the POLSKI blog

19 Mar, 2009

Polska? Polski? Confused? – polish your Polish, part 12

Posted by: Michał In: polish your Polish

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My previous post made me realise some of my readers might be a bit confused now. Why ‘Polska’, if the blog is called ‘Polski’? What’s the difference?

Well, let me confuse you even more.

‘Polska’ can be used as a noun, a proper name – simply the name of the country, Poland.

But ‘polska’ (with a small ‘p’) can also be used as an adjective meaning ‘Polish’, but only when used with a feminine noun or while referring to a feminine subject.  Still with me? So for example ‘polska kiełbasa’ (‘polish sausage’) is feminine. (No giggling at the back!)

Which shouldn’t be confused with ‘Polka’ (capital ‘P’, no ‘s’), which is again a noun, meaning ‘a Pole’ (feminine). A Polish woman or girl, in other words. A Polish man is ‘Polak’. See the subtle difference in spelling between these two.

‘Polski’ is also an adjective, used when referring to masculine nouns. The word ‘blog’ seems to be masculine, hence the Polski blog.

Simple, eh?

More ‘polish your Polish’

Image © teotwawki via Flickr, used under CC licence

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  2. the Polski blog – ways to subscribe
  3. the POLSKI blog now also on Facebook
  4. Teraz Polska – Poland Now
  5. Polska! Year

3 Responses to "Polska? Polski? Confused? – polish your Polish, part 12"

1 | Michael BeeneyNo Gravatar

March 19th, 2009 at 12:29 pm

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Polish expats are called ‘polonia’ but does this apply to recent emigrants or only after several generations?

2 | MichałNo Gravatar

March 19th, 2009 at 11:19 pm

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That’s right, Polonia is the term used to describe Polish expats collectively, but not with regards to the most recent, economic migrants. It’ll be interesting to see how this word evolves as it has some clear historic connotations, if not a kind of responsibility. Hence it sounds clumsy when applied to a group of people who’ve recently migrated.

3 | Sylwia PresleyNo Gravatar

March 21st, 2009 at 10:24 am

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How about pronouncing ‘koziorozec’? just joking;) Haven’t seen this stamp for ages, nice to have it here, thx, Michal!

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  • Michał: Glad you like it, welcome!
  • Missy: I had been to Poland as a masters student in Warsaw ( 2006-2008), travelled all over Poland. I like it there, i am glad i found your blog. :) niec
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The POLSKI blog is written by Michał, a Polish journalist, writer, one-time language teacher and linguist, living and working in London.

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