Comments on: Myth 22: The kombinować myth

By: Martial Law: A Positive Trigger?

Martial Law: A Positive Trigger? — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 13:27:06 +0000

[...] worst that the government could throw at them, then why can’t democracy be forced? The art of kombinować would have ensured that people survived (maybe even thrived) despite [...]

By: anna

anna — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:19:22 +0000

I milion english words !. – hahahahahaa, do you count: get in , get on, get off, get out , get along , get into as one word ?????? If not, you have to multiply also polish nouns times 7 ., verbs times 8 , pronouns times 3 . Polish – english contains 180 000 phrases , English- Polish – 100 000 , which means less English words used to translate Polish words . If you have different view on that subject you have to study more mathematics and logic . English is simple language , no question about it

By: anna

anna — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:56:44 +0000

“Where in English you might use botch, fiddle, swindle, cook, plot, rig, fix, doctor, hoax, con, bilk, dodge or even invent, in Polish you just use kombinować” .
It is a total nonsence . All these words have their separate meaning in polish , a word” kombinować could be substituted by others exactly what you have just written : majstrować – fiddle ,
swindle – szwindlować ,
cook – nawarzyć
fuszerować – botch ,
plot – knuć
rig – wikłać
fix-załatwić etc
I have no time for the rest . Just take a dictionary , so you will find its translation ;The simple proof that English is more simple language , it is comaparing the amount of words used in bothe languages . Check it .

By: Leer een woord per dag | Jet in Polen

Leer een woord per dag | Jet in Polen — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 21:19:49 +0000

[...] website van een paar buitenlanders die al lang in Polen wonen) heeft over het fenomeen geschreven. Klik!. Of in ieder geval één van de schrijvers heeft zijn eigen invulling gegeven aan het begrip [...]

By: Outsider

Outsider — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 12:07:04 +0000

To all those who claim “być” sounds nothing like “bitch” – you’re wrong and Island1 is right, especially if we’re talking American English. There may be a difference if you speak either non-standard English or non-standard Polish, but otherwise these two words sound very much the same.

@P: The English IPA transcription you see in everyday use is simplified and reflects neither the various possible levels of palatalization of plosive consonants nor the standard variations of vowel quality among native speakers.

Let’s have a close look at this być, shall we:

B – a voiced bilabial plosive, identical in both Polish and English;
Y – a close central unrounded vowel, so close to the standard English near-close near-front unrounded vowel that only a phoneticist would be able to tell the difference;
Ć – a voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate, identical to the standard AmE rendering of the voiceless postalveolar affricate used in some varieties of BrE.

Life’s a być, folks – you have to accept the fact that some innocent Polish words will make foreigners giggle, and for legitimate reasons. :-)

And yes, many Poles are absolutely convinced no foreigner will ever be able to pronounce Polish correctly or to fully grasp its “untranslatable” subtleties – nothing farther from the truth. It’s just a bunch of exceptionalist nonsense (which many, if not most, other nations like to indulge in as well, might I add).

By: island1

island1 — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:39:32 +0000

AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

By: Ania

Ania — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:29:04 +0000

Then clearly your pronunciation is way off. “Być” is nothing like “bitch” or “beach”

By: jalfredprufrock

jalfredprufrock — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:10:14 +0000

yet, this discussion over być/bitch pronunciation just seem to prove your point about the causes of the partition of Poland;)

By: island1

island1 — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:19:06 +0000

For heaven’s sake people, calm down about the whole ‘być’ thing. It’s one line in the whole post!

By: Patrycja

Patrycja — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:38:50 +0000

whaat? are you kiddin me? I live in Poland, and I can tell you that they don’t sound simillar at all! there is major difference between BITCH and BYĆ. ‘-tch’ sounds more like polish ‘cz’, but that is another story.