Learn how to describe things with Polish adjectives
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lessonโs key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Betsey:Hello everyone and welcome to PolishPod101.com. This is Beginner series, season 1, lesson 5, Describing Things in Polish. Iโm Betsey. |
| Joanna:And Iโm Joanna. |
| Betsey:In this lesson youโll learn how to describe things in Polish. |
| Joanna:This conversation takes place at a confectionery shop. |
| Betsey:The conversation is between the shop clerk and Kate, who is trying to choose a cake. |
| Joanna:They are strangers, so theyโll be speaking formal Polish. |
| Betsey:Letโs listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Kate:Przepraszam, jakie to jest ciasto? |
| Sprzedawczyni:To jest piernik, tradycyjne polskie ciasto. |
| Kate:A jaki jest ten tort? |
| Sprzedawczyni:To jest czekoladowy tort. Jest bardzo sลodki. |
| Kate:A jaka jest ta rolada? |
| Sprzedawczyni:To jest waniliowa rolada. Jest bardzo smaczna. |
| Alisha: Letโs hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Kate:Przepraszam, jakie to jest ciasto? |
| Sprzedawczyni:To jest piernik, tradycyjne polskie ciasto. |
| Kate:A jaki jest ten tort? |
| Sprzedawczyni:To jest czekoladowy tort. Jest bardzo sลodki. |
| Kate:A jaka jest ta rolada? |
| Sprzedawczyni:To jest waniliowa rolada. Jest bardzo smaczna. |
| Alisha: Now letโs hear it with the English translation. |
| Kate:Przepraszam, jakie to jest ciasto? |
| :Excuse me, what is this cake like? |
| Sprzedawczyni:To jest piernik, tradycyjne polskie ciasto. |
| :This is gingerbread, a very traditional Polish cake. |
| Kate:A jaki jest ten tort? |
| :And what is this birthday cake like? |
| Sprzedawczyni:To jest czekoladowy tort. Jest bardzo sลodki. |
| :This is a chocolate birthday cake. Itโs very sweet. |
| Kate:A jaka jest ta rolada? |
| :What is this roll cake like? |
| Sprzedawczyni:To jest waniliowa rolada. Jest bardzo smaczna. |
| :This is a vanilla roll cake. Itโs very tasty. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Betsey:What shall we talk about this time? |
| Joanna:Sweets!! |
| Betsey:Do Poles like sweets THAT much?! |
| Joanna:Yes! We love sweets!! |
| Betsey:What kind of sweet is the most popular in Poland? |
| Joanna:Probably cakes. Thereโs a really enormous range of cakes, basically anything you can think of. And whatโs more, all of them are sold per kilogram. |
| Betsey:Per kilogram?? |
| Joanna:Yes! The reason for that is probably the fact that Poles are never satisfied with a one tiny piece of cake. We eat a lot. |
| Betsey:Do you also bake cakes? |
| Joanna:Yes, we do. Of course these days many people just buy them, but many households still bake cakes, especially for holidays like Christmas or Easter. Thereโs also one very special holiday in February, which we call โTลusty Czwartekโ, โFat Thursdayโ |
| Betsey:โFat Thursdayโ?! I just canโt imagine what this holiday might be about! |
| Joanna:haha! Itโs a donut day! On that day absolutely everyone has to eat at least one donut! |
| Betsey:Sounds funny! |
| Joanna:So yes, on that day, no-one cares about their diet or calories, they just eat donuts basically the whole day. |
| Betsey:Poland is truly an interesting country. Letโs learn some words which can be useful if you go to confectionery shop. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| :Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| :The first word we shall see is:jaki [natural native speed] |
| :"what...like," what (masculine) |
| :jaki [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :jaki [natural native speed] |
| :Next:jaka [natural native speed] |
| :"what...like," what (feminine) |
| :jaka [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :jaka [natural native speed] |
| :Next:jakie [natural native speed] |
| :"what...like," what (neuter) |
| :jakie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :jakie [natural native speed] |
| :Next:ciasto [natural native speed] |
| :cake |
| :ciasto [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :ciasto [natural native speed] |
| :Next:tort [natural native speed] |
| :birthday cake |
| :tort [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :tort [natural native speed] |
| :Next:rolada [natural native speed] |
| :roll cake |
| :rolada [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :rolada [natural native speed] |
| :Next:sลodki [natural native speed] |
| :sweet |
| :sลodki [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :sลodki [natural native speed] |
| :Next:tradycyjny [natural native speed] |
| :traditional |
| :tradycyjny [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :tradycyjny[natural native speed] |
| :Next:waniliowy[natural native speed] |
| :vanilla |
| :waniliowy [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :waniliowy [natural native speed] |
| :And Last:byฤ [natural native speed] |
| :to be |
| :byฤ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| :byฤ [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Betsey:Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Joanna, whatโs the first word? |
| Joanna:โciastkarniaโ |
| Betsey:โconfectionery shopโ |
| Joanna:โciastkarniaโ is a place where in Poland you can buy all kinds of cakes, cookies, donuts, and quite often also bread. |
| Betsey:This noun derives from some other words, doesnโt it? |
| Joanna:Yes, from the noun โciastkoโ |
| Betsey:which means โa cookieโ in English |
| Joanna:and the end -arnia is usually added to names of places. So altogether, we get a place where cookies are made and where we buy them - โciastkarniaโ |
| Betsey:โconfectionery shopโ. Okay, so whatโs the next word? |
| Joanna:โtortโ |
| Betsey:โbirthday cakeโ |
| Joanna:In Poland thereโs a very wide variety of birthday cakes - different flavors, creams, fruits, and decorations. And here comes an interesting piece of information - โtortโ is not necessarily a cake that is bought to celebrate someoneโs birthday. |
| Betsey:You buy it for different occasions too? |
| Joanna:Yes, โtortโ is a cake that has a certain look - 2 or 3 layers of sponge cake with cream and jam in between. Poles also buy them for anniversaries or name days as well.. |
| Betsey:Weโve learned a lot about Polish cakes, confectionery shops and unusual Polish holidays today! Itโs high time to move on to the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
| Betsey:In this lesson youโll learn how to describe features of objects and people, and also how to ask about them. |
| Joanna:The first thing you need to pay a lot of attention to is the gender of nouns. |
| Betsey:We hope youโve spent some time working on recognizing noun gender. |
| Joanna:Yes, because this skill is crucial for asking questions about features! |
| Betsey:So Joanna, if we want to ask what something is like, what do we have to say in Polish? |
| Joanna:Everything depends on the gender of the object we are asking about. |
| Betsey:We have three options then, right? |
| Joanna:Yes. We can start the question in three ways. Letโs start with masculine nouns. |
| Betsey:How would the question sound if we were asking about a masculine object or person? |
| Joanna:โJaki to jest โฆ?โ |
| Betsey:โWhat is this [blank] likeโ Letโs break down this question. |
| Joanna:First comes the pronoun โjakiโ, which we have to use for masculine nouns... |
| Betsey:...it stands for the English โwhatโ. |
| Joanna:Then we have the demonstrative pronoun โtoโ... |
| Betsey:...which means โthisโ. |
| Joanna:Next comes โjestโ... |
| Betsey:...the third person singular form of the verb โto beโ. |
| Joanna:And lastly after โjestโ we have to put the name of the object or person weโre asking about, for example โjaki to jest tort?โ |
| Betsey:This is the question Kate asked the confectionery shop clerk. It means โWhat is this birthday cake like?โ |
| Joanna:The noun โtortโ is a masculine noun, so we have to use the question word โjakiโ |
| Betsey:So what is the question word used for asking about feminine nouns? |
| Joanna:Itโs โjakaโ |
| Betsey:In the dialogue Kate asked โWhat is this roll cake like?โ |
| Joanna:โJaka to jest rolada?โ |
| Betsey:I see the way the question is built doesnโt change at all. |
| Joanna:Thatโs right. The only thing that changes is the question word, since it depends on the gender of the noun and the noun itself, which appears at the end of the question. |
| Betsey:Ok, got it. Now letโs learn how to ask about neuter nouns. |
| Joanna:The correct question word in this case is - โjakieโ |
| Betsey:So how do we say - โwhat is this cake like?โ |
| Joanna:โjakie to jest ciasto?โ |
| Betsey:So the noun for โcakeโ is a neuter noun. is that correct? |
| Joanna:Yes. โciastoโ is a neuter noun, so it requires the โjakieโ question word. |
| Betsey:Letโs test our listeners a little bit. We will say the gender and you try to choose the correct question word, before Joanna says it. What you should use for masculine nouns? |
| Joanna:[pause]...... โjakiโ |
| Betsey:feminine nouns? |
| Joanna:[pause]โฆ.......โjakaโ |
| Betsey:and lastly - neuter nouns? |
| Joanna:[pause]โฆ......โjakieโ |
| Betsey:We hope you got all the answers right. Be sure to check the lesson notes for more examples of this kind of question. |
| Joanna:Since weโve learned how to ask questions, now itโs time to learn how to answer them. |
| Betsey:Here, again, being able to recognize genders of nouns will be very important. |
| Joanna:Yes, because the form of an adjective changes according to the gender of the noun it describes. There has to be gender agreement between those words. |
| Betsey:Can you give us some examples? |
| Joanna:Letโs use one from the dialog. โTo jest czekoladowy tortโ |
| Betsey:โThis is a chocolate birthday cakeโ |
| Joanna:The sentence starts with the demonstrative pronoun โtoโ |
| Betsey:which means โthisโ |
| Joanna:Then itโs followed by the third-person singular form of the verb โto beโ which is โjestโ. And then come the adjective and noun that are being described. |
| Betsey:We have to make some changes at the end of adjectives to make them masculine, feminine or neuter, right? |
| Joanna:Yes. So usually masculine adjectives will end with the vowel -y, just like in the example from the dialog. If the adjective is feminine it will end with the vowel -a and if itโs neuter then the ending will be -e. |
| Betsey:For the full table with adjective endings and examples, please refer to the lesson notes. |
| Marketing Piece |
| Betsey:Listeners, do you know the reason flashcards are so popular? |
| Joanna:It's because they work! |
| Betsey:We've taken this time-tested studying tool and modernized it with My Flashcards! |
| Joanna:Learn vocabulary using your eyes and ears! |
| Betsey:It's simple and powerful. Save difficult and interesting words to your personal vocabulary list called My Wordbank. |
| Joanna:Master words in your My Wordbank by practicing with Flashcards. |
| Betsey:Words in My Wordbank come with audio, so you learn proper pronunciation. |
| Joanna:While you learn to recognize words by sight! |
| Betsey:Go to PolishPod101.com now, and try My Wordbank and Flashcards today! |
| Betsey: Okay, thatโs it for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone! |
| Joanna: Do widzenia. |
Comments
Hide