Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

Let's take a closer look at the conversation.
Do you remember how Ben asks,
"How do you say "book" in Polish?"
Jak się mówi po polsku "book"?
The standard way to ask for the meaning of a word in Polish follows a simple pattern.
First is jak, "how." Jak. Jak.
Next is się mówi, “one says.” Się mówi.
Się, roughly translating as "one,” as in "one says.” Się . Się.
Next is the word, mówi, "says," as in "one says." Mówi.
Mówi is from the verb, mówić, meaning "to say." Mówić.
Together, Jak się mówi, literally “How one says,” but translates as, “how [does] one say.” Jak się mówi.
After this is the phrase, po polsku, meaning "in Polish." Po polsku.
First is po, "in." Po. Po.
After this is, polsku, "Polish," as in "the Polish language." Polsku. Polsku.
Polsku is from the adjective, polski, meaning "Polish." Polski.
Last is the English word, "book."
All together, Jak się mówi po polsku "book"? means something like, "How one says in Polish ‘book’," but translates as, "How [does] one say "book" in Polish?" and in more natural English, "How do you say ‘book’ in Polish?"
Jak się mówi po polsku "book"?
Let's take a closer look at the response.
Do you remember how Anna says,
“You say “book.’”
Mówi się "książka".
First is the phrase, mówi się, literally "says one," but translates here as "you say." Mówi się.
After this is the answer to the question, książka, "book." Książka. Książka.
All together Mówi się "książka," means something like, "One says "book," but it translates as "You say ‘book.’”
Mówi się "książka".
The pattern is:
Jak się mówi po polsku "ENGLISH WORD"?
How do you say "ENGLISH WORD" in Polish?
Jak się mówi po polsku "ENGLISH WORD"?
To use this pattern, simply replace the ENGLISH WORD placeholder with the word you want to know.
Imagine you want to know the Polish word for "pen."
Ask
"How do you say "pen" in Polish?"
Ready?
Jak się mówi po polsku "pen"?
“How do you say ‘pen’ in Polish?"
Jak się mówi po polsku "pen"?
This lesson introduces a grammatically complex, but commonly used, pattern: the impersonal form with się. Się is a gender-neutral, indefinite pronoun. The się-construction is used to express what people do in general, rather than point to a specific person.
The pattern is a verb in the third person plus się. The example used in the lesson was mówi się, literally, “says one,” but translates as “one says.” Let’s quickly look at a few more examples
Nazywa się, literally "calls one," but it translates as “one calls,” as in “one calls it ‘a book.’”
Je się, literally "eats one," but it translates as “one eats,” as in “one eats a lot at Christmas.”
Śpi się, literally "sleeps one," but it translates as “one sleeps,” as in “one sleeps late on Saturday.”

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