Lesson 5: Where is? Here and There, My and Your

One of the first things you are going to need to do when you hit the ground in Poland is to find your way around.

But let's start formally. "Dzień dobry" or perhaps it's evening where you are so "Dobry Wieczór".

Right! Lets add one new word to our vocab and then get learning.

English	Polish
Cash Machine	Bankomat

I remember this as "Automatic Bank" and that reminds me of the "omat" ending but as you see cash machines everywhere on the street you will soon remember it without effort.

Now, when it comes to asking for directions you have, just like in English, two options.

Is there?

The first is to ask if something exists - "Is there a cash machine?" - which we do when we are probably very close to what we want to find ... say inside a bank but we can't see a cash machine. As in English the person you are asking won't just say "Yes" and wander off, they will also direct you to where it is!

English	Polish
Is there a cash machine?	Jest Bankomat?

We're using "jest" on its own which we know means "is" but can also mean "Is there?".

Now to be clear this is for getting by - it's as if someone walked up to you in the street and asked "Is there a cash machine?". You would understand that they want to know "Where is". It's the same in Polish.

First lets learn the Polish for "Wifi".

English	Polish
Wifi	Wifi

Wifi is a great reminder that:

• 'w' is pronounced like 'v'
• 'i' sounds like the 'ea' in 'team

So how would you ask the following:

English	Polish
Is there Wifi?	Jest Wifi? Click to Reveal
Is there a supermarket?	Jest supermarket? Click to Reveal
Is there good coffee?	Jest dobra kawa? Click to Reveal

OK - let's get our thinking hats on and think out a new phrase - "Is there organic wine?"

• "Organic" ends 'ic' so we know if we drop the 'ic' and add 'iczny' we get our basic form of the Polish word -> "Organiczny"
• "Wino" ends in 'o' (like "jajko") so we know its neuter and that means "Organiczny" must end in 'e' -> Organiczne

English	Polish
Is there organic wine?	Jest organiczne wino? Click to Reveal

So if we have "jest" all we need is "where" to get "where is":

Where is ...

English	Polish
Where?	Gdzie?
Where is ...	Gdzie jest ...

The purpose of this lesson is to use "Gdzie jest" so much that you'll never forget it from this day on! But before we go there it's nice to be polite and say "excuse me". Well this is lesson 4 so time for your first tricky Polish word!

English	Polish
Excuse me	Przepraszam

Hard to get your mouth round! P-she-prasham. Luckily you'll use this word so much your tongue, lips and cheeks will soon get the hang of it. You also use this in exactly the same way as you do in English for asking someone to get out the way (nicely) or apologizing if you bump into someone.

This (and the Polish for Thank you which we'll come to in a moment) will be the longest and hardest words you'll need to learn in the first 30 lessons of this course!

So ... have a practice with these before revealing them ...

English	Polish
Excuse me, where is a/the bank?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest bank? Click to Reveal
Excuse me, where is a/the good bistro?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest dobre bistro? Click to Reveal
Excuse me, where is a/the museum?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest muzeum? Click to Reveal
Excuse me, where is a/the good supermarket?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest dobry supermarket? Click to Reveal

... and if you were actually inside a supermarket or shop you might ask:

English	Polish
Excuse me, where is the coffee?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest kawa? Click to Reveal
Excuse me, where is the pizza?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest pizza? Click to Reveal
Excuse me, where is the good wine?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest dobre wino? Click to Reveal
Excuse me, where is the organic wine?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest organiczne wino? Click to Reveal
Excuse me, where is the organic food?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest organiczne jedzenie? Click to Reveal

Now here is one that you might not think you know but you do. "Where is the station?" So that's a 'tion' word which means we know the Polish

English	Polish
Excuse me, where is the station?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest stacja? Click to Reveal

Of course that's not very clear as many towns will have both a railway station and a bus station. For a railway station you would need to say "Stacja PKP" just as in Britain we used to refer to a "BR Station" ... British Rail ... do you remember them?

When it comes to buses there are loads of private companies in Poland but the main bus station will still be referred to most of the time as "Stacja PKS" after the state run intercity bus network that still operates.

Letter pronunciation is important here:

English	Polish
Excuse me, where is the PKP (train) station?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest stacja PKP?
Excuse me, where is the PKS (bus) station?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest stacja PKS?

• 'P' sounds like the 'Pe' in "Petty"
• 'K' sounds like the 'Ca' in "Carrot"
• 'S' sounds exactly the same (phew)

But being such similar names how do you remember which way round the PKS and the PKP are? Well I did it this way. Trains run in straight lines (most of the time) just like the left part, the stem, of the letter 'P'. Buses on the other hand can follow winding roads just like the letter 'S'.

OK, so we've got stations cleared up, finally here are a couple of really useful "where is" statements that you almost know:

English	Polish
Excuse me, where is a good restaurant?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest dobra restauracja?
Excuse me, where is a/the toilet?	Przepraszam, gdzie jest toaleta?

"Restauracja" and "toaleta" are yet another two words that sound really similar to English ... so who said learning Polish was hard?

Understanding directions

Now being able to ask where something is in very basic Polish is all well and good but what's the point if you have no idea what the person is saying when they reply to you?

I did it this way. I'd basically watch their hand movements and then repeated the directions back to them with the words I knew and see if they said "Tak" or "Nie". So let's get some basic words so you can do that:

English	Polish
Here	Tu
Right here	Tutaj
Over there	Tam
Here and there	Tu i tam

Some people say "Tutaj" is more "right here"/"this spot" while others say there is no difference between it and Tu. For practicing further we'll go with the people who say it means "right here" and use "Tu" for "Here" (in this general location).

"Tu i Tam" is a very popular phrase used exactly the same as in English. "Are there good restaurants in this town?", "Here and there".

Now I just sneaked "i" in there (Polish for "and") but I should say a quick work about it. There are a number of words in Polish which are completely different if you are writing compared to speaking. "i" is one of them. In texts you will find authors are more likely to use "oraz".

For the most part in these lessons we are going to concentrate on spoken Polish but I'll flag up the 'written' option just so it doesn't become a blocker if you are reading.

So anyway - after I had received the verbal directions which I didn't understand at all I would say something like, "OK, Tam?" - "OK, there?". Its enough to get you going in the right direction and then ask someone else further up the road!

But it's more useful to be able to say something like "There and left" or "There and Right".

English	Polish
Left	Lewo
Right	Prawo

"Lewo" - is so close to the English word "Left" it should sink in fairly quickly.

"Prawo" is one of my favourites though and hopefully by giving you a little history it will help you remember this word and learn another - the Polish for "Truth".

In Russia, during Soviet times, there was a newspaper called Pravda. It actually predates Soviet times but it was taken over by the communist party to be the main vehicle for daily print communication and it mainly circulated in Russia itself. "Pravda" is Russian for "Truth".

That was always incredibly ironic because there was absolutely nothing truthful about the paper - it was sheer propaganda. After I learnt about the newspaper I never forgot the word Pravda ... however there is no letter 'v' in Polish so the word becomes "Prawda" - "Truth"

English	Polish
Truth	Prawda

I don't know if the word came from Russia or Russia took the word from Polish way back when - it certainly predates the newspaper.

Now ... you will also hear this phrase a lot:

English	Polish
It's the truth / It's true	To prawda

Someone says "To zła situacja", another confirms it by saying "To prawda".

Anway that was a pretty long walk round the houses when all we were talking about was how to say "Right" ("Prawo") but I'm nearly done. "Prawda" is "Truth" which is like being "right". We say, "That's the truth" which means "That's right" and "Prawo" ("right") is very close in the way it is said and spelt to "Prawda" which is the point of my ramblings!

In fact "Prawo" can also means a law, rule, claim, etc.

OK, two more words so you will be able to explain what you think the other person said to you!

English	Polish
Further	Dalej
Straight on	Prosto

"Dalej" is very common in everyday speach because it also means "let's contine" / "Onwards" either when we are talking about things or doing things. You'll find it used on the internet when you are buying something and you need to move on to the next screen. The button is often "Dalej" where we would, on an English website, see "Continue"

"Prosto" has a couple of ways to remember it. The first is that it sounds like the English word "pronto". And if something can be done "pronto" its often straight forward.

The other way is to remember this is via a phrase which you will hear a lot:

English	Polish
A straight shock	Po prostu szok Click to Reveal

Someone might say "and then I saw the price and ... po prostu szok!" - "What a shock!" is how we would say it in English but if you remember it as "a straight shock" you'll also remember "prosto" (with an 'o'. not a 'u') for "straight on".

So now when you have heard the directions you have been given after asking "Gdzie jest bank?" and you think the person means you should go straight and then left you can repeat that back:

English	Polish
Straight on and left	Prosto i lewo Click to Reveal
Straight on and right	Prosto i prawo Click to Reveal
Straight on, straight on, straight on and right	Prosto, prosto, prosto i prawo Click to Reveal

Now that's strictly not all grammatically correct - but you will be understood and as I've said before this is all about getting you communicating. We'll twiddle with the fine tuning later. For now it will get you around the streets!

Have a wander!

To help you remember these words have a wander around wherever you are. Turn left and say "Lewo", turn right and say "Prawo", go forward and say "prosto". Stop and point at the floor where you are and say "tu" or "tutaj". Point at somewhere else and say "Tam".

When you realize you actually remember the words you can say "Po prostu szok!".

My and Your - Mój i Twój

When you're asking where something is it's useful to be able to say if it belongs to someone:

English	Polish
Where is my telephone	Gdzie jest mój telefon?
Where is my coffee?	Gdzie jest moja kawa?
Where is my wine?	Gdzie jest moje wino?

So there you have examples of the three different genders affecting how we say "My". Now we said earlier that masculine adjectives ended 'y' - "dobry telefon". But because "Mój" ends with a 'j' this would be a right mess and very difficult to say so instead there is an accent on the 'o' but no 'y'. The other forms follow the standard rules - 'a' for feminine words and 'e' for neuter.

"Twój" ("your") follows exactly the same rules so you should be able to get the following before revealing them:

English	Polish
Where is your telephone	Gdzie jest twój telefon? Click to Reveal
Where is your firm/company?	Gdzie jest twoja firma? Click to Reveal
Where is your wine?	Gdzie jest twoje wino? Click to Reveal
Where is your ambition?	Gdzie jest twoja ambicja? Click to Reveal

With all of that you should be able to find your way around most of Poland and find the things you lose! Ready to move on to the next lesson? "Dalej!"

Lesson 6: Resources to make learning-stick