Learning about the different cases

Matowy:

I have yet to find any resources on the different cases that didn't over-intellectualize the whole thing to the point of obscurity and impracticality. I.e. They would tell me the name of the various cases, spelling, show me examples of when it's used, but rarely would they just simply tell me what it's for.

MatowyThreads: 1 Posts: 519 Joined: Jul 4, 09	Edited by: Matowy Jul 25, 09, 13:09 / #
The different cases are a very important and fundamental part of the Polish language, and probably the main reason why it's so difficult to learn. I have yet to find any resources on the different cases that didn't over-intellectualize the whole thing to the point of obscurity and impracticality. I.e. They would tell me the name of the various cases, spelling, show me examples of when it's used, but rarely would they just simply tell me what it's for. "This is case X, and it is used for... You can use it like this... etc." would be nice. I feel the intellectual approach to learning Polish (or any) language is ineffective, and really takes away from any practicality that might be learned. So, basically, does anyone know of any practical and thorough resources on the various cases?

Lyzko	Jul 25, 09, 17:11 / #
It helps a bit if you've some background with other case-driven languages such as German, with four cases-:) Essentially, the seven-odd case system in Polish is rather involved and the only book for English speakers which does a half-way decent job in explaining it is Dana Bielec's "Polish: An Essential Grammar", published by Routledge in the late 90's. There's off course "Reference Grammar of Polish by (??) Brooks, but that's a really weighty tome and a little much for a rank beginner! Try the former and let us know what you think. ))))) Marek

MatowyThreads: 1 Posts: 519 Joined: Jul 4, 09	Jul 25, 09, 21:15 / #
OK, thanks for the recommendation.

Lyzko	Jul 27, 09, 00:09 / #
You may also wish to consult a frighteningly extensive online Polish grammar by Grzegorz Jagodziński, detailing in excruciating detail the complete verb conjugations and case morphology which could easily download into almost over a hundred pages-:) Try searching under the author's given or his complete name using various combinations.

ZiemowitThreads: 10 Posts: 1,063 Joined: May 8, 09	Edited by: Ziemowit Jul 27, 09, 11:00 / #
Matowy: I have yet to find any resources on the different cases that didn't over-intellectualize the whole thing to the point of obscurity and impracticality. I.e. They would tell me the name of the various cases, spelling, show me examples of when it's used, but rarely would they just simply tell me what it's for. The names of cases in Polish or English (these are derived from Latin) will often tell you what the given case is for. For example, the name dopełniacz (genetive, but a more appropriate translation from Polish would be: complimentive) which answers the question kogo? czego? tells you that it conveys an idea that something is missing. Thus it is frequently used in the negative which most often expresses lack of something: Nie ma dzisiaj [kogo? czego?] ładnej pogody. The instrumental (narzędnik) shows the thing is used as an instrument or a way of doing something: Jem zupę [kim? czym?] łyżką, a drugie danie jem [kim? czym?] nożem i widelcem. Oddly enough, certain prepositions used for describing places require the instrumental rather than the locative (miejscownik), as you might have expected. Thus, you say: leżę [instrumental] pod łóżkiem, while you will use the locative when stating a much more obvious behaviour: leżę na łóżku or leżę w łóżku. This - in my view - is because in the eyes of our very distant ancestors, the preposition "pod" + [place] expressed a way of doing something rather than indicating the place itself. Anyway, these remarks are nothing more than my personal impressions on Polish cases, but I hope they may facilitate remembering the use of cases.

SzwedwPolsceThreads: 13 Posts: 1,915 Joined: Feb 21, 09	Edited by: Administrator Aug 3, 09, 16:20 / #
Polish noun cases! But honestly speaking, it's very difficult to learn how to use the different cases if you don't know the basic grammatical structures.