouns are called “false diminutives”. One of the common words found in this category is |
| Igor: wódka, |
| Michael: meaning “vodka.” This indeed originates from the diminutive of the word |
| Igor: Woda, |
| Michael: which means “water.” Today, we use this word to describe a specific alcoholic beverage but, in the 15th century, |
| Igor: Wódka |
| Michael: was used to describe containers holding a small amount of water. |
| Another example of these kinds of diminutives that became proper nouns is |
| Igor: łazienka, |
| Michael: meaning “bathroom.” It originates from |
| Igor: Łaźnia, |
| Michael: which means bath and is mostly associated with Roman and public baths. Since the idea of modern bathrooms started with these public baths, Polish people started to call this specific room of your house a miniature bath, or |
| Igor: Łazienka. |
| Michael: There is one more feature that not every language has. In Polish, it is possible to create diminutives of diminutives. This might sound confusing in the beginning, but consider this as levels of “smallness.” |
| Let’s look at an example. If we take, for instance, the word, |
| Igor: Herbata, |
| MICHAEL: meaning “tea,” and create a diminutive, “a little tea,” as we learned before, we would get, |
| Igor: Herbatka |
| Michael: or “littler tea.” Consider this as the level one of being small-sized. Now, if we replace the ending “-ka” with |
| Igor: -unia, |
| Michael: We will get level two of being small-sized. The word would sound like |
| Igor: Herbatunia. |
| Michael: In some cases, the ending will change from “-ka” to |
| Igor: -eczka. |
| Michael: This would be the case for one of the false diminutives we learned before, |
| Igor: Wódeczka. |
| Michael: meaning “a small vodka.” |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: In Polish, you can create diminutives for practically every noun, but be careful with the use of them. There are two things you should watch out for—the first is that overusing them will make you sound very childish. So, don’t try to invite anyone for |
| Igor: Kawusia, |
| Michael: literally “small coffee” People might not accept your invitation thinking you’re talking like a child or that you don’t treat them seriously. This is especially something to avoid in a business or formal situation. |
| On the other hand, sometimes, diminutives are necessary to convey small nuances. |
| So, for example, there is a big difference between saying |
| Igor: Muszę nakarmić ryby |
| Michael: and |
| Igor: Muszę nakarmić rybki. |
| Michael: Both mean “I have to feed fishes”, but, in the first case, you’d indicate that you have to feed either fishes in a pond, or fishes you breed as food. Talking about fish in diminutives indicates your emotional attachment to them and thus suggest they are pets to be cared for rather than a potential dinner. |
| Soon enough, you’ll develop a feeling for these kinds of nuances as well. And, since Polish people are very warm and understanding, nobody will get angry at you for using them in the wrong way if it’s clear that you’re still learning. So keep using them to master your skill in creating diminutives in Polish. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Igor: Do usłyszenia! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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