Lesson 26: To Search For and To Listen To

We're ready to become more refined! Instead of saying 'I want' it's better to know 'I am looking for' as you can also use it, along with 'I am listening to' to explain what you are doing.

So "Witam, witam. Co dobrego słychać? Chcesz mieć lekcję. Dobrze bo mam lekcję."

"No to dobrze" - let's get two more really common verbs under our belts!

To look for

English	Polish
He/she is looking for a flat	Szuka mieszkania

So a couple of questions here to work out some basics:

• What case are we in? Theoretically we are after a verb so we are in the "Masz/Mówisz/Lubisz" case ... but ... if he is looking for something it means he doesn't have it so we are actually in the "Nie Masz/Mówisz/Lubisz" case - something is missing!
• What is the dictionary term for "Flat"? We know neuter nouns get an 'a' ending when they are in the "Nie Masz/Mówisz/Lubisz" case so the noun is either going to end in an 'o' or an 'e'. Not perfect but close enough that we won't have to paw through a dictionary too long to find out it is "Mieszkanie"!
• What is the dictionary term for "Flats"? (Plural) We know the last letter of neuter nouns is changed to 'a' in the plural ... which takes us back to "Mieszkania"!

So how do we know if he is looking for a flat or flats. Ah, well the last part of the circle is what happens to plurals in the "Nie Masz/Mówisz/Lubisz" case. They normally lose their last letter but - exception - when the noun ends with a consonant (a,e,i,o,u) and then 'a' it looses both of them ... to become "Mieszkań".

English	Polish
He/she likes to look for flats	Lubi szukać mieszkań

Why the accent on the 'n'? As I mentioned before - Polish doesn't like sudden endings - so to make that 'n' last longer and become softer it gets an accent.

If you follow this method of thinking things out then even if you have never come a particular form of a word before and you need it, you can work it out or at least come very close to it. Enough to be understood.

Doing these little mental exercises whenever you can really helps embed the different forms and cases in your mind and the process of discovering things yourself makes them sink into your memory far quicker than simply listening and repeating.

Flats and Apartments

We have already had "Apartament" and you can use this but it's the same difference as "apartment" and "flat" in English. You use "apartment" to suggest an up market "flat" but most of the time people just use "flat". It's the same in Polish, most of the time people use "Mieszkanie" but expect to see "Apartament" in advertising material.

If you are going to look for flats to rent or buy online you'll find estate agents and portals use "Mieszkania" - "Flats"

English	Polish
Flats to rent	Mieszkania do wynajęcia
Flats for sale	Mieszkania na sprzedaż

These are two really useful phrases which you will see on the internet, in the windows of estate agents, on banners hanging from balconies. They're not just useful if you are looking of a place to live but also that subtle reminder:

• "do" can mean "to"
• "na" can mean "for"

Didn't "dla" mean "for". Yes it does ... "też"!

Looking for

So if we know "Szuka" means "he/she is looking for" and if we think about the verb "mieć" and its various forms "Ma", "Mam", "Masz", "Mamy" - we can pull out all the forms of this verb ... but remembering that for the adjectives and nouns we are in the "Nie Masz/Mówisz/Lubisz" case:

English	Polish
I'm looking for a big house	Szukam dużego domu Click to Reveal
We are looking for a good restaurant	Szukamy dobrej restauracji Click to Reveal
Are you looking for a red wine?	Szukasz czerwonego wina? Click to Reveal

And because we know the case we know what form of "what" to use to create a question:

English	Polish
What are you looking for?	Czego szukasz? Click to Reveal
Why are you looking for a flat?	Dlaczego szukasz mieszkania? Click to Reveal
How are you looking for a flat?	Jak szukasz mieszkania? Click to Reveal

Work

OK - let's build it up the other way around by taking a brand new noun"

English	Polish
Work	Praca

When someone asks you what you are doing - if you want to act the Martyr say "Praca, praca, praca!" - "Work, work, work!"

Right ... this noun ends in 'a' so we know what gender it is and we know what happens when it moves to the "Nie Masz/Mówisz/Lubisz" case ... even if we have to still check our table to get the answer! So how would you say:

English	Polish
I'm looking for work here	Szukam pracy tutaj Click to Reveal
He/she is looking for work there	Szuka pracy tam Click to Reveal
We're looking for work now	Szukamy pracy teraz Click to Reveal
Are you looking for work?	Szukasz pracy? Click to Reveal
Why are you looking for work?	Dlaczego szukasz pracy? Click to Reveal
Why aren't you looking for work?	Dlaczego nie szukasz pracy? Click to Reveal

"Świetny!"

And we can also look back at our table to get these:

English	Polish
I have work on Saturday	Mam pracę w sobotą Click to Reveal
Unfortunately he/she has work at the weekend	Niestety ma pracę w weekend Click to Reveal
We have new work now	Mamy nową pracę teraz Click to Reveal

Now this is a well behaved verb so we should be able to think out the past tense but as we haven't done it much I'll give you a starting point:

English	Polish
On Thursday I was looking for a duvet	W czwartek szukałem kołdry

So now, as a mental exercise, pull out the other forms:

English	Polish
On Thursday he was looking for a duvet	W czwartek szukał kołdry Click to Reveal
On Thursday you were looking for a duvet	W czwartek szukałeś kołdry Click to Reveal
On Thursday we were looking for a duvet	W czwartek szukaliśmy kołdry Click to Reveal
Why on Thursday were you looking for a duvet?	Dlaczego w czwartek szukałeś kołdry? Click to Reveal

To listen to

Now again if you're listening to something it means you must want to hear something that we haven't heard before ... so we are missing something. Just like when you are looking for something it means you want to find that something. That means that we are in the "Nie Masz/Mówisz/Lubisz" case.

We've already come across "Co słychać?" for "What can be heard?"/"What do you hear?". The verb "to listen to" is not a million miles away:

English	Polish
I like to listen to music	Lubię słuchać muzyki

So if "musyki" ends in an 'i' in the "Nie Masz/Mówisz/Lubisz" case what gender is it? Yep, feminine so if you looked up "Music" in the dictionary you would find "Muzyka".

"Słuchać" is a very well behaved verb so you should be able to think out the various forms with ease:

English	Polish
I'm listening to Jazz	Słucham jazzu Click to Reveal
He's listening to the radio	Słucha radia Click to Reveal
On Thursday we're listening to techno	W czwartek słuchamy techno Click to Reveal
Are you listening to / Do you listen to Hip Hop	Słuchasz Hip Hop? Click to Reveal
Why are you listening / do you listen to Hip Hop	Dlaczego słuchasz Hip Hop? Click to Reveal

Quite a lot of people answer the phone simply with "Słucham" so watch out for it in use there. And if you listen to Tok FM during one of their evening call-in shows you will hear this over and over and over again:

English	Polish
Hello, good evening, I'm listening	Halo, dobry wieczór, słucham

Now, just like "szukać" if we know we are in the "Nie Masz/Mówisz/Lubisz" case we know what form of "what" to use to get:

English	Polish
What are you listening to?	Czego słuchasz? Click to Reveal
Why are you listening to music?	Dlaczego słuchasz muzyki? Click to Reveal
Why are you listening to the radio?	Dlaczego słuchasz radia? Click to Reveal
How are you listening to music?	Jak słuchasz muzyki? Click to Reveal

I was listening to

... and in the past tense "słuchać" is also well behaved. I'll give you the starter:

English	Polish
On Thursday I was listening to jazz	W czwartek słuchałem jazzu

So now you can think out the rest:

English	Polish
On Thursday he was listening to the radio	W czwartek słuchał radia Click to Reveal
On Friday she was listening to jazz	W piątek słuchała jazzu Click to Reveal
On Saturday we were listening to rap	W sobotę słuchaliśmy rap Click to Reveal
On Sunday you were listening to music	W niedzielę słuchałeś muzyki Click to Reveal
Why were you listening to music?	Dlaczego słuchałeś muzyki? Click to Reveal
Why weren't you listening to music?	Dlaczego nie słuchałeś muzyki? Click to Reveal