"Ta książka na pewno jest nudna."

Translation: This book is certainly boring.

[Kulink]

Out of curiosity, what is the literal translation of 'na pewno', and what is its etymology?

[immery]

pewno is a form of "pewny" and that is from
zach. psł. *pъvьnъ 'taki, który spełni oczekiwania, godny zaufania' (the one that will fulfil expectations, trustworthy)

"pewno" does not exist in Polish anymore outside of this expression, but it used to be neuter form of that adjective.

I would say literal translation is "for certain"

http://sjp.pwn.pl/poradnia/haslo/na-b-pewno-b;9268.html

http://www.wsjp.pl/index.php?id_hasla=5771&id_znaczenia=4628653&l=20&ind=0

[br0d4]

literal: "for certain", "for sure"; ironic: "leave it out"

"Na pewno" is an idiomatic expression, coming from Old Polish neuter gender adjective "pewno" [sure, certain; secure; reliable; unwavering], which was created from Old Slavic noun "pъva" [certainty, reliability; confidence] See: "na pewno"

Similar expressions: "na nowo" - [anew, afresh, from the beginning]; "na okrągło" - [around the clock; all the time], "na prawo" - [to the right].

[AndrewWawr1]

I would usually say "most certainly" for added impact. How would you say this in Polish? Eg this book is most certainly boring

[Jellei]

I'd go with "z całą pewnością" ('with the whole certainty', literally).

[Walkinthedog]

I keep wanting to say dull which we often use for boring.

[GrahamKissack]

In everyday English we often put the adverb first i.e. Certainly this book is boring. Fortunately he was injured in the accident. etc.

[TrevG_123]

I would disagree based on where the emphasis falls. "This book is certainly boring" sounds like you are reading the book and confirming that it is indeed boring.

"Certainly this book is boring" sounds more like you would be asking someone who is reading it why they are doing so, since the book is most certainly a boring one. It puts the stress of "certainly" on the specific book compared to other books, rather than on the book being boring as compared to not boring (as is in the first case.) I can't really imagine this sounding natural in any way outside of a question form.

However, I am not sure how or even if the polish translation would differ between these two pretry similar meanings.

[Jellei]

Well okay, added.

[Walkinthedog]

My memory isn't worth much is it? That's why I'm doing this course.

[arminia11_web_de]

Ha ha ha. Tired, bored, not very good at Polish, and I translated the duck until I realized the duck certainly is boring is not a sentence duolingo would write.

[NiallFinn1]

I am sorry but we come back to the point that you cannot use "surely" like this in English. Why not use "definitely" ?

[Walkinthedog]

The word certain or certainly should also work in this instance

[veridiandrade]

'Positively' is another synonym for 'surely, certainly'

[Walkinthedog]

This book sure and certainly are similar enough to replace each others, including surely. As a child, na pewno was commonly used seventy years ago by my parents from Poland.

[Jellei]

Added some versions with sure and surely.

[Walkinthedog]

I can see that Polish the same as English has evolved over a couple of generations, the English was once a beautiful language, with the advent of computer and cellphone it has eroded. We don't teach cursive in our schools anymore, next all communication will be phonetic because it's too complicated for the current generation. Pzeprasham pana, nashe ludzie sa legate.

[BenYoung84]

English was never beautiful, it's a corrupted Germanic language with bastardised French and no pronunciation rules.

[JanKLinde]

I can agree and disagree, Ben. As an everyday language, I don't really consider it beautiful, although this may depend very much on the speaker. But it's especially the lack of rules which gives English its flexibility and makes it a great playing field for poetry. And I'm not only talking about old times, I also find a lot of beauty in today's English songwriting.

[yula699827]

But i think all the same we can say about any language as well:) //sorry us for off topic//

[Robb110]

Shouldn't "obviously" be accepted as translation of "na pewno" as well?

[Yola448704]

The meaning is different:

obviously - oczywiście

[mechadrake]

Is the book abouit building tunnels through a rock? Probably does not aplly to slavic languages:)

[Walkinthedog]

You're absolutely right on, I confused the two words, not speaking it for sixty years will do that to you.Thanks for clarifying this for me.

[A__drian]

A younger generation of English speakers might say "this book is really boring" would "really" be a different word in Polish?

[JanKLinde]

It has a different meaning:

really/naprawdę – I've read it and I find it very boring.

certainly/na pewno – I haven't read it, but I'm quite sure it's boring.

[br0d4]

It has a different meaning:

Yes, that's right what you wrote.

[br0d4]

Less formal - "naprawdę" (actually), "bardzo" (very),
or more formal "doprawdy" (indeed, verily), "faktycznie" (actually, effectively), "rzeczywiście" (actually, genuinely)

• https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-polish/really
• https://pl.pons.com/t%C5%82umaczenie/angielski-polski/really
• https://www.diki.pl/slownik-angielskiego?q=really