Learn the key pattern to ask for a word
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| 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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