Lesson 3: Similar Words - English words ending 'tion', 'tional' or 'phy'

We've seen in Lesson 1 how you can follow simple rules to change English words ending 'al', 'ic', and 'ical' into Polish. The same is true for English words ending 'tion', 'tional' and 'phy'

Recap

But first lets do a little recap to remind ourselves about the rules we covered in lesson one. Do you remember how to say "It is normal"?

English	Polish
It's Normal	To jest normalny Click to Reveal

That's it! To get the Polish of an English word ending 'al' we just add 'ny' to the end. And how to say "It is ecological"?

English	Polish
It is ecological	To jest ekologiczny Click to Reveal

We drop the 'ical' from the English word and add 'iczny' or 'yczny'

With those two rules we have a bucket of vocabulary for everyday use and as luck would have it there are even more simple rules like this.

English words ending 'tion'

All we need to do is drop the 'tion' and replace it with 'cja' like 'see ya later'.

English	Polish
Option	Opcja
Operation	Operacja
Situation	Sytuacja

Look out for that 'y' in "Sytuacja". Its used here because in Polish 'i' is always pronounced like 'ea' in "Team". This one I know very personally because my name is Tim but most Europeans pronounce it "Team"!

In English we don't say 'seetuation', the 'i' has a softer sound. In Polish we can't achieve that softer sound just by willing it to be (as we do in English) because letters are always said the same way so we use 'y'.

Just on that note about how Europeans say my name I'll add something else. If you are talking to a Polish person using English it's worth listening out for how they say certain words as that will often act as clues or reminders for your Polish pronunciation. Every time someone says my name it reminds me how to pronounce the letter 'i'!

So now you know that 'tion' goes to 'cja' try guessing the following before you reveal them.

English	Polish
Definition	Definicja Click to Reveal
Fiction	Fikcja Click to Reveal
Revelation	Rewelacja Click to Reveal

Simples! "Fikcja" is a very useful word in this age of Social Media misinformation and Fake News. If you're telling someone about a story you heard on the news they might reply "Fikcja" rather than saying "that's not true" ... and you can use it that way as well!

So how would you tell them "No, it's not fiction". Well let's think it out rather than trying to learn parrot fashion:

• "No" - "Nie"
• "it is not" - "to nie jest"
• "fiction" - "fikcja" (because the English word ends in 'tion') ... and watch out for that 'k' because in Polish if it sounds like 'k' it is 'k'!

English	Polish
No, it's not fiction	Nie, to nie jest fikcja Click to Reveal

Now at the start of this lesson I also introduced the word Rewelacja. But why? Are we about to get all religious and talk about revelations? No, we're not. Rewelacja is just a very common way of praising what someone has done be it a meal, a painting, or the result of some other creative type of activity.

When you sip your first spoon of soup that someone else has cooked for you, then you say "Rewelacja!". When you watched a really good sports match and someone asks you what you thought of the game then you say "Rewelacja!".

Personally when I take my first swig of tea in the morning I always say "Rewelacja!" so try using it yourself from now on, if only to yourself.

It's great to play with this 'tion' trick. Juts think up English words that end 'tion' and spend some time working out the Polish. You can do this while driving, standing in a queue or just lying on the sofa. Here are a few to get you going.

• Meditation
• Contemplation
• Konfiguration

Words ending 'sion'

Now here is another easy to remember rule to give you even more vocab - English words ending 'sion'.

We have two groups here:

• Words that sound like they are endiong 'zion' - Television - we drop the 'sion' and add zja -> Telewizja
• Words that sound like they are ending softer 'ssion' - Depression - we drop the 'ssion' and add 'sya' - Depresja

English	Polish
Television	Telewizja
Depression	Depresja

Now take your time with the following to think about what other letters need to change to get the correct sound:

English	Polish
Vision	Wizja
Discussion	Dyskusja
Collision	Kolizja
Decision	Decyzja

"Decyzja" is a word you are going to come across a lot as it relates to tax, especially annual real estate tax. If you own a property you'll get a letter from the local government once a year which will state their "Decyzja".

You'll also hear it in every day life - in the restaurant - "Have you made a decision?" or in business "We have a decision".

Now, again, don't get hung up on these exact endings and let them stop you getting started. If you start with "anything which sounds like "tion" gets changed to "cja" you will be understood. The more you talk and listen, the faster you'll start refining those endings with little effort.

Words ending 'tional'

OK, so we have seen how easy it is to create the Polish word for English words that end 'tion'. Now we're going to look at English words that end 'tional' like "Optional". There are two things going on here:

• 'tion' which we saw changes to 'cja' but in this case because it is not the end of the word it changes to 'cjonal.

• Now the English word ends 'al' so we follow the standard rule and add a 'ny'

So "Optional" becomes "Opcionalny". Or if you just want one rule

• take off the 'tional'
• add 'cjonalny'

... which when it is all put together sounds fairly similar:

English	Polish
Optional	Opcjonalny
Functional	Funkcjonalny

You'll see again with that last example the 'c' in 'func' being changed to 'k' ... because if it sounds like a 'k' it is a 'k'!

So try and think out these ... and this time we really want to emphasis the 'is':

English	Polish
Emotional	Emocjonalny Click to Reveal
It is emotional	To jest emocjonalny Click to Reveal
Conventional	Konwencjonalny Click to Reveal
It is conventional	To jest konwencjonalny Click to Reveal

And we have a similar situation with words ending 'sion' although there are not that many words like this in English. As we have seen before these take on a softer ending or a 'z' type ending if that matches the English:

English	Polish
Professional	Profesjonalny

Let's try these out with the vocal we learnt in lesson 1:

English	Polish
It is an emotional problem	To jest emocjonalny problem Click to Reveal
It is a functional product	To jest funkcjonalny produkt Click to Reveal
It is an optional product	To jest opcjonalny produkt Click to Reveal
It is a conventional color	To jest konwencjonalny kolor Click to Reveal
It is a professional report	To jest profesjonalny raport Click to Reveal

Words ending 'phy'

Yes, there is yet another bunch of words that you can import pretty easily from English to Polish. English words that end 'phy'. Let's uncover this by looking first at the Polish word for "Camera".

Although you will get away with using "kamera" its not really the every day word for something which takes photographs - despite what some courses will teach you. It more often refers to filming cameras. The more common word for something which takes snaps is "aparat".

English	Polish
Camera	Aparat

So how to remember that? Well think back to the 'good old days' when taking a photo involved setting up a whole bunch of stuff. A large box on a tripod and a stick to hold with some chemicals which would ignite and provide the flash. Then there would be a whole lot of messing around with glass and other liquids before you actually got your photo.

All that stuff would be the "Photographic apparatus" - so if we:

• drop the "photographic" to just leave us with "apparatus"
• lop 'us' off the end
• now remember that Polish doesn't do double letters so we don't need two p's

We get "aparat"! And that is, by the way, exactly how that word came about. "Aparat" is also Polish for "Apparatus" so you get two words in one and a handy way to remember the word for "camera"

That brings us nicely on to a word ending in "phy" - "Photography".

English	Polish
Photography	Fotografia

So have a stab at the following but just remember that it's not always just the ending that changes but other letters as well - like in "Fotografia" where if it sounds like an 'f' it is an 'f' so we changed 'Ph' -> 'F'.

English	Polish
Geography	Geografia Click to Reveal
Philosophy	Filozofia Click to Reveal
Choreography	Choreografia Click to Reveal

It's all beginning to sound a bit Italian! There aren't that many 'phy' words but it's still a good rule to know.

A reminder about word ordering and word usage

As I've mentioned previously word ordering and word usage are extremely flexible in Polish so both the following are correct.

• To jest emocjonalny problem
• To jest problem emocjonalny
• To problem emocjonalny
• Jest problem emocjonalny

However they all relay slightly different levels fo emotion or subtle differences in meaning. The best way I can describe it is like when we decide, in English, to use "It's" or "It is". What to use just comes naturally.

In Polish start by using the full sentence - To jest emocjonalny problem - as you communicate more and listen more to Polish you will start to feel the 'natural' word ordering and usage in different contexts. However you will always be understood if you use the full sentence.

I just push the point here because a lot of Polish learners get thrown when then see or hear these different patterns outside the lessons. Just be aware that they are there for the moment.

So there you go - you know an absolute bucket of vocabulary from the start. If you are struggling to find a word stop and think. Does the English word end:

• 'al' (but not 'ical' or 'tional') -> add 'ne'.
• 'ic' -> drop the 'ic' and add 'iczny' or 'yczny'.
• 'ical' - > drop the 'ical' and add 'iczny' or 'yczny'
• 'tion' -> drop the 'tion' and add 'cja'
• 'ssion' -> drop the 'tion' and add 'sja'
• 'sion' -> drop the 'tion' and add 'zja'
• 'tional' -> drop the 'tional' and add 'cjonalne'
• 'phy' -> drop the 'phy' and add 'fia'

Remember to listen out for these the other way around. For example you might hear someone say "Wakacja". Well you know that 'cja' ending replaces 'tion' in English so if we reverse engineer we get "Vacation".

There are even more of these "rule patterns" which we'll cover soon.

English	Polish
Vacation	Wakacja

Lesson 4: What are Nouns and What are Their Genders