Lesson 32: 'Formal' you, 'Plural' you and They

It's the last lesson in this Polish for Beginners course and a good time to cover a few of the gaps we left out earlier to make the learning process more manageable

But for the last time (in this beginners course anyway), "Witam! Dzień dobry albo Dobre Wieczór. Witam na lekcję!". Or:

English	Polish
Our last lesson	Nasza ostatnia lekcja

So how would you say:

English	Polish
Our last pizza was good	Nasza ostatnia pizza była dobra Click to Reveal
Our last house was old	Nasz ostatni dom były stary Click to Reveal
Our last password was weak	Nasze ostatnie hasło było słabe Click to Reveal

And here you can really see how the gender of the subject ("pizza", "dom", "hasło") affects every word in the sentence. Get them wrong and you'll be understood, don't worry about that, but better in the long run to be slow, think it out ... and get it right!

Formal You

OK ... there are two forms of you we haven't covered. The first is 'formal' you. When we are talking to someone we don't know, someone of authority (such as a doctor or a police officer) or someone who is obviously older than us - to show a little respect.

The 'formal' you is basically talking in the third person:

• Does Sir want to have wine?
• Madam has a good house

Which is the same as using the 'he/she/it' form! All we need to know are the words for "Sir" and "Madam"

English	Polish
Does sir want to have white wine?	Czy Pan chce mieć białe wino?
Madam has a good house	Pani ma dobry dom

And that's it! Stick "Pan" or "Pani" on the front of the 'he/she/it' form of the verb and you have 'formal' you! Because we're being all formal and posh we use the full version of asking a question by adding "Czy" to the front, something we don't bother with in informal speech. So how would you say:

English	Polish
Is Sir going to town?	Czy Pan jedzie do miasta? Click to Reveal
Does Madam have time?	Czy Pani ma czas? Click to Reveal
Is Sir buying the television?	Czy Pan kupuje telewizor? Click to Reveal
Does madam know the address?	Czy Pani wie adres? Click to Reveal

If you want to get into the 'formal' you mood more I recommend watching a few episodes of "Are you being served?" on YouTube!

Now you have the 'formal' you for past and future as well because these are also the same as 'he/she/it' - so there you go, something you learnt already!. If in dounbt about when to use 'formal' and 'informal' start with 'formal' and see how the other person replies. If they respond using 'informal' then switch to informal'.

Plural you

If you are talking to more than one person (formally or informally) then there is a special form of you:

English	Polish
How much do you (plural) want?	Ile chcecie?
You (plural) must buy this new product	Musicie kupić ten nowy produkt

Now if you look at the verbs all we are doing is taking the 'he/she/it' form and adding 'cie' to it. So how would you say:

English	Polish
You (plural) have a good car	Macie dobry samochód Click to Reveal
You (plural) speak Polish well	Dobrze mówicie po polsku Click to Reveal
Do you (plural) think (that) I am right?	Myślicie, że mam rację? Click to Reveal
Are you (plural) making soup now?	Robicie zupę teraz? Click to Reveal

Plural You - Past

Now I'm just going to cover 'plural you' in the past briefly because you need to be aware of it but it is really a lesson in itself. However once you hear the specific sounds that is used you will recognize it when you hear it in the future.

In reality it's pretty rare that you will find yourself talking to two people about what they did in the past and if you did then using the 'You informal' form they would be fine for communicating. But knowing how to spot it means you won't be thrown if someone starts talking to you in this 'plural' form.

'Plural' you does change in the past depending on the gender of the people you are talking to. If you are talking to two or more people and they are all women we use fthe 'female' form. However if there is one male ... even if it is in a group of one thousand women ... we use the male form!

English	Polish
You (female group) had the car yesterday	Miałyście samochód wczoraj
You (male/mixed group) had the car yesterday	Mieliście samochód wczoraj

The key sounds here are 'ły' for women, 'li' for men or mixed groups and the 'cie' ending that we also saw in the present tense. Listen out for them in these next examples to help train your ear.

English	Polish
You (female group) were in the house	Byłyście w domu
You (male/mixed group) were in the house	Byliście w domu
You (female group) spoke Polish	Mówiłyście po polsku
You (male/mixed group) spoke Polish	Mówiliście po polsku
You (female group) thought (that) I was right	Myślałyście, że miałem rację
You (male/mixed group) thought (that) I was right	Myśleliście, że miałem rację

OK. If you have got the pattern have a go at trying to guess what these might be before revealing them. You might not get them exactly but I bet you get damn close! Probably close enough to be understood:

English	Polish
You (female group) liked jazz	Lubiłyscie jazz
You (male/mixed group) liked jazz	Lubiliście jazz
You (female group) knew about the town	Znałyście miasto
You (male/mixed group) knew about the town	Znaliście miasto
You (female group) knew what to do	Wiedziałyscie co zrobić
You (male/mixed group) knew what to do	Wiedzieliscie co zrobić
You (female group) made tea	Zrobiłyscie herbatę
You (male/mixed group) made tea	Zrobiliscie herbatę
You (female group) asked why	Zapytałyście dlaczego
You (male/mixed group) asked why	Zapytaliście dlaczego
You (female group) looked for a house	Szukałyście domu
You (male/mixed group) looked for a house	Szukaliście domu
You (female group) called Robert	Zadzwoniłyście do Roberta
You (male/mixed group) called Robert	Zadzwoniliście do Roberta

Plural You - Future

This one is much, much simpler!

English	Polish
You (plural) will be in the restaurant	Będziecie w restauracji
You (plural) will have a/the car tomorrow	Będziecie mieć samochód jutro
You will (plural) speak Polish	Będziecie mówić po polsku

So as you can see it's basically "Będziecie" and then the 'to form' of the verb so these should be no more than a relaxed revision!

English	Polish
You (plural) will think that it's true	Będziecie myśleć że to prawda
You (plural) will like jazz	Będziecie lubić jazz
You (plural) will know about the town	Będziecie znać miasto
You (plural) will know the town	Będziecie wiedzieć miasto
You (plural) will make tea	Będziecie robić herbatę
You (plural) will ask why	Będziecie pytać dlaczego
You (plural) will look_for a_house	Będziecie szukać dom
You (plural) will call Robert	Będziecie dzwonić Roberta

Now, to be fair, there is a way to ask all the above questions in a way that addresses them specifically to all female groups or mixed groups but it is very rarely used and so belongs to a more advanced course of Polish. I'm just going to put one example in here so you see the pattern:

English	Polish
You (female group) will like jazz	Będziecie lubiły jazz
You (male/mixed group) will like jazz	Będziecie lubili jazz

So you can see that distinctive "Będziecie" is still used and the verb ("lubić") uses that distinctive 'ły' sound for female groups and 'li' sound for male/mixed groups. Listen out for it now and then when your listening to the radio.

These two ways to use 'plural' you in the past are just like any language where there are multiple ways to say the same thing, and by the time you get there you will be so comfortable with the language it will be a walk in the park!

They

We've already touched on "They are" in Lesson 23 when we looked at plurals. Do you remember how to say this:

English	Polish
They are good tickets	Są dobre bilety Click to Reveal
They are good lamps	Są dobre lampy Click to Reveal
They are good wines	Są dobre wina Click to Reveal

The 'ą' in "są" is the defining sign in most verbs that we are using the they form:

English	Polish
They have good tickets	Mają dobre bilety Click to Reveal
They are saying (that) it is not important	Mówią, że to nie jest ważne Click to Reveal
They want a chance	Chcą szansę Click to Reveal
They think they have time	Myślą, że mają czas Click to Reveal

So what do we have here? The rules are fairly easy to follow:

• If the 'he/she/it' form ends in 'a' we add 'ją'
• If the 'he/she/it' form ends in 'i' we add 'ą'
• If not we change the last letter to 'ą'
• "Myślą" is an exception!

English	Polish
They know (about) the town	Znają miasto Click to Reveal
They think they know	Myślą, że wiedzą Click to Reveal
They can go to sleep	Mogą iść spać Click to Reveal

They - past tense

With "they" (past) we have the same situation as 'plural you' in that gender is important. Again if "they" is a group of women (or all feminine nouns) we use the feminine form but put just one man in there and we use masculine.

English	Polish
They (all female group) made coffee	Zrobiły kawę
They (male/mixed group) made tea	Zrobili herbatę

So again we have the 'he/she/it' form and we add 'ły' or 'li'. So how would you say:

English	Polish
They (female group) spoke Polish	Mówiły po polsku Click to Reveal
They (male/mixed group) spoke English	Mówili po angielsku Click to Reveal
They (female group) knew (about) the town	Znały miasto Click to Reveal
They (male/mixed group) knew (about) the town	Znali miasto Click to Reveal
They (female group) asked why	Zapytały dlaczego Click to Reveal
They (male/mixed group) asked when	Zapytali kiedy Click to Reveal

Now it has to be said there are a bunch of exceptions when it comes to commonly used verbs but they are not a million miles from the common rules.

English	Polish
They (female group) had good work	Miały dobrą pracę
They (male/mixed group) had good work	Mieli dobrą pracę
They (female group) were expensive	Były tanie
They (male/mixed group) were cheap	Byli drogie
They (female group) wanted red wine	Chciały czerwonego wina
They (male/mixed group) wanted white wine	Chcieli białego wina
They (female group) thought they knew	Myślały, że wiedziały
They (male/mixed group) thought they knew	Myśleli, że wiedzieli

As you can see if you had made an educated guess at most of the above you would have got them, or got close enough to them to be understood.

The end of Polish for beginners

That's it for this basic course. I'm working on the intermediate one but you have enough to get around Poland and the basics for building up more vocabulary and being able to "think out" verbs no matter the form you stumble across.

Until next time ... "Do zobaczenia!"