Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to Top Polish Words. My name is Marzena and today, we will learn 10 Gift Ideas You Must Know in Polish.
1. Laptop “laptop”
Laptop is basically a “laptop” and that’s the best idea for a gift for yourself because it’s pretty expensive.
So if you are a guy, you would say,
Kupiłem nowy laptop.
If you are a girl, you would say,
Kupiłam nowy laptop.
And that basically means, “I bought a new laptop.” For myself.
2. Książka "book"
Książka. Very difficult to pronounce in Polish I guess. Książka. Książka means “a book.”
And for example when you get yourself a nice book and you go back to your country, you can brag about it to your friends and say,
Tę książkę kupiłam w Polsce. "I bought this book in Poland."
By the way, be careful to say Tę książkę not Tą książkę You may hear Tą książkę It is actually okay to say it in the spoken form. It’s not okay in the written one. Yet a lot of native speakers make this mistake. You can hear it on TV, news broadcasters, politicians. Even very smart people, even teachers, Polish teachers, they make this mistake. So I think pretty soon, it will be a correct form even in the written form. For now, you can say, Tą książkę but it’s not correct. Tę książkę is the correct form.
3. Mapa świata "world map"
So the next one is something you can buy for your friend who loves to travel the world who is like a vagabond and loves to go from country to country and the best gift for a person like that would be Mapa świata. Mapa świata means “world map”
If you are a person like that and somebody gets you one, you can say,
Dostałam mapę świata. If you are a girl.
If you are a guy, you would say, Dostałem mapę świata. Which means,
“I got a world map”
4. Aparat fotograficzny "camera"
So now, another very expensive gift that is probably by more for yourself than for somebody else. It’s Aparat fotograficzny. Aparat fotograficzny means camera and be careful because in Polish, camera which is kamera, in Polish, it means just the video camera. So for camera like taking pictures; kamera and aparat fotograficzny.
So again, if you bought this new camera for yourself, this new Aparat fotograficzny, you can say,
To jest mój nowy aparat fotograficzny. "This is my new camera."
5. Smartphone "smartphone"
Okay. So our next word is “smartphone.” Smartphone basically it means smartphone. I guess the accent is a little bit different, more Polish like. The biggest difference is in the spellings. You can spell with ph but you really don’t. You do spell it with F, smartfon. Okay. So when you see your friend playing with his new maybe smartphone, you can ask,
Oh, Masz nowego smartfona? "Do you have a new smartphone?"
6. Konsola do gier "game console"
So our next word is Konsola do gier. Konsola do gier means just a game console and as you can probably hear Konsola, console kind of similar. It comes from English.
Konsola do which means four and gier which means games. So when Christmas is coming and you approach your friends and you smile a lot. You are very nice and then they say, um,
Chciałabym dostać konsolę do gier. Which means,
"I would like to get a game console."
Or if you are like me, you pretend that Santa Claus exists. So you write a letter. You put it there for your parents to find and you are waiting for your new game console.
7. Lot do Polski "a flight to Poland"
Lot do Polski means "a flight to Poland"
That’s something a lot of people would probably like to get. So for example, when you are checking flights to Poland, you can ask,
Po ile są loty do Polski? "How much are the flights to Poland?"
8. Ceramika "ceramic"
Ceramika means "ceramic"
If you are a fan of ceramics, you probably would recognize this beautiful patterns mostly in blue which are getting more and more popular all around the world.
Ceramika z Bolesławca jest znana na całym świecie. "Ceramic from Bolesławiec is known around the world."
9. Bursztyn "amber"
Bursztyn. It means "amber" and it’s something that Poland is very well known for and Amber in Poland is very, very cheap. If you compare it to other countries, we got a lot of it. We are making a lot of stuff from it. Of course, some kind of eclectic necklaces and then the other accessories. Obviously, we use it for stuff like some kind of accessories to your hair and for earrings. That’s not the only way we are using Amber. We do use Amber for example, to make alcohol. So like my grandma, she used to believe like when you put a lot of spirits into Amber and then you can make alcohol out of it as well but you can actually use it as kind of homemade medicine for your back pain. The northern part of Poland developed its own Amber cuisine which is mostly probably for tourists to try some dishes with Amber on top of it. I’ve never tried it to be honest.
So for example, you can say,
Polska słynie z bursztynu. Which means, "Poland is famous for amber."
10. Strój ludowy "national clothes"
Strój ludowy which basically means "national clothes"
It’s not so popular you know in Poland to have one. It’s not like every family has one and I guess people don’t really dress in those kind of clothes anymore unless you are a performer and you are like dancing in the dancing room and you are dancing traditional dance, then you will have one. If you are living in a smaller village, you will have one I guess for all the types of national holidays and all the types of celebrations usually related to the catholic church. The funniest thing about Polish national clothes is that pretty different types like many different types of national clothes depending on where you are from. Typical Polish person can say more or less where this one is coming from. So if you are visiting Poland and you want a nice souvenir to take with you home, you can say,
Kupię sobie strój ludowy. Which means, "I will buy national clothes for myself."
If you have any other gift ideas, please put them in the comments below and see you next time.

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