"Ten mężczyzna jest stary."

Translation: This man is old.

[karlr42]

My Polish textbook says that using 'stara' in reference to people(especially women) is rude, can any native speakers comment?

[Viersch]

It is rude when you use it without a noun. For example: "Mój stary" (literally it is my old, but it means my father, not my old). It's rude. But there's no problem with "Mój stary ojciec" (my old father).

[karlr42]

Interesting. Here in Ireland we sometimes call our parents "me oul one"(my old one), and it is similar- it would be rude to call them that to their face, but you can say it in reference to them when speaking to friends.

[PonyDesu]

According to me, it can sometimes sound rude. While referring to an old lady, you shouldn't say "stara pani", but "starsza pani" or "pani w podeszłym wieku".

[karlr42]

Yes, that's what my textbook says, specifically avoid "stara pani".

It also says never to ask "Ile ma pani lat?" :)

[PonyDesu]

They say you should never ask women's age. :P

[Thomas998439]

There's something like that in France's french. You can say "mon vieux" (litteraly "my old") when talking to a friend ("hey mon vieux! Ça va?" ("Hey buddy, what's up?")) or talking about your parents ("j'habite encore chez mes vieux" ("i still live with my parenys")). Quite interesting!

[luless]

Stary could be used as 'budy, pal, bro, friend' So: Cześć stary, jak leci? means Hi bro, what's up?
Talking the same way to somebody 40+ years old could get you in real trouble.

[Jobi6]

I wonder if the way this male speaker talks is still considered normal. It sounds to me like he often hyper-pronounces terminal consonants. In this case, he says “Tendy mężczyzna...”. I also hear him say “jesty” and “jesto” for “jest” in other sentences.

[Jellei]

You do realize that it's a computer synthesizer, not a real human speaking? And it's surely not the greatest one.

Also, I don't hear any 'dy' at all.