Today, let us brighten up our language skills.
Memorize new vocabulary
In this lesson we will be introducing colors. As is in English, colors are adjectives because they describe nouns in a sentence. While there is an expanded list of colors in the survival Polish section of languagelearninglab.com, today we will focus on some basic colors*.
Colors | Kolory |
Red | czerwony |
Blue | niebieski |
Yellow | żółty |
Green | zielony |
Orange | pomarańczowy |
Gold | złoty |
Silver | srebrny |
White | biały |
Black | czarny |
Brown | brązowy |
Apply it to Sentence Structure
Applying adjectives in Polish is just as simple as in English. The only difference is that the adjective takes the gender of the noun in a sentence.
For example: This desk is brown. To biurko jest brązowe.
This lamp is silver. Ta lampa jest srebrna.
This pen is black. Ten długopis jest czarny.
How Can We Do This?
In Polish, the basic form of an adjective is in the masculine gender. This is how you would find it in a dictionary. Do not worry though, it is very easy to create the feminine and neuter forms of adjectives from their basic masculine forms. All you need to do is:
1. Drop the ending vowel –y or –i of the masculine form
2. If the last constonant is –k or –g AND you want to create a neuter form THEN add –i after this consonant
3. Finally, add either –a to make a feminine form, or –e to make a neuter form
Examples:
Biały
Creating feminine form:
1. Biał
2. (doesn’t apply)
3. Biał-a -> Biała
Niebieski
Creating neuter form:
1. Niebiesk
2. Niebiesk-i
3. Niebieski-e -> Niebieskie
(This exercise can be confusing but do not worry, it will become more clear as we build a greater vocabulary base)
Practice it!
Try to adjust the adjectives to the proper gender in the following sentences:
1. Ten długopis jest czarn_.
2. Ta książka jest czerwon_.
3. To biurko jest brązow_.
After 4 short lessons you have gained the ability to create a complete sentence. By putting it together piece by piece, you now have a full understanding of how a basic sentence structure works.
You can now expand your new skill by writing out ten sentences in Polish using the vocabulary that you have learned so far. Remember to make sure that the sentence agrees in gender.
As an English speaker, it may seem odd for a sentence to agree in gender. However, with much practice you will find that genders can add a level of beauty and overall smoothness to a language.
* * *
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Lesson 4 Lessons 1-10
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*Click here to see the expanded list of colors and the "sounds like" option
Lesson 3 Lesson 5