Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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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

Let's imagine first that you are a smoker. Before entering a restaurant, you need to ask "Excuse me, can one smoke here?" (Przepraszam, czy można tu palić?)
Przepraszam, as we have seen before, means "Excuse me." We follow this with czy, which indicates a question.
In this phrase, czy doesn't mean anything; it's just the way yes-no questions are formed.
Then we have można, which means "one can, it's possible."
The next component is tu, meaning "here."
The last word is palić, which in English means "to smoke."
Another useful expression in such a situation would be Przepraszam, czy wolno tu palić? As you can see, it's almost the same as the phrase we just introduced.
In this expression, we used the word wolno, which in English means "is allowed."
Now let's go and see the possible answers.
"Yes, one can smoke here."
Tak, tu można palić.
"Yes, smoking is allowed here."
Tak, tu wolno palić.
As you might have figured out, in these sentences we have only added the Polish word for "yes" (tak) before tu można palić and tu wolno palić. And we changed the position of the word tu ("here"). This is an easy answer to a question!
What do we say if smoking isn't allowed? We take the same pattern as before, and instead of tak, we just add the Polish word for "no" (nie).
"One cannot smoke here."
Nie, tu nie można palić.
"Smoking is not allowed here."
Nie, tu nie wolno palić.
Please, notice that in the above sentences we have double Nie.

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.
"Excuse me, can one smoke here?" - Przepraszam, czy można tu palić?
Przepraszam, czy można tu palić?
Przepraszam, czy można tu palić?
"Excuse me, is smoking allowed here?" - Przepraszam, czy wolno tu palić?
Przepraszam, czy wolno tu palić?
Przepraszam, czy wolno tu palić?
"Yes, one can smoke here." - Tak, tu można palić.
Tak, tu można palić.
Tak, tu można palić.
"Yes, smoking is allowed here." - Tak, tu wolno palić
Tak, tu wolno palić
Tak, tu wolno palić
"One cannot smoke here" - Nie, tu nie można palić.
Nie, tu nie można palić.
Nie, tu nie można palić.
"Smoking is not allowed here." - Nie, tu nie wolno palić.
Nie, tu nie wolno palić.
Nie, tu nie wolno palić.
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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