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- Topic: Polish >
- "Dobrze."
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1083
Is the r pronounced, or is it one of those disappearing letters that almost sounds like it's not there?
In some people's pronunciation there's a very subtle difference, but unless one does Slavic linguistics for a hobby, it doesn't really matter. Even speech therapists recognize those sounds as basically the same.
Here is some Slavic linguistics for you: "ż" is an etymological letter used in words where in other Slavic languages the sound is and has initially been [ʒ] (żona - жена), while "rz" evolved from what had been initially a palatalized "r", which is the case in languages like Ukrainian or Russian (rzepa - репа).
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I've noticed the same thing when learning Polish (I'm a native Slovenian speaker). E.g. 'rzeka' would be 'reka' in Slovenian, and 'rzepa' would be 'repa', whereas 'żona' would be 'žena'. :)
More like, "rz" and eastern "r" both - evolved from the "rź" sound in older Slavic speech. In Polish, the "ź" fell into one sound with "r," in the Easern languages, "ź" fell into one with following sounds, making them soft. At least that's what I've heard.
The one that bothers me the most is Katrzyna, the name Katherine. In English, "Katchyna" sounds so strange! Every other language it's Katrina, Katerina etc.
You forgot one „a” in Katarzyna. When you reverse the sound evolution process, you will see that it would have come from "Katarina".
Sorry for the typo. Yes. You're right. In Russian it's Екатерина (pl: Jekaterina), English Katherine, etc. Anyway the sound Katazhyna(en.) hurts my ears. The "Ż" sound doesn't belong in her name, to non-Polish ears.
I believe dobrze is an adverb, so literally "well," but in English people say "good" incorrectly all the time when they mean "well." I think "O.K." can be an adverb also.
"fine featured" is actually an adverb because it's modifying an adjective "featured," properly "finely featured."
"Fine china" yes, it's an adjective but more like świetna or elegancka porcelana, but dobra porcelana is "good china."
dobrze is an adverb, in English "well" or "fine." How are you? Dobrze. I am well.
Dobre is a gender-neuter adjective, in English "good," but used with a gender-neuter noun, such as dobre miasto, "good city," or a plural noun, such as dobre miasta, "good cities," but not a plural noun that includes at least one male person, which uses dobrzy.
It's an adverb, not an adjective, so it doesn't have a gender. Dobrze means "well" or "okay."
