This week during my Genus Hour I discovered a few incredible things!
While I was on Duolingo on my computer practicing the "defining" section this week, I came across a question that I got incorrect. The question looked like this: "Pies to (A dog is) ___________", and I had the option of choosing either "zwierzę (an animal)" or "zwierzęciem (an animal)". I wasn't sure which one to choose, because in my mind, they both mean "an animal". So, I picked "zwierzęciem" randomly and then was told it was incorrect. That was when I noticed there was an option called "Discussion" underneath the correction of my mistake.
How have I not noticed this before?
Naturally, I clicked on "Discussion", and it changed my language-learning world! The discussion page is a magical wonderland of questions and answers from those learning and those who are close to mastering the Polish language! In this discussion section, someone had already asked why the answer was "zwierzę" and not "zwierzęciem", and the response they received was incredibly detailed! Essentially, when using the term "to (is)" in the sentence "pies to ________", the noun has to be declined in the nominative case, which is "zwierzę". Whereas, if the sentence were "pies jest _________", then the answer would have been "zwierzęciem", because after the term "jest (is)" the noun has to be declined in the instrumental case. Both sentences mean the exact same thing and can be used interchangeably, which explains my frustration with trying to learn Polish by just listening to it! I knew both words meant "an animal"!
So, today I learned that the grammatically correct ways of saying "a dog is an animal" are: "pies to zwierzę" or "pies jest zwierzęciem".
Once I had read this explanation, I was immediately transported back into a stuffy little classroom at U of T when I was taking first year Latin! I could picture my professor trying to explain to us how in Latin, nouns are "declined" depending on their context in the sentence. Meaning, the spelling of a noun will change depending on how/in which context the noun is being used in the sentence. I immediately remembered that the main declensions (contexts) in Latin are: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Ablative, and Vocative, because of a nifty little mnemonic device I created years ago to remember them all (No Good Doctor (is) Actually Able (to) Vote).
What does Latin have to do with Polish you ask? Well, both are languages that require the nouns to be declined! So, Polish and Latin are actually very similar, even though they sound nothing alike!
This has really changed the way I am going to continue tackling the noble art of learning Polish going forward. I have a very basic background in Latin after taking that LAT100 course, and I know that learning the meaning/context behind each declension really helped me to learn. From now on I am going to try and find all of the noun declensions in Polish (since not all are the same) and learn their contexts, and then when I learn a new noun, I will research how to decline it in each case, just like I did in Latin!
This was a big day for me, and I hope I was able to explain it in a way that is clear and simple for those with no background in either Polish or Latin (which I am guessing is quite a few of you).
This will be my last Genius Hour discussion post before I wrap up, but I am so thrilled with my progress already and am very excited about what I have learned so far! I will absolutely be continuing to learn Polish in my spare time, and will use every opportunity I have to speak Polish with my friends and family so that I can continue to improve!
Thank you all so much for joining me on this educational adventure, and I hope to be posting again very soon!
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