Learn about augmentatives in Polish
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are augmentatives and how are they formed in Polish? |
| Igor: And are they commonly used? |
| Michael: At PolishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Michal Michalski and Ben Lee are playing video games in Michal’s room. After almost an hour of being completely quiet, Michal asks, |
| "What?" |
| Ben Lee: Co? |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Co? |
| Mariusz Michalski: Jajco. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Co? |
| Michael: "What?" |
| Mariusz Michalski: Jajco. |
| Michael: "Nothing. [Eggo]" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Did you hear how Ben’s friend answers, |
| Igor: Jajco |
| Michael: instead of |
| Igor: jajko? |
| Michael: The word he created is called an "augmentative." To "augment" means "to make larger or greater," and this is exactly what these expressive suffixes do to a noun. They emphasize that something is big. The suffixes like |
| Igor: -ko, -co, -isko, -chal, -cho, |
| Michael: are commonly used to form augmentatives of nouns. |
| It can be used as a rhetorical term, which is kind of emotional vocabulary, for example "a red nose": |
| Igor: czerwony nochal, |
| Michael: But, augmentatives can be also used as tender, affectionate pet names, for example "a good dog" |
| Igor: dobre psisko, |
| Michael: But, be careful, since augmentatives can express a lack of respect, for example: |
| Igor: bucior |
| Michael: is a rude way to say |
| Igor: but |
| Michael: meaning a "shoe." So, if someones says, for example, |
| Igor: Co to za buciory? |
| Michael: "What are these shoes?" you can understand that, in the person's opinion, the shoes she’s pointing to are not fashionable. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Do you remember how Ben asks "what?" |
| (Pause 4 seconds) |
| Igor: Co? |
| Michael: And how Ben's friend answered "Nothing?" |
| (Pause 4 seconds) |
| Igor: Jajco. |
| Michael: literally meaning "egg" or "eggo." You need to know that this is a common way of answering the question |
| Igor: Co? |
| Michael: in Poland, since it’s seen as a rude way of asking "what?" If you didn’t understand what someone asked, you should say |
| Igor: Słucham? |
| Michael: instead. This means literally "I’m listening?" but translates as "excuse me?" in this context. However, in this context, we translate |
| Igor: Jajco |
| Michael: as nothing. To form this augmentative, we first need to take the base word, which is |
| Igor: Jajo |
| Michael: and simply replace the ending |
| Igor: -o |
| Michael: with |
| Igor: -co |
| Michael: You might wonder why Mariusz would use this as a response. Well, this is because he reacts with a response that is equally rude to Ben’s blunt "What?" There’s one more interesting thing about this word, since you won’t hear the base word too often in Polish, unless you are talking about big ostrich eggs. The common term used when talking about regular chicken eggs is actually the diminutive |
| Igor: Jajko. |
| Michael: But also, here, all you have to do is replace the diminutive ending |
| Igor: -ko |
| Michael: with the augmentative ending |
| Igor: -co. |
| Michael: But, be careful, since the ending "-ko" might also be used for some augmentative nouns like the previously mentioned |
| Igor: psisko, |
| Michael: meaning a big dog. |
| [SUMMARY] |
| Michael: So far, we have learned that the augmentatives are expressive suffixes that emphasize size or importance. We can create an augmentative noun by adding one of the suffixes |
| Igor: -ko, -co, -isko, -chal, -cho. |
| Michael: But, be aware that those are not all suffixes dedicated to augmentives, but they will work as a base for you for now. Diving more into the Polish language will let you discover more suffixes that can be used with only a few words. For now, you don’t need to know them. |
| Let’s have a look at some example pairs of a noun and its augmentative forms now: |
| Igor: paluch, |
| Michael: meaning "a big finger", and is formed from the word |
| Igor: palec |
| Michael: meaning a "finger," and the suffix |
| Igor: -uch |
| Michael: Next is |
| Igor: ptaszysko |
| Michael: meaning a "big bird." This comes from the word |
| Igor: ptak |
| Michael: meaning "bird." |
| Michael: Augmentatives in Polish can also be formed by dropping letters in the words’ endings, for example, you can make the ending short, by dropping: |
| Igor: "k" |
| Michael: You can shorten the ending and say: |
| Igor: ciężarówa |
| Michael: It means "a huge truck" and is created by dropping |
| Igor: "k" |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: You can transmit a lot of information by the way you address someone in Polish. For example, if you call someone whose name is |
| Igor: Krzysztof |
| Michael: by the diminutive |
| Igor: Krzysiek |
| Michael: a listener will understand that the person is either very close to you or that the person is a child. However, in Polish, it’s also possible to use augmentative names to express emphasis. For example, the augmentative of the previously mentioned name is |
| Igor: Krzychu. |
| Michael: By saying |
| Igor: Krzychu, kupę lat się nie widzieliśmy |
| Michael: meaning, "Chris, we haven’t met for many years," you can signal that you’re still on very friendly terms with the person, despite it having been many years since you last met them. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Igor: Do zobaczenia! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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