Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Hello and welcome to Polish Survival Phrases brought to you by PolishPod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Poland. You will be surprised at how far a little Polish will go.
Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by PolishPod101.com and there, you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.

Lesson focus

In the previous lesson, we covered how to ask, "How do you say this in Polish?" Jak powiedzieć po polsku...? Do you remember? Today, because we don't want you to be caught off guard in any kind of situation in Poland, we are going to introduce you to a new phrase that is very important to help you focus your skills, not on the sounds, but on the writing.
So let's start this new lesson.
In Polish, "Please write that down" is Proszę to napisać.
The first word proszę means, "please."
This is followed by to ("this").
We end our phrase with the verb napisać, which means, "to write down."
So to recap here, we have Proszę to napisać. Literally, this means "Please write this down."
Next, we have another way to express the same meaning. Proszę mi to napisać. "Please write that down for me."
The only thing that changes in this sentence is adding the personal pronoun mi, which literally translates as "for me." Mi.
So we have Proszę mi to napisać. "Please write that down for me."
Once you have the written words, you may find that you have no idea how to pronounce them. In Polish, "How do you pronounce this?" is Jak się to wymawia? You can say this while pointing at the word.
The first word jak means, "how."
Then we have się ("itself").
Next, we have to meaning "this."
Finally, we have wymawia meaning, "pronounces." Wymawia is the third-person singular form of the verb wymawiać ("to pronounce"). To recap, the whole question is Jak się to wymawia? Literally, this question means, "How is it pronounced?"
If you would like someone to write something down for you but you don't have a piece of paper or a pen, you can ask "Do you have pen and paper, sir?" In Polish, it is Czy ma pan kawałek papieru i coś do pisania? The first three words, czy ma pan are familiar to you and mean, "do you have, sir."
The following word is kawałek ("piece").
Next, we have papieru meaning, ("of paper").
So far, we have Czy ma pan kawałek papieru ("Do you have a piece of paper, sir?").Then we have i ("and").
Next, we have coś ("something").
Then there is do ("for" or "to").
Finally, we have pisania ("writing").
If you want to ask a lady if she has pen and paper, remember to substitute pan with pani.
So the question, "Do you have pen and paper, ma'am?" would be Czy ma pani kawałek papieru i coś do pisania?
Cultural Insights
Asking someone to write something down for you can be very helpful...if it is in your own language! Remember that even though the Polish alphabet is based on Latin, there are some letters with diacritical marks, and groups of consonants which can be very confusing.
So unless you study the Polish letters a little bit, you should ask how to write it down in English.
Proszę mi to napisać po angielsku.
If you do know the Polish alphabet, good for you! But for those who don't, here is a sneak peak of it:
Aa Ąą Bb Cc Ćć Dd Ee Ęę Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Łł Mm Nn Ńń
Oo Óó Pp Rr Ss Śś Tt Uu Ww Yy Zz Źź Żż

Outro

Okay, to close out this lesson, we'd like you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for shouting it aloud.
You have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so powodzenia, which means “good luck” in Polish.
"Please write that down." - Proszę to napisać.
Proszę to napisać.
Proszę to napisać.
"Please write that down for me." - Proszę mi to napisać.
Proszę mi to napisać.
Proszę mi to napisać.
"How do you pronounce this?" - Jak się to wymawia?
Jak się to wymawia?
Jak się to wymawia?
"Do you have pen and paper, sir?" - Czy ma pan kawałek papieru i coś do pisania?
Czy ma pan kawałek papieru i coś do pisania?
Czy ma pan kawałek papieru i coś do pisania?
"Do you have pen and paper, ma'am?" - Czy ma pani kawałek papieru i coś do pisania?
Czy ma pani kawałek papieru i coś do pisania?
Czy ma pani kawałek papieru i coś do pisania?
All right, that's going to do it for today. Remember to stop by PolishPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.

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