10 Words a Day: Day 1
Studying Polish has fallen far behind other more pressing things the last few months, but with some recent news has reinvigorated me and my motivation is higher than ever. So far this blog had focused mainly on grammar and less on vocabulary. I’m going to take a new approach and stick to vocabulary words for the next two months, aiming for 10 a day. By the beginning of June that should amount to 600 words. Today’s words are:
Sunday // Niedziela
Soup // zupa
Cousin // kuzyn
Yesterday // wczoraj
Joke // żart
Yes, a little // Tak troszkę
grandpa // dziadek
great-grandpa // pradziadek
Who is that? // Kto to jest?
to visit // odwiedzać
Of course, a bit of grammar is unavoidable. So here’s how to use the verb of the day in past, present and future tense. There are two forms of this verb, the imperfective and perfective. The imperfective is given below. The perfective form is odwiedzić, and in conjugating the a’s should be replaced with i’s. Perfective verbs to talk about actions that are completed or will be completed, and imperfective verbs for actions that are taking place in some moment (no indication of completion).
Past:
ja (m) odwiedzałem
ja (f) odwiedzałam
ty (m) odwiedzałeś
ty (f) odwiedzałaś
on odwiedzał
ona odwiedzała
ono odwiedzało
my (m) odwiedzaliśmy
my (f) odwiedzałyśmy
wy (m) odwiedzaliście
wy (f) odwiedzałyście
oni odwiedzali
one odwiedzały
Present:
ja odwiedzam
ty odwiedzasz
on/ona/ono odwiedza
my odwiedzamy
wy odwiedzacie
oni/one odwiedzą
Future:
ja będę odwiedzać
ty będzies zodwiedzać
on/ona będzie odwiedzać
my będziemy odwiedzać
wy będziecie odwiedzać
oni będą odwiedzać
For example, “My będziemy odwiedzać Polskę w czerwcu.” We will visit Poland in June, where Poland (Polska) takes the accusative case and June (czerwiec) takes the instrumental case.
If anyone asks us if we speak Polish (see below), we’ll respond “Tak troszkę.”
Czy mówi Pan po polsku? (frm>m)
Czy mówi Pani po polsku? (frm>f)
Czy mówisz po polsku? (inf)
Mówi Pan po polsku? (frm>m)
Mówi Pani po polsku? (frm>f)
Mówisz po polsku? (inf)
Przepraszam 
Hi Jessica, I came across your blog and have a story that might be of interest to you regarding Polish-American heritage. Hope you will check out our video on Indiegogo.com – search for “Corpus Christi Tower Restoration” to learn about what is being done to preserve Polish art and culture in Buffalo, NY. Wishing you continued success with your Polish classes. I had Polish lessons in elementary school – very difficult language to master! Best Wishes, Carol