77 Comments
For anyone who can't understand it, "it means come to the dark side, we have cookies!". :)
Great! One question though: is "ciasteczka" the diminutive for cookies?
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Wow what a beautiful word for cookies. I'll never bake the same way again! :)
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"Частичка" means "a tiny thing/part/particle" in Russian. So this word is twice as confusing for me.
I can speak Polish nearly fluently but trying to turn that into text really makes me think for a while.
I can't decide if that's encouraging - because someone who can speak it still struggles with the writing - or depressing/terrifying, as a learner LOL 8-o
My problem is that I've lived in Poland for 25 years, never took any lessons (when I was younger and it was easier to learn a language) and spent all my time in an environment where someone spoke English (I was training English teachers) so I never really 'had to' learn Polish to survive. Now I understand a LOT (depending on the context and how fast someone speaks), but ask me to respond or take part in a conversation and.... pffft. I sound like a child raised by wolves or something, and it's quite stressful. So my problem is that it's too easy just to translate the sentences correctly into English and move on. I need to slow down and really learn the Polish, and especially work on practices where I have to write it in Polish and say it. I'm hoping that by the end of this course, I won't be such a total embarrassment to myself when someone who has only been here a year has to do all the talking just to order in a cafe. Sheesh!
I sat at my computer for 5 minutes trying to remember how to pronounce "ciasteczka"
In Hungarian is similar tészta = ciastka. We use it for pasta and cakes/cookies. I normally can find a little mod to make Polish words easy to remember here just had to swap the first letter the rest is pronounced very similarly
"Ciasteczko" is a neutral gender. Most of polish neutral words in plural ends with "-a" "-ta". "-i" is a typical ending of feminine plural forms.
Is the my in 'my mamy' not too much? Mamy already says 'we have', so isn't it like 'we we have'?
Polish is a pro-drop language, so you can leave off the pronoun, but you don't have to, afaik. It's correct to use either. I think it's more usual not to use it, but I don't think either is 'wrong'. Native speakers would be able to elucidate further... :)
With the disclaimer that I'm not a native speaker of either language, Polish seems more inclined to drop pronouns than Russian, even though I believe they're both classified as pro-drop languages.
I’m a native speaker of two Slavic languages (not Polish though). What flootzavut wrote seems correct to me. “My mamy” = a pronoun + a conjugated verb in the present, that implies usage of the aforesaid pronoun, so there’s no harm in dropping it. Although, in Polish it seems more common than in Ukrainian or Russian.
For example, in English it is possible to say: Q: why didn't you answer my calls last night? A: was busy. This is not grammatically correct in English, although one can drop a pronoun in their speech when it's obvious in the context. In Polish it's more fixed in the grammar due to conjugation.
I'm glad it's not just me who has that perception of pro-drop tendencies with Russian (and Ukrainian) - I am guessing, though trying not to assume, that those are your two native tongues?
I managed to go through Russian to an honours degree level without ever even coming across the term pro-drop LOL even after spending a year learning Croatian as an elective, which is decidedly more pro-drop happy than Russian headdesk absurd, I know.
Yep, those are my native languages :) In terms of pronoun usage, Polish very much reminds me of Spanish. And from my profound knowledge of the South Slavic languages (that comes from reading “Let it go” lyrics in Serbian :D), Serbian and Croatian indeed are more pro-drop than Russian, and probably just a little less than Polish.
In Russian and Ukrainian we usually drop a pronoun to avoid redundancy in a sentence (after the initial pronoun). Basically the purpose of pro-dropping is to make a sentence... Neat? But it’s 100% grammatical to use as much pronouns as in English.
And from my profound knowledge of the South Slavic languages (that comes from reading “Let it go” lyrics in Serbian :D)
This made me laugh aloud, thanks ;D
It is a very, very long time since I actually studied Croatian, but I think maybe the past tense in Croatian is more like Russian and less like Polish, so probably requires pronouns more than Polish, with its very specific past tenses. But my Croatian was one year's worth of uni fifteen years ago, so I don't know how accurate my recollection is. I have been searching for my language books for months and not finding them, so I can't check 8-p
It often boggles me how many little details I either missed or forgot after studying Russian so intensely. I don't know that it ever registered it was even okay to drop pronouns, though I presume I probably picked it up somewhat when I lived in Russia.
As usual, when you are in a language environment you pick up clusters of information just like idiomatic phrases, without pondering over them too much :) Probably it was the case with Russian and its pronouns.
I'd like to see more Slavic languages here, on Duolingo, to make further comparison between them. At least one from the Balkan group would be great :)
I would absolutely love to see the Balkan languages make an appearance on Duolingo!
I am pretty sure I will continue the tradition of trying any Slavic language that appears (my main interest in Romanian is as a Romance language influenced by Slavic languages, I may be a little fixated ;)), but for it to be a South Slavic language would be a real bonus :D
I've been trying to sign up to help with adding Bulgarian to Duolingo, so your guys hopes might come true soon :)
No but you dont need it because it is a simplifyed version if you dont use it. It is alittle like 'it is' compared to it's in english
I also wondered this. I'm just starting out with polish. English is my first language and I am maybe 65% fluent in Spanish. I'm glad to see it can be said either way.
Could someone conjugate the Polish "have"? I'm having trouble keeping up with we/you/I
1st sg: (ja) mam
2nd sg: (ty) masz
3rd sg: (on/ona/ono) ma
1st pl: (my) mamy
2nd pl: (wy) macie
3rd pl: (oni/one) mają
These ciasteczka or these ciasteczka, please, help me to understand the distinction.
It bases on size. Small - "ciasteczka", normal/large "ciastka". Personally I use "ciasteczka" only for small, crispy cookies, without cream. And of course for web cookies.
Yes. Ciasto/ciacho/ciastko/ciasteczko singular, ciasta/ciacha/ciastka/ciasteczka plural
Sounds similar to Ukrainian "тістечко" which means, as far as I understand, a quite different yet still related thing.
Because mają (take note of the ogonek) is the third person plural (they) form of the verb. It would be like someone saying "They has" instead of "They have" in English.
(Non-native disclaimer in force.)
Why does "We have an apple" is "Mamy jabłko" but "We have cookies" is "My mamy ciasteczka"? Does it have anything to do with being plural and singular?
No. It's just a choice of whoever put those sentences into the course.
"We have an apple" = "(My) mamy jabłko."
"We have cookies" - "(My) mamy ciasteczka."
In Polish, the personal pronoun is totally redundant for 1st and 2nd person, as the form of the verb makes it clear who's the subject. As 3rd person is concerned, it can be omitted as well, but it's not that common as with 1st and 2nd.
If you actually do use a pronoun for 1st and 2nd, it's as if you put more emphasis to it. So it's kinda like "WE have cookies".
Why couldn't I say, 'We have SOME cookies'? In some answers, I was able to say, 'They are eating some bread,' for example, rather than 'they are eating THE bread,' but it won't let me say, 'We have SOME cookies.'
Well, technically those sentences would need 'trochę' + Genitive, but if we accept 'some' there, I guess it sounds reasonable here as well... Added.
OK, I can understand why 'bread' would be 'troche' (sorry, no Polish letters on my keyboard): we are eating 'a bit' of bread.
But this makes me wonder if 'some' cookies would be 'kilka' rather than 'troche', since cookies are countable. And thus to be perfectly correct, 'some cookies' would have to use 'kilka' and 'some bread' would have to use 'troche'.
So for me to be able to answer, 'We are eating some cookies,' the original sentence would have had to have used 'kilka' (or - how do you spell it - kilkanascie?)
What do you think?
Still, I think that in English, 'We are eating THE cookies' would mean, 'the particular cookies referenced in this context' ('Bill made some cookies.' 'We know. We are eating the cookies [that Bill made].') And 'some cookies' would mean, 'a quantity of cookies.'
I was just confused by 'some' being accepted as OK with bread, but not with cookies, because I know that in English, 'the' restricts the noun (in such a sentence) to cookies that are known about by both parties speaking (we're both thinking of the same cookies). So with no context, I thought 'some' was better than 'the' cookies here.
Good point, "kilka" would make more sense here. Mamy kilka ciasteczek. Mamy trochę ciasteczek. Both seem fine, 'kilka' probably better.
I'd say that we should accept 'some' when it makes sense, but we rather can't make it the default sentence, as 'technically', from the point of grammar, it's an a bit different sentence. One that we haven't taught yet.
Sometimes we just can't be perfectly natural in both languages. And of course being natural in Polish is more important then.
Thanks again. Good to know that there's someone 'out there' who can answer questions authoritatively. I'm in Wroclaw, surrounded by Polish-speakers, but speaking your native language and being able to explain it are two different things.
Funny story. When I was 20 I went to Poland. We were at a bar and I mentioned I wanted one of the cookies I had seen another patron eating. My friend Marek told me, "when the waitress comes, tell her 'po proszu ciastek.'" I did, to a shocked look. I'll leave it to you to figure out what I actually asked for.
Pamienta, people in America speak English, ergo cookies = used by English speakers. Duolingo is an American company, and they use American English as their primary mode of teaching and learning.
No matter how many posts you make about this, you will still be wrong.
(Not to mention that, for some kinds of biscuits, British speakers most certainly use the word cookie, I wouldn't be surprised to learn the same is true in other countries where cookie isn't the most common word.)
Where do they say "cakes" anyway? In Britain if it's not "cookies", it's "biscuits".
Agreed. I'm really not sure why Pamienta has such a bee in his/her bonnet about this.
I believe ciastko (or ciasto?) can mean cake, though I'm not certain, but the consensus from native speakers seems to be more or less;
Personally I use "ciasteczka" only for small, crispy cookies, without cream. And of course for web cookies.
Small crispy cookies =/= cakes, and certainly web cookies are always cookies.
I reccomend google.pl search grafika/obrazy for words "ciastko" "ciastka" "ciasteczka", (not ciasteczko- also slang for sexy man) "ciasto", "herbatniki" "tort" "placek" to see different types of baked sweet things.
Pamienta, American is not a language.
Duolingo is an American company; they generally accept British English (I have no idea about Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, etc), but they preferentially teach/accept American English, which makes sense, them being American and all.
The division you are trying to make between English and American does not exist. Americans speak English.
Either make your peace with that, or don't use an American site to learn a language.
Either way, please quit spamming.
Immery: I apologise this comes up as a reply to your post, this is Duolingo forum threading for you :-/
Brilliant !! bardzo dobra Dziekujemy it is a " language Course " English / Polish Not American / Polish !
