My Polish Challenge

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Thank you.

Okay, officially I am finding this VERY difficult. Which is good, I need to stretch my brain.

So far this is what I learned in my first lesson:

to: it/this
jest: is
to jest: it is/ this is
nie: not/no

There are no articles, definite or indefinite. There are plenty of nouns in common with English and Russian, so I can make simple sentences, like,
to jest mapa, to nie jest film etc.

That was my first minibite lesson.

The second was this:
tak: yes/so/like this/thus/that.
czy: audible question mark, at the start of a sentence. Can also be used as "or" in a sentence where both clauses are questions (did I get that right?)

So, "czy to yest park?" is this a park?
czy to jest club szy teatr? Is this a club or a theatre?

Third minibite lesson:
mam: I have
to mam: I have it
nie mam: I don't have
(now for a tricky bit...)
tego is the form of to that you use in negative sentences. So instead of saying "nie mam to" you say "nie mam tego."
co: what?
czego: negative what?

So I can say "co to jest?" What is that? "czego mam?" What do I not have? (is that right?)
I did have other mini bite lessons, but I'm going to go back over them before posting here.

As you can see, I'm starting slowly, since I don't want to make mistakes early on with basic grammar and have to go over misunderstandings later. Is there anything I should know about the negative pronouns? Is it only tego and czego that are affected, or will others pop up later? In what sorts of sentences do tego and czego pop up?

Thank you!

Czego NIE mam?
Nie mam kota.
Nie mam tego nowego filmu.
Nie mam mapy.

A co mam?
Mam psa.
Mam dużo książek i płyt.
Mam nowe buty.

Czy to jest park? Tak, to jest park.
Czy to klub, czy teatr? Nie, to kino.


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Ten, ta, to = exactly like der, die, das.

Ten - masculine, f.e. ten kot
M. ten kot
D. tego kota
C. temu kotu
B. tego kota
M. tym kocie
N. tym kotem
W. ty kocie


Ta - feminine, f.e. ta mapa
M. ta mapa
D. tej mapy
C. tej mapie
B. tę mapę
M. tej mapie
N. tą mapą
W. ty mapo



To - neutral, f.e. to dziecko
M. to dziecko
D. tego dziecka
C. temu dziecku
B. to dziecko
M. tym dziecku
N. tym dzieckiem
W. ty dziecko

Thank you... I'm going to rehearse my minibites again, and try to creep a little further ahead today. I'll be back soon.

Czego isn't any negation, but it's genitive form of co - something, what.
If you speak about people, use word kto - somebody, who.

M. nominative (mianownik) - kto, co
D. genitive (dopełniacz) - kogo, czego
C. dative (celownik) - komu, czemu
B. accusative (biernik) - kogo, co
N. instrumental (narzędnik) - kim, czym
M. locative (miejscownik) - o kim, o czym
W. vocative (wołacz) - o!

M. Kto to? Co to? To jest kot.

D. Kogo nie lubię? Nie lubię kota.
Czego nie mam? Nie mam kota.
Czego chcesz? Chcę mieć kota.
Dla kogo to mleko? Dla kota.

C. Komu dam mleko? Dam mleko kotu.

B. Co zabiorę? Zabiorę kota.

N. Czym piszesz? Piszę ołówkiem.
Kim jesteś? Jestem kotem.

M. O czym piszesz? Piszę o kocie.

W. Cześć, mamo!
Idź sobie, kocie!
O mój Boże!



As you can see, I don't use word ja. Every person has their own verb form, so it's obvious who speaks.

Ja mam kota = Mam kota.
Ja lubię mojego kota = Lubię mojego kota.

It's the instrumental and locative tenses that I can see me having difficulty with. I've never come across them in another language.

Instrumental appears when you speak about things that you use for something or they are with something.
Examples:
I go by car = Jadę autem. (nominative form: auto)
I draw by pencil = Rysuję ołówkiem. (nf: ołówek)
I eat yoghurt with cherries = Jem jogurt z wiśniami. (nf: wiśnie, sin. wiśnia)
May the Force be with you = Niech Moc będzie z tobą. (nf: ty)

Locative is when you speak about something or where something is.
Examples:
This book is about cat = Ta książka jest o kocie. (nf: kot)
I'm at home now = Jestem teraz w domu. (nf: dom)


I think you should buy that book I posted before

Is it a real book, or a fantasy Polofile's dream?

Actually, speaking of which, can you recommend any good grammar books with plenty of excercises to keep me busy? I'm learning with an audio course (Michel Tomas) and while I like the approach (learn by doing) it's proving tricky to understand the grammar when it seems the teacher can't even bring herself to use words like "noun" "verb" "pronoun" or "tense."

No, it's Photoshop, but if somebody wanted to know all the details, it would be really so big

I'm native speaker, not linguist, so I'm not interested in these books. My aunt is Polish teacher, so I always can ask for explaining any grammar detail if I need. But I promise you that I'll go to bookstore and I'll see which book looks good

I recommend you listening Polish music. No teacher taught me as much as songs did.
Anita Lipnicka or Hanna Banaszak sing very distinctly.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Do you have some links to music I could listen to, and translations of the text? This is one of the ways I taught myself French originally.

And in case I haven't said it before, I'm so grateful you're taking the time to help me like this.

I love languages

See this channel:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXJWWlDplOA&NR=1[/youtube]

Thank you!

Hej, Mgran! Jak tam twoja nauka? Co już umiesz powiedzieć?