Donkey's Diary

I'm just going to type some stuff and you can all have fun trying to make sense of it.

Jestem najlepszym osłem bo umiem czytać i pisać, mówie po angielsku i troche po polsku. Pracuję z roślinami. Dzisiaj, tam był polak, który podlewa rośliny (nie tylko rośliny - podlewa płot, droga, jego kolegi, wszystko). Powiedziałem 'nie umiem pływać', moje ostatne słowa zanim utonięcie.

The end.

Nie! Nie topić(?) śię. Jestem zdrowy jak ryba.

Now, people of the forum. Feel free to get your red pens out and put crosses all over the place and red lines through at least half of the word-endings. For the bits I got right, I probably cheated. If you can't tell what I was trying to write, then you're not the only one. I'm not really sure either.

can i use a green pen? i lost the red one........yawn.....

mówię / trochę


I think it's a calque from English (there was a Pole)... You can't literally translate "there was" as "tam był"... It'd be better to say "był u nas Polak" ("u nas" = where you work) or "był tu Polak" (again "tu" = where you work).


drogę (feminine accusative), jego kolegów (plural masculine accusative)


moje ostatnie słowa przed utonięciem (przed + instrumental) [before drowning]

I decided to add the comma after 'dzisiaj' so it didn't look like 'Today was a Polish man...'
It was around this stage that I thought I was heading into deep water... grammatically.


I knew that. I was just lazy. Do I lose points for being lazy?


Here I really knew I was going wrong.

Thanks for all your help.


Well, nobody forced you to read it.

I appreciate your effort but it didn't make the sentence look any more Polish ;)


You do.


No probs. :)

Should płot be płot, or should it be płota? Or something else entirely? And what about wszystko? (The word 'wszystko', I don't mean what about everything I wrote.)

"Płot" is ok - if the masculine or neuter noun is inanimate, the accusative case equals the nominative .
"Wszystko" is ok too!

Should I say thanks after every bit of help I receive, or save it all up for one big thankyou at the end of the week?
Does this look like an excuse to bounce my thread back to the top?

But what exciting adventures could await us all tomorrow?
Who knows?
Who cares?

I guess I'm picky, but it's for your good, guys.


Jestem najlepszym osłem, bo umiem czytać i pisać, [a coma is required to introduce a subordinate clause]


rather: Pracuję przy roślinach [Pracuję z roślinami means, at least for me, that the plants cooperate with you. On the other hand "Pracuję z dziećmi" - or other people - would be correct, even if the kids are not cooperating with you, but they are your job]

swoich kolegów [the possesive pronoun refers to the subject of the sentence, then "swój" is required]
we use " for quoting, not ',
the first " (opening a quote) should, in a hand-written text, be rather in the lower position, the final " in the upper position. (I hope you know what I mean, because I can't write like that on these forums, all " end up in the upper position)

I think this sentence sounds "too English", but maybe I'm wrong?


Did you mean "I'm not drowning"? then "Nie topię się" or "Nie tonę".
Also it would be probably better to say "Jestem zdrów jak ryba", this form is more common in this saying.

This reminds me of the difference between przynosić and przyprowadzić. If I were to pracuję z roślinami, then I'd be able to przyprowadz-(?) them. It's always more noticeable when the plants don't co-operate, so I shall take that as the norm.


The grammar is crushing me! I still haven't got my head around what exactly swój, swoje, swoja is all about anyway!


I'll run it by some English people and see what they think.


I wanted to say "I didn't drown."
But did I actually evolve into an aquatic organism in those last few words?
Okay, so I know that I didn't. Maybe a little more surrealism would be required next time.

Thanks for all that. I'll just go and rewrite the whole thing. Luckily, exciting things like this don't happen to me every day. Yeah, I know, I know - what exciting things?

Osioł prowadzi swój dzienniczek.
Osioł pokazał nam swoje zdjęcia.
Osioł lubi swoją koleżankę Jovę.
Osioł lubi swoje koleżanki Jovę i Polishgirltx
Osiól nie znosi swoich kolegów z pracy.
Osioł jest dumny ze swojej kuchni (as if kitchen, not cuisine).
Osioł jest dumny ze swojego brata/swojej siostry.
Osioł szczyci się swoimi zdolnościami w zakresie języka polskiego.
Osioł nie zna swoich sąsiadów.

Sorry, but that hasn't really helped. Well, it might when I take the time to really give it a thorough read.

What are jego, jej and so on?
Is sw... about both male and female? I'm sure I've read it being used to address someone like one would with the word 'your', but I've also heard:

Swoja kretki, swój świat!

I'm now lost and I'm still looking for my crayons.

mine, his, her, theirs...etc.

crayons - kredki świecowe

Lubię swojego (mojego) chomika - I like my hamster.
Lubię jego chomika - I like his hamster.

Hmm....


That's a good question. With this one, I guess Jova will have to explain it to you. I just speak Polish but it is beyond my capabilities to explain all the nuances. Sorry.

and kretki would be probably small moles (kret = Talpa europaea), although I'd prefer a diminuitive form "kreciki".
kredki - crayons

These are my crayons. To są moje kredki.
[Subject = these/they, possessive noun = my (English) << I]
I'm looking for my crayons. Szukam swoich kredek.
[Subject = I, possessive noun = my << I, in this case you have to use the "swój/swoja/swoje", because the subject and the possessor/owner are the same person, I mean person in real life, not grammatically as 1st, 2nd, 3rd person]

John met Mark and his wife at the station.
1/ Jan spotkał Marka i jego żonę na stacji.
2/ Jan spotkał Marka i swoją żonę na stacji.
in the 1/ case it's Mark's wife (subject of the sentence is Jan, "possessor" of the wife is Mark, so "normal" possessive noun is used, accordingly mój, twój, jego, nasz, wasz, ich etc.)
in the 2/ case it's John's wife (subject of the sentence is Jan, "possessor" of the wife is also Jan, so the possessive noun "swój" has to be used]

NEXT DIARY INSTALLMENT:

Obudził mnie krótkofalówka. "Osioł! Gdzie jesteś?"
"Jestem w kwietikie lawend." Zawsze lawenda sprawia, że jestem śpiący.
"Idź do domu. Jesteś późny. Minęła godzin siedemnasta.”
Jak ten czas leci. Kot że mieszka do biura może mówić.
Również, osły może mówić i jezdzić rowerami. No, jeden osioł może.
Jechałem(?) blah blah blah... I’ve lost the will to go on with this now!

Okay, so that was only just on the right side of bearable?

There are a few new words I’ve had to look up in there, a few phrases I’ve heard or read before, a whole sentence I asked someone to do for me (whatever posessed me to change the word order in that one, I don’t know) and some stuff where I really haven’t got a clue what I’m typing.

Now forum, although I lost the will to go on, have you too?

Jestem w kwiaciarni (?)



not sure about the kot part.


hell yeah....

Jestem w kwietniku lawend.

What exactly are you trying to say here?

it doesn't sound right in Polish...

The cat lives in the office.
Do you know of any cats with the ability to speak (especially on a walkie-talkie)?
Having said that, miau does sound a bit like the Polish for he/she/it had (or something like that).


I remember on my old, now long-lost thread, I had a translation for the word 'bed'. The first translation I was given was łóżko - not the kind of bed you'd normally grow plants in. I couldn't remember what the bestter suggestions were. Where I work, all the beds have a number, so I never seem to need to know the word.


Especially when I try saying it.

Thanks for all your help, people. But...



So I'll only do half a dozen more of these so-called diary entries then? I was going to go on forever, but if that's the way you feel...

OK I will change this to w ogródku lawend is this better?

it works in English, but not in Polish...well, i don't know how you'd say it differently...


maybe.... Jestem w lawendowym ogródku.

A romantyczka
Seriously I’m not into gardening so I don’t know proper terminology in polish either.

i don't have a green thumb neither, but i don't think that he meant Leże na łóżku z lawendy..... or maybe?

Seeing as we're only half in reality here anyway, I'll settle for one of these.
The only reason I prefer polishgirltx's version is because one of the words has a longer ending. That genitive plural(?) with the root of the word sitting there all naked - it always makes me feel like I haven't finished saying it.


I'm not talking about that one - surely that's just being silly. Although having said that, I did fall asleep.


I have a horticultural thread, so I could find the technical term, but wouldn't this spoil things by sounding too technical?


Or green fingers?
Having green fingers comes from squashing aphids with your bare hands. Gardeners can be nasty people sometimes.

What about the end of the whole thing? I rode home on my bicycle. Maybe it had been specially adapted for use by large quadrupeds. Maybe if I don't really know, how could anyone else?

Również osioł może mówić i jeździć na rowerze (funny version - pedałować ;)).
Również osły mogą ... (plural).

No.

you have to add to your request what version you need, the more or the less silly...
because silly is not boring, it's kind of fun ;)

Okay, so here's the updated version. Dzięki P, ET, PGTX. I hope I haven't missed anything.
Okay, so now some late amendments from K (see below, dear reader).

Obudziła mnie krótkofalówka. "Osioł! Gdzie jesteś?"
"Jestem w lawendonym ogródku." Zawsze od lawendy sprawia, że jestem śpiący.
"Idź do domu. Jesteś spóźnioy. Już po piątej.”
Jak ten czas leci. Kot że mieszka do biura może mówić.
Również, osły umieją mówić i jeździć na rowerze. A przynajmniej jeden umie.


The British are supposed to have a self-deprecating sense of humour, but I'm not going to slander myself. Imagine how confusing the legal procedings would be.

That's so official :)
Normally your Polish friend/co-worker would rather say "Już po piątej. [or: już po siedemnastej]
I think "lavender bed" should be "grzęda/grządka z lawendą" (I think, though not completely sure, that grzęda was established as the translation for "bed" in the deleted thread you've mentioned), so:
Jestem w grzędzie z lawendą.

What do you mean here?
That you're late for something?
then

if "It's late", then
Jest późno.


maybe
Osły też umieją mówić i jeździć na rowerze. A przynajmniej jeden umie.

Edit 1:

No, this sentence is completely wrong!
Try to remember what it really was supposed to mean :)
(maybe "the cat that lives in the office can speak" ?)