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- Topic: Polish >
- "Słyszysz tego konia?"
17 Comments
1983
Where does the 'i' come from in 'konia'? Does ń always change to 'ni' when an 'a' is added?
- 561
Polish spelling of ć, dź, ś, ź, ń sounds varies depending on context:
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word-finally and before consonants trhey're spelt ć, dź, ś, ź, ń
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before i they're spelt c, dz, s, z, n
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before other vowels they're spelt ci, dzi, si, zi, ni
- 1983
Ah, I see! I was aware that these various combinations had the same sounds, but I didn't realise there was such a simple rule. Thank you!
To add to this, the sound they all have in common is called Palatalization (when your tongue is raised up and as close as possible to your teeth), and it's a major defining feature of Slavic languages. It's also what makes them sound different from cz, ż, sz, rz, and n, which are "normal" and not palatalized. Ś/SZ are the most obviously different - like "Shh!" vs. the first S in "Sure", with an English accent.
One of the tricky things about Russian is that, a lot of the time, you have to memorize all kinds of rules for whether or not a consonant is palatalized. Polish literally spells it out for you 100% of the time!
Why is it not slyszycie? Is it because it's a question and the second-person has two forms depending on if it's a question?
- 100
Are there different Polish translations for "Can you hear this horse?" and "Do you hear this horse?"
Or can this Polish sentence mean both?
Generally "can you hear" often just means "do you hear", so both are accepted.
But if you literally mean "are you able to hear", that's "czy możesz usłyszeć" or even "czy jesteś w stanie usłyszeć"
Nie, nie jest. Bardzo proszę o czytanie wątków przed napisaniem komentarza.
Czasowników takich jak "to see", "to hear" (czasowników stanu) nie używa się prawie w czasie Present Continuous.
In Bulgarian there is a particle you have to use when asking such kind of questions. That's "ли". In polish there also is such a particle - "czy", but one can ask a question without it.
Is one of the two forms preferred over the other and when?
I think that it's actually more common to omit "czy", but both versions are perfectly natural. It will probably sound more formal if you put it.
"li" actually existed in Polish as a suffix (e.g. This sentence, if I am right, would be "Słyszyszli tego konia?"), but it is definitely dated, if not archaic, nowadays.
