Bits of Polish

Maybe saying that there are as many date-writing conventions as countries in the world is a bold exaggeration, but it’s not that far from the truth. The Polish way of writing dates isn’t very different from how it’s done in the English-speaking world, but you might want to pay attention to some important details – that is, if you really want to be fully correct. Not that all native speakers are, of course…

First of all, looking at Polish dates, you might have noticed the lonely r. that often appears after the year: 13.12.1987 r. It’s an abbreviation of the word rok, meaning year. If you’re reading this aloud, though, you have to put this word in the Genitive case: roku. And yeah, there’s a full stop after the r. Don’t omit it.

Is this r. compulsory? No, but it’s very common, and many people put it there out of habit.

Secondly, brush up on your Roman numerals, as they are often used to write the month. For example, the previous example can be written as 13 XII 1987 r. Again, this is mostly a matter of habit – I got used to it in school, for example – not something you have to do. This convention is very useful, though, since it obviates any ambiguity that can emerge if both the day and the month are written with Arabic numerals.

Thirdly, remember the punctuation – this is where many people make mistakes. You probably noticed the difference in the examples above. If you write everything with Arabic numerals, you put full stops after the day and the month. You don’t put them there if you’re using a Roman numeral (apart from the full stop after the r. of course).

Finally, if you’re familiar with the Polish months and their declination, you can write out the month. Why do I mention declination? Because you have to put the month in the Genitive case. As for the punctuation, you don’t use full stops here either. For example:

10 stycznia 1999 r.
10 I 1999 r.
10.1.1999 r.

1 października 2004 r.
1 X 2004 r.
1.10.2004 r.

After learning the names of the months last time, it’s time for the days of the week. In the example sentences, they appear in their Accusative singular forms – that’s the form you use to talk about on which day something happens. Yes, it’s different from the Locative form used with months, and no, there’s no sensible rationale behind this. None that an average speaker knows of.

Notice that the days of the week, unlike in English, are not capitalized!

You’ll also notice that in the phrase we wtorek, the preposition w gets an extra letter. Why? Well, try to pronounce *w wtorek… There are two other instances where some speakers will add an e to the preposition: we środę and we czwartek. These forms appear probably as frequently as their equivalents with w, and are just as correct. So you can pick and choose ;)

poniedziałek – Monday
W poniedziałek mam ważne spotkanie.
On Monday I have an important meeting.

read all »

Polish is special among European languages in that it doesn’t use the Latinate names for months you’re already familiar with from English and many other languages, such as German, Spanish, Russian, etc. The Polish month names are, well, typically Polish – they originated from natural phenomenons. The word for July, for example – lipiec – comes from the name for the linden tree, lipa, as this is the period when lindens are in bloom.

So, since the Polish month names are so special, there’s no choice but to learn them! Here are they listed both in their basic, Nominative singular, form, as well as in the Locative singular, which is the case you use to talk about in which month something took place. At the same time you can get familiar with ordinal numbers from one to twelve.

styczeń – January
Styczeń to pierwszy miesiąc roku.
January is the first month of the year.
W styczniu często pada śnieg.
It often snows in January.

luty – February
Luty to drugi miesiąc roku.
February is the second month of the year.
W lutym jest bardzo zimno.
It’s very cold in February.

read all »