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

Have you ever been in a city you don't know at all, and you are desperately looking for something you need and cannot find? It happened so many times to me! I wandered around without knowing where to go to reach for example a bar, a phone, or a restroom! Don't worry.
Thanks to our Survival Phrases, if you go to Poland, you will always be able to ask for information and help.
Today, we would like to introduce you to a phrase that will help you track down that specific something you're looking for. "Excuse me, where is (item or place you are looking for)?" in Polish is Przepraszam, gdzie jest...? Then, you add the name of the specific place or thing you're looking for.
You can use the basic structure Przepraszam, gdzie jest...? in any situation in which you need to get somewhere.
This structure is made up of przepraszam, ("excuse me"), then the pronoun gdzie, ("where"), followed by jest, which means, "is."
Now let's see what kind of places or things you might need if you're traveling abroad.
Let's imagine you're walking around one of Poland's many beautiful Old Towns, you're tired, and you need to eat something.
Let's go and ask where you can find a restaurant! "Excuse me, where is a restaurant?" in Polish is Przepraszam, gdzie jest restauracja?
As you can easily notice, you have the structure you have just seen, Przepraszam, gdzie jest, followed by the place you're looking for, restauracja ("restaurant"). Restauracja is a very easy noun.
In Polish, there is another way of asking where something is. It's the phrase, Przepraszam, gdzie się znajduje...? In English this means, "Excuse me, where is (item or place you are looking for) located?" As you have probably noticed, in this phrase we used the verb się znajduje, which means, "is located." After the verb się znajduje, we have to put the name of the place we're looking for.
Let's also use restauracja as our example.
So the phrase "Excuse me, where is the restaurant located?" in Polish is Przepraszam, gdzie się znajduje restauracja?
With these forms, you can go anywhere you need, to ask for anything you are looking for.
You could use another form if you wanted to be more polite and wanted to use a different expression.
Let's imagine you're looking for a phone booth this time. "Excuse me, can you tell me, sir, where the phone booth is?" Przepraszam, czy może mi pan powiedzieć, gdzie jest budka telefoniczna? Don't you think this is more formal? Of course it is! So what do we have here? Again we have przepraszam ("excuse me"), then we have czy może meaning "can you" used in the formal way of speech.
Next, we have mi ("me") and pan ("sir").
The next component is the infinitive powiedzieć, meaning, "to tell." After we have said Przepraszam, czy może mi pan powiedzieć ("excuse me, can you tell me, sir"), we have to ask what we want to be told! In this case, we want to find a phone booth, which is gdzie jest budka telefoniczna? Let's look at the different parts. Gdzie, as we have previously seen, means "where."
Then we have jest ("is").
This is followed by what we want to find, budka telefoniczna ("phone booth").
There you have it!
If you're asking a woman, remember to change pan ("sir") into pani ("ma'am").
Przepraszam, czy może mi pani powiedzieć, gdzie jest budka telefoniczna?
If you would like to use the phrase "Excuse me, can you tell me, sir, where the phone booth is located?", you only have to substitute the verb jest with się znajduje. In Polish, the phrase would be Przepraszam, czy może mi pan powiedzieć, gdzie się znajduje budka telefoniczna?
To ask for any other item, we can just replace restauracja or budka telefoniczna with any other word and the introduced phrases will work brilliantly! Let's try with "pharmacy," which in Polish is apteka. "Excuse me, can you tell me, ma'am, where the pharmacy is?" in Polish is Przepraszam, czy może mi pani powiedzieć, gdzie jest apteka?
Now let's try the same phrase but let's use "is located." In Polish, "Excuse me, can you tell me, sir, where the pharmacy is located?" is Przepraszam, czy może mi pan powiedzieć, gdzie się znajduje apteka?
These phrases will come in handy before leaving the hotel and when talking with the taxi driver or other people trying to help you locate a desired place or item.

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, where is (item or place you're looking for)?" - Przepraszam, gdzie jest...?
Przepraszam, gdzie jest...?
Przepraszam, gdzie jest...?
"Excuse me, where is a restaurant?" - Przepraszam, gdzie jest restauracja?
Przepraszam, gdzie jest restauracja?
Przepraszam, gdzie jest restauracja?
"Excuse me, where is (item or place you're looking for) located?" - Przepraszam, gdzie się znajduje...?
Przepraszam, gdzie się znajduje...?
Przepraszam, gdzie się znajduje...?
"Excuse me, where is the restaurant located?" - Przepraszam, gdzie się znajduje restauracja?
Przepraszam, gdzie się znajduje restauracja?
Przepraszam, gdzie się znajduje restauracja?
"Excuse me, can you tell me, sir, where the phone booth is?" - Przepraszam, czy może mi pan powiedzieć, gdzie jest budka telefoniczna?
Przepraszam, czy może mi pan powiedzieć, gdzie jest budka telefoniczna?
Przepraszam, czy może mi pan powiedzieć, gdzie jest budka telefoniczna?
"Excuse me, can you tell me, ma'am, where the pharmacy is located?" - Przepraszam, czy może mi pani powiedzieć, gdzie się znajduje apteka?
Przepraszam, czy może mi pani powiedzieć, gdzie się znajduje apteka?
Przepraszam, czy może mi pani powiedzieć, gdzie się znajduje apteka?
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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