Sunday, July 5, 2009

Words I Love

Polish is awash with words that are playful, and—to me, since I'm an English speaker—sound rather silly.

Dziki (Wild): I swear I can say this all day every day. I sometimes repeat it end on end until someone tells me to hush.

Spalony (Burnt): Rhymes with baloney. Any word that rhymes with baloney is sure to be a hit with me.

Akuku (Peek-a-boo): Even though it's childish and something to say to babies and little kids, it's still a joy to yell.

Ponimayo/Ponyatno (I understand/Obviously): Actually, this is Russian (a language that I've only recently admitted to being more beautiful than Polish.) I heard it from Cheburashka, and the way he says it just kills me.

Pan Twardowski (Mr. Strong): It only took me four years to say, but I finally got it down pat.

Dzwon (Ring (as in a bell)): Mostly because it's in "Hej Sokoly."

As my vocabulary grows, I'm sure I'll discover new words that I can randomly place in sentences for the hell of it (plus say without need or reason.)

8 comments:

Rolfe Bautista said...

greetings from colorado :D I really like your blog.
~Rolfe

PolishMeKnob said...

Greetings from Poland.
And thank you very much.

Kitty the Kat said...

I actually like Russian better too--but not necessarily because it's "more beautiful"; just because it's easier. =P

PolishMeKnob said...

I've heard it's easier too, but the Russians would never admit to that (they're too proud!)

Dr. Detroit said...

One of my favorite words is the verb wzdrgąć. It's got 5 consonants in the row, all of which must be pronounced clearly. I also love the words with 2 repeating consonants, like dziennik, Jagiełło, or lekko.

PolishMeKnob said...

"Lemoniada" is also a great one. I think it's great that they have a brand called "Lemon & Nada".

Dave said...

My favourites :

No tak (doesn't mean no-yes !) - well, yes

pa - bye bye

Rembelszczyzna - a small town north of Warszawa (it took me a long time to be able to say this !)

Wyścigi - when you see it on the trams it always makes me think of wysiwyg !

być może/może być - maybe (has to be said in a special way, as if buying a deka of cheese and the lady has given you too much)


Mam nadzieję - I hope (often used phrase in Poland ! e.g. I hope this tram goes where I think it does !)

great blog, I love Poland and being a foreigner here is great fun

Adrian said...

I love when your are in Warsaw metro and they announce a metro train is entering the station, the word "pociąg" is what I most like, the sound if it