How to use the imperative
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Hi everyone, and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 12 - Visiting the Dentist in Poland. John here. |
| Marzena: Cześć. I'm Marzena. |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn about the imperative. The conversation takes place at the dentist’s office. |
| Marzena: It's between a dentist and Mark. |
| John: The speakers are strangers in a customer service context; therefore, they’ll speak formal Polish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| dentystka: Dzień dobry. Proszę, proszę. Co się dzieje? |
| Marek: Boli mnie ząb, chyba ósemka. Poza tym chciałbym poprosić o przegląd. |
| dentystka: Proszę usiąść. Proszę otworzyć usta. Tak, tak... To ósemka. Od kiedy pana boli? |
| Marek: Od dwóch dni. |
| dentystka: No nie wygląda to najlepiej. Trzeba będzie wyrwać. |
| -a few minutes later - |
| dentystka: Proszę zażywać te tabletki. Dwie po trzy razy dziennie. Jeżeli nie przestanie pana boleć to trzeba będzie je zmienić. |
| Marek: Dziękuję bardzo. Już mi lepiej. |
| John: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Dentist: Good morning. Please, come in. What's happening? |
| Mark: I have a toothache, maybe the eighth one. And I would also like you to just check my teeth. |
| Dentist: Sit down please. Open your mouth. Yes, yes... It's eight. It’s been hurting since when? |
| Mark: Since two days ago. |
| Dentist: Well, it does not look too good. We will have to take it out. |
| -a few minutes later - |
| Dentist: Take these pills, please. Two (pills), three times a day. If the pain does not stop, we will have to change them. |
| Mark: Thank you so much. I feel better already. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: I guess that the good news is that Mark knows what’s wrong. |
| Marzena: The bad news is that he has to have a tooth removed. |
| John: The pain has been eased by pills though. |
| Marzena: I don’t think that many people in Poland take actual medication for their pain or illnesses, though. |
| John: They just suffer through it? |
| Marzena: No, people often take homemade medications instead of stronger medicines. |
| John: What kind of medications would people take? |
| Marzena: For example, for colds, Polish people may eat a lot of garlic or drink onion juice with honey or herbal teas. |
| John: So people do that instead of going to the doctor? |
| Marzena: That’s right. You can also buy medication in small bags in shops and supermarkets. |
| John: What do you do with that type of medication? |
| Marzena: Mix it with hot water and drink it before bed, as it can make you sleepy. |
| John: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Marzena: dziać się [natural native speed] |
| John: to happen |
| Marzena: dziać się[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: dziać się [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: boleć [natural native speed] |
| John: to hurt |
| Marzena: boleć[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: boleć [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: ząb [natural native speed] |
| John: tooth |
| Marzena: ząb[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: ząb [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: ósemka [natural native speed] |
| John: eight tooth, wisdom tooth |
| Marzena: ósemka[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: ósemka [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: wyglądać [natural native speed] |
| John: to look |
| Marzena: wyglądać[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: wyglądać [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: zażywać [natural native speed] |
| John: to take |
| Marzena: zażywać[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: zażywać [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Marzena: jeżeli [natural native speed] |
| John: if |
| Marzena: jeżeli[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: jeżeli [natural native speed] |
| John: And last... |
| Marzena: zmienić [natural native speed] |
| John: to change |
| Marzena: zmienić[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Marzena: zmienić [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| John: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is... |
| Marzena: Co się dzieje? |
| John: meaning "What is happening?" What can you tell us about this phrase? |
| Marzena: First is the interrogative pronoun co, which means “what.” Then it’s followed by the reflexive verb dziać się. |
| John: This means “to occur” or “to be happening.” So the whole phrase means “what is happening?” |
| Marzena: You can use this phrase to ask someone what’s wrong with him or her. |
| John: I noticed that the second and third words are the opposite way around. |
| Marzena: That’s right. In this phrase, it’s się dzieje. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say, Monika, co się dzieje? |
| John: ...which means "What is happening, Monica?" |
| John: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Marzena: Nie wygląda to najlepiej... |
| John: meaning "It does not look too good..." Can you break this phrase down for us? |
| Marzena: First is the verb wyglądać in negative form. |
| John: This means “to look.” |
| Marzena: Last is the superlative form of the adverb dobrze. |
| John: This means “well.” |
| Marzena: You can use this to say that something doesn’t look too good. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Marzena: Sure. For example, you can say, Nie chcę być negatywny, ale nie wygląda to najlepiej. |
| John: ...which means "I don't want to be negative, but it does not look too good." |
| John: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn about imperatives. |
| John: How do we make the formal imperative in Polish? |
| Marzena: To make a polite but strong imperative, you add proszę to the dictionary form. |
| John: That word means “please.” How do you ask someone not to do something? |
| Marzena: The same way you usually make things negative - by using nie. This goes between proszę and the verb. |
| John: Okay, let’s hear some examples. |
| Marzena: Proszę tutaj podpisać. |
| John: “Sign here please.” |
| Marzena: Proszę się uspokoić. |
| John: “Calm down, please.” Now, let’s look at the informal imperative. |
| Marzena: To make the informal imperative, you take the third person singular form and drop the -e, -ie, -y, -i or add -j to the final -a. Remember that the soft stem -dzi changes into -dź. |
| John: Both the informal and formal imperatives are strong, so what’s the difference between them? |
| Marzena: You can use the formal imperative with strangers or people you don’t know very well. The informal can be used with family and friends. |
| John: Okay. It’s time for some examples. |
| Marzena: Pzynieś mi gazetę. |
| John: “Bring me a newspaper.” |
| Marzena: Posprzątaj tutaj. |
| John: “Clean here.” |
| Marzena: Finally, let’s look at trzeba, which means “have to," and some other verbs in a special group. |
| John: These verbs are special because they don’t change their form or have infinitives. |
| Marzena: In addition to trzeba, there’s also wolno and warto. |
| John: These mean “it’s permitted to” and “it is worth," respectively. There are others listed in the lesson notes. |
| Marzena: All of these verbs are followed by infinitives. Such as Tutaj nie można palić. |
| John: “One cannot smoke here.” |
| Marzena: Chyba warto jest tam pojechać. |
| John: “It seems like it’s worth going there.” |
| Marzena: Trzeba tutaj posprzątać. |
| John: “Here has to be cleaned.” |
Outro |
| John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Marzena: Cześć. |
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