Learn all about accents in the Polish language
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| Nick: Hi, everybody! |
| Beata: "Witamy." |
| Nick: And welcome back to the last chapter of the Pronunciation series! Lesson 5 - ABCs of Polish Accent, Exceptions, and Accentuation of Groups of Words. What will we be covering in this lesson? |
| Beata: In this lesson, we'll be talking about accents in Polish. |
| Nick: Undoubtedly, accents play an important role in every language, and Polish is no exception. |
| Beata: We are going to start with the accentuation of single words. Once this is covered, we are going to talk a bit about the accentuation in groups of words. |
| Nick: We would strongly recommend checking the lesson notes as you listen so that you can follow all of the vocabulary we will be working on. Let's start, then. |
| Beata: Polish accentuation is quite constant and in most cases falls on the second-to-last syllable. For example.…"książka" |
| Nick: "book" |
| Beata: "torebka" |
| Nick: "purse" |
| Beata: and "dyskutować" |
| Nick: "to discuss." |
| Nick: What if a word consists of one syllable only? |
| Beata: If this is the case, then the whole syllable is stressed. For example…"mam" |
| Nick: "I have" |
| Beata: "znam" |
| Nick: "I know" |
| Beata: and "mistrz" |
| Nick: "master." |
| Nick: I see. So basically, you have to remember to put the stress on the second-to-last syllable if there is more than one syllable in a word. On the other hand, if a word consists of one syllable only, you simply have to stress the entire word. |
| Beata: Very good. |
| Nick: I feel like there's something you want to tell us. Are there any exceptions to this rule? |
| Beata: Actually, there are. Words that have a foreign origin and end in "-ika" or "-yka" keep their original accent on the third-to-last syllable from the end. For example, "ma-te-MA-ty-ka" |
| Nick: "mathematics" |
| Beata: "A-ME-ry-ka" |
| Nick: "America" |
| Beata: And "bo-TA-ni-ka" |
| Nick: "botanics." |
| Nick: Got it. For words with a foreign origin, the accent falls on the third-to-last syllable. What else? |
| Beata: The forms of the first- and second-person plural of the past tense are also accented on the third-to-last syllable. For instance, "GRA-liś-my" |
| Nick: "we played" |
| Beata: "BY-liś-my" |
| Nick: "we were" |
| Beata: and "BY-li-ście" |
| Nick: "you (plural) were." |
| Nick: There's also third-to-last-syllable accentuation in all of the conditional forms in the singular form and the third-person plural form. For example… |
| Beata: "ZRO-bi-łab-ym" |
| Nick: "I (female) would do"/"I (female) would have done" |
| Beata: "CZY-tał-by" |
| Nick: "he would read"/"he would have read" |
| Beata: and "na-u-CZY-li-by" |
| Nick: "they would teach"/"they would have taught." |
| Beata: Some Polish numbers that end in "-sta" or "-set" also have the accent falling on the third syllable. For example… |
| Beata: "CZTE-ry-sta" |
| Nick: "four hundred" |
| Beata: "and O-siem-set" |
| Nick: "eight hundred." |
| Nick: Now let's move on to the accentuation on the fourth-to-last syllable. |
| Beata: There's only one situation when the accent falls on the fourth-to-last syllable and that is with the first- and second-person plural of the conditional. For example… |
| Beata: "BY-lib-yś-my" |
| Nick: "we would be"/"we would have been" |
| Beata: And "BY-li-by-ście" |
| Nick: "you would be"/"you would have been." |
| Nick: Is there anything else that you would like to add to the accentuation of single words? |
| Beata: There are a few words in the Polish language that are accented on the last syllable. For example, "eks-MĄŻ" |
| Nick: "ex-husband." |
| Nick: This rule applies to the nouns that are one syllable only and are used to create compound words with the particles "eks-," "arcy-," and "wice-." |
| Beata: Very good. |
| Nick: I think we are ready to move on to accent groups. |
| Beata: In some instances, single-syllable words can form accent groups with other neighboring words. For example, the negation "nie" ("no") is stressed when followed by a single-syllable word, such as "NIE chcę." |
| Nick: "I don't want." |
| Beata: And "NIE wiem." |
| Nick: "I don't know." |
| Nick: Also, if a preposition occurs in front of a one-syllable word, the stress falls on the preposition. For example… |
| Beata: "DO was" |
| Nick: "to you" |
| Beata: "ZE mną" |
| Nick: "with me" |
| Beata: and "PRZE-DE mną" |
| Nick: "in front of me." |
| Beata: If single-syllable forms of personal pronouns, such as "ci" |
| Nick: "you" |
| Beata: "go" |
| Nick: "him" |
| Beata: "jej" |
| Nick; "her" |
| Beata: And so on, and the reflexive pronoun "się," happens to appear after a verb, they are not accented. For example… |
| Beata: "proszę cię" |
| Nick: "I'm asking you" |
| Beata: "mówiłem jej" |
| Nick: "I told her" |
| Beata: And "widziałam go" |
| Nick: "I (female) saw him." |
| Nick: Also, the negation "nie" won't be accented if it occurs before two-syllable or longer words. For instance… |
| Beata: "nie pomagaj" |
| Nick: "don't help" |
| Beata: "nie śpiewaj" |
| Nick: "don't sing" |
| Beata: And "nie chcemy" |
| Nick: "we don't want to." |
| Nick: That does it for the Pronunciation series! Now you're on your way to having great Polish accentuation! Don't forget to keep repeating and practicing, and see you next time. |
| Beata: "Do usłyszenia." "See you next time." |
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