Lesson 30: Messages, From, First, Second and To Call

So we've learnt how to meet people in person but what about other forms of verbal communication such as handling your mobile phone!

"Witam! Dzień dobry albo Dobre Wieczór. Nie wiem gdzie jesteś. Może jest wieczór, może nie."

OK If you own a mobile phone in Poland and you get a couple of voice mails then when you call in to pick them up you'll hear something like this:

English	Polish
You have two new messages	Masz dwie nowe wiadomości

Now we have to be careful with "wiadomości". In English speaking countries most radio station report on what is new in the world every hour. There is usually more than one new thing so we call it the "news"! In Polish it's called "messages" ... which as we've just seen is "wiadomości".

So how would you say:

English	Polish
I want the news / the messages	Chcę wiadomości Click to Reveal
I don't like the news / the messages	Nie lubię wiadomości Click to Reveal
I'm listening to the news	Słucham wiadomości Click to Reveal

Well here's a screenshot of "Wiadomości" from the state run media channel TVP. Can you guess what they are talking about?

English	Polish
Factory of Fake News	Fabryka Fake Newsów

They were actually running a story claiming their commercial competitor TVN was creating a lot of fake news. It was an interesting one because it was actually, at the time, TVP themselves who were creating fake news and then trying to make out that the real news appearing on other channels was the fake stuff! Clever eh?

Now apart from "Fabryka" means "Factory" and that's pretty easy because it's a bit like "To Fabricate", the real take away for us is the way foreign words are sometimes imported into the language but then treated as if the are Polish. Here we get "Fake News" and then an 'ów' ending. Now we've seen this ending already:

English	Polish
We didn't have good tickets	Nie mieliśmy dobrych biletów Click to Reveal

Yes, we're back in the Genetive (something is missing) case when, once again, it appears nothing is missing!

Nothing, actually is missing. This is one of those times where we need to add an extra rule to the case like this. You use Genetive when something is missing .... oh, and after "do" and "od"!

"do" we saw already in "Idę do miasta" where I explained it as ... if you are going to town you are not in town yet so town is missing you. "Do" can mean "from" or "of"

So really we need to start putting together a list for Genetive like the one we have going on for the Instrumental case. So ... genetive:

1. In the case where something is missing
2. After "do" and "od"

But where is "do" in "Fabryka Fake Newsów"?

Polish doesn't need to have stated a phrase to mean it. "Fabryka Fake Newsów" means "Fake News Factory" but the other way of saying that is "Factory of fake news" ... so its Genetive.

The point is don't just look for "od" and "do" literally, consider if the overall meaning of a statement implies either word is there because if it does then we are in the Genetive case.

Foreign Words

Just like English imports a lot of French words and phrases ("C'est la vie", etc.) Polish imports a lot of English ... and a tiny bit of French - "Voilà" is widely used in Polish!

From English, there is no need to translate most modern concepts like "Slow Food", "FIMO (Fear of Missing Out)", "LGBT (as long as you pronounce the letters correctly)" and a few others. I've even heard:

English	Polish
She is a good candidate because of her story	Ona jest dobrym kandydatem 'because of her story'

Yes - we're defining a person (not using "it") and we're using "Jest" so it's Intrumental case with the distinctive 'em' endings as we saw in the last lesson. And you've just learnt "Candidate" to boot.

Quoting English phrases like this is seen as showing how educated you are in the same way as English people sometimes use French phrases or quote Latin so bear that in mind as it can be seen as snobbish by some audiences.

First message

But back to our phone. It has told us we have two messages, next it will tell us about the first message:

English	Polish
First message from telephone number 303030 from two o'clock	Pierwsza wiadomość od numeru telefonu trzy zero trzy zero trzy zero od godziny drugiej

Some new words in there but also some we know like "telefonu" ... wait "telefonu"? If a masculine noun ends in 'u' that means we're in the Genetive (something is missing) case but what is missing? Nothing ... remember ... we are after "od"!

As always when you know the case you can get back to the dictionary definition. So, after seeing "numeru" and knowing it is in the Genetive case, how would you say:

English	Polish
Number	Numer Click to Reveal
My number is	Mój numer to Click to Reveal
I have your number	Mam twój numer Click to Reveal
I don't have your telephone number	Nie mam twojego numeru telefonu Click to Reveal

As always don't get too hung up on the use of "to" or "jest" or word order. If you say "Nie mam twojego telefonu numeru" that isn't going to make it impossible for you to be understood. The more you listen, the more you'll iron out the natural word ordering as people use it in real life.

First and Second

So it's clear "Pierwsza" is "First" but also because "Pierwsza" ends in 'a' it tells us that "wiadomość" is feminine even though "wiadomość" doesn't end in 'a'. It's an exception. It is clues like this that we can use to spot exceptions when they happen. So how would you say.

English	Polish
My first car was red	Mój pierwszy samochód był czerwony Click to Reveal
My first house was white	Mój pierwszy dom był biały Click to Reveal
My first password was weak	Moje pierwsze hasło było słabe Click to Reveal

And if I told you the word for a "job" was the same as "work" - remember when someone asks us how things are we say "Oh! work, work, work"?

English	Polish
My first job was good	Moja pierwsza praca była dobra Click to Reveal
My first job was political	Moja pierwsza praca była polityczna Click to Reveal

In the last lesson we also learnt this saying:

English	Polish
Buy cheap, buy twice (two times)	kup tanio, kup dwa razy Click to Reveal

So how would you say:

English	Polish
My first time	Mój pierwszy raz Click to Reveal
It's my first time here	To mój pierwszy raz tutaj Click to Reveal

Now back to our phone message which ended with "od godziny drugiej" - quite literally "from the hour second" -> "from the second hour" -> "from 2 o'clock". And this is how time is often expressed in Polish - "the first hour" all the way through to the "twenty-third hour"

It's why when you ask the time in Polish you actually ask "Which hour is it?" ... or simply "Which hour".

English	Polish
Which hour? (What time is it)	Która godzina?

"Która" is affected by the gender of the noun in the same way as adjectives (like "nowy", "czerwony") are. So how would you ask questions like:

English	Polish
Which bag are you buying	Którą torbę kupujesz? Click to Reveal
Which coffee is yours?	Która kawa jest twoja? Click to Reveal
Which house do you like?	Który dom lubisz? Click to Reveal
Which password do you want?	Które hasło chcesz? Click to Reveal

Now if someone asked you "Która godzina?" you would want to say something like "second" or "Second hour". So we need to think out how we would say that.

• we know from our phone "od godziny drugiej" and because we've got "od" here we know this is genetive.
• For "Drugiej" we've seen the same 'iej' ending with "Tani" so we know the nominative (dictionary) term for "Second" is "Drugi".
• We know in the Genetive case that it's feminine nouns which get a 'y' ending so the nomnative (dictionary) term for "hour" is "godzina"
• If "godzina" is feminine then "drugi" must change it's ending to match

So can you think out how to say:

English	Polish
Two o'clock (Second hour)	Godzina druga Click to Reveal

OK. Let's try using "Drugi" in some other phrases:

English	Polish
My second job was good	Moja druga praca była dobra
My second job was political	Moja druga praca była polityczna
My second car was black	Mój drugi samochód był czarny
My second password was weak	Moje drugie hasło było słabe
My second time was bad	Mój drugi raz był zły

To call

We'll learn more times - 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock - along the way. But for now we had better call these people back and here we'll imagine the person we want to call is Beata. By the way if a name ends in 'a' it's a female and, as it happens, all official names for females end in 'a' - Agata, Magda, etc. That means if you see a first name that ends in 'a', assume it's a female even if you have never seen the name before.

English	Polish
On Wednesday I want to call (to) Beata	W środę, chcę zadzwonić do Beaty

Yes - Beata's name has changed because not even names can hide from the cases! We are after "do" which means we are in the Genetive (something is missing) case where feminine noun endings get changed from 'a' to 'y'.

So how would you say:

English	Polish
On Wednesday I want to call (to) Renata	W środę, chcę zadzwonić do Renaty Click to Reveal
On Wednesday I want to call (to) Magda	W środę, chcę zadzwonić do Magdy Click to Reveal
On Wednesday I want to call (to) Tim	W środę, chcę zadzwonić do Tima Click to Reveal

Well with my name you had a fifty-fifty chance to get it right - it was either going to be 'Timu' or 'Tima' because I'm male. Even if you had added the wrong one you would have still impressed a lot of people simply by knowing that something had to be added!

I am calling

Do you remember this:

English	Polish
I want to do (make) soup	Chcę zrobić zupę
I'm doing (making) soup	Robię zupę
I asked why	Zapytałem dlaczego
I'm asking now	Pytam teraz

We had this "Z" or "Za" added on to the front of the verb if the action was happening at a certain point (a dot in time) in the past or the future

And here we have "Chcę zadzwonić do Tima" .. do you see the "Za"? So looking at "Robię" and "Zrobić" how do you think you say:

English	Polish
I'm calling (to) Beata	Dzwonię do Beaty Click to Reveal
I'm calling (to) Tim	Dzwonię do Tima Click to Reveal

"Świetny!". To get back into the present moment we lop off the 'za' and then follow the ome of our experiences to get us to the 'I form'. Yes it might have been "Dzwonem" or something like that but the more of these you see the more you'll get an instinctive feeling for what it should be.

I called

So I wanted to call - "chcę zadzwonić" - and I was in the process of calling - "Dzwonię". But how to say I called if "I'm asking" was "Pytam" and "I asked" was "Zapytałem" ?

To get the past tense of "to ask" we added 'za' to the front and then basically lopped off the last letter and added 'łem'.

So to get from "dzwonię" ("I am calling") to "I called" by following the same rules, how do you think it will be:

English	Polish
I called	Zadzwoniłem Click to Reveal

"Tak jest!". You can now really start to see a pattern in the past tense. In some cases we're adding a 'za' or a 'z' to the front:

• Zapytałem
• Zadzwoniłem

Sometimes we don't add anything to the front:

• Szukałem
• Słuchałem

But we are always ending 'łem'

And if you worked throught the 'you/he/we' forms you would find the same patterns.

Now if you look up a verb in a dictionary it will either give you one option ("Mieć" = "to have") or two ("Robić/Zrobić" = "to do").

If there are two forms the longer one is usually the one to use for points (dots) in time, both past and future. From this longer form you can have a pretty good go at getting the past tense and you will probably be right.

So with "Robić/Zrobić" we know "Zrobić" is the one to use to get to the past and we know we need to use the 'łem' ending ...So how do you think you would say:

English	Polish
I did	Zrobiłem Click to Reveal

"Świetny!"

Now we have seen "Rozumiem" but if we were to look up "to understand" in the dictionary we would see "Rozumieć, Zrozumieć" ... so how would you get "I understood"?

English	Polish
I understood	Zrozumiałem Click to Reveal

You probably went for "Zrozumiłem" following the pattern from "Zrobiłem". In spoken Polish this would be so close that you would be understood and then corrected. Just have the confidence to think it out, have a go, and then refine from the feedback you get. It's the fastest way to learn!

Lesson 31: Messages, Future Tense versions of verbs and 'I will'