ENGLISH Tips for POLISH Speakers

Hi, there.

Welcome back to another lesson from engVid with me, Benjamin.

Today we are looking at tips for learners of English if you are from Poland or other

countries around Poland that share that language group; for example, the Czech Republic and

Slovakia.

Now, I don't know many people from Czech Republic and Slovakia.

My experience is more with the Polish people that I have worked with and that I have taught.

So, it will be aimed at them; but there may be areas of relevance for you, too, if you

are from those countries.

So, a few general comments about Polish learners of English.

First of all, one of the people I worked with at a language school, a guy called... a guy

named Marrack had a fantastic grasp of English.

He'd been working there for many years in England, and his level of sort of academic

English was very accurate; probably higher than mine.

So, I'm just saying that: Yes, there are areas that Polish people in general can work on,

but that's not to say that there aren't many, many exceptions to the rules, and that there

aren't some fantastic speakers out there.

Okay, let's get into a few areas for you.

So, first of all: Formality.

It's not the only language in which students struggle to say: "you", and have a hard time

maybe calling a teacher by their first name.

So, it is okay to use the second-person singular: "you".

-"Are you okay today, Benjamin?"

-"Yes.

I'm fine, thanks.

How are you, Purvelle?"

Good.

"Mr." and "Mrs." Now, "Mr." and "Mrs.", these forms of address are used with a surname;

so someone's second name.

For example: "John Smith", I would say: "Hello, Mr. Smith.

How are you today?"

It's quite formal.

Okay?

We use surnames in...

Only if we don't know someone, maybe in the world of work, and you're seeing someone for

the first time and you don't want to use their first name.

But you wouldn't use it with the first name.

So, you wouldn't say: "Mr. Benjamin, can I ask you something?"

Okay?

We might use it in a jokey way if we're speaking to a child: "Hello, Mr. So-and-so, how are

you?"

Or: "Hello, Master", that's the sort of junior equivalent of "Mr.".

Nor do we say: "Please, Mr." More likely to say: "Excuse me."

Okay?

That's if I want to say something.

You don't say: "Please, Mr." Same applies to "Mrs.".

We don't say: "A Mrs. is on the phone", but we would say: "There's a lady that wants to

speak to you on the phone."

Okay?

Prepositions - a few areas of confusion, here.

So, there are a few examples of when we would use "at".

For example: "At work".

Yeah?

"At work", "at school", "at university", "at the party", "at the beach", "at the festival",

"at the underground station".

"On": "Lying on my bed", "on the television", "on the radio".

Yeah?

"On the laptop", "On the table is a knife and fork."

"For": -"How long are you going to bed for?"

-"I'm going to bed for 10 days".

-"What are you doing that for?"

-"So that I can have some nice dreams and rest."

-"Who are you doing that with?"

-"People".

-"What kind of emotion are you doing that with?"

-"With a loss of happiness."

So, we used "with" when we're talking about people.

-"Who are you going to the party with?"

-"I'm going with my friend John."

-"Who are you annoyed with?"

-"I am annoyed with Billy."

Okay?

"I am happy with Joe."

-"Where are you going to, Benjamin?"

-"I am going to a place that is unknown."

Okay?

"I am going to", okay?

But we can also use it with "getting married": "I am getting married to that lovely girl.",

"I am getting married to that dashing young man".

"Dashing" meaning handsome.

"From", okay?

Also used with place.

-"Where did you catch the train from?"

-"I caught the train from Barnstaple."

And we use it with divorce: "I'm getting divorced from that person."

Okay.

Hopefully we don't use that too often.

"In" - we can talk about it with a subject.

For example: "In English today, I learnt" doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

"In the supermarket I found some tomatoes".

"Tomatoes" if you're from North America.

There are times when we don't need a preposition.

For example, we don't say: "I'm going to home"; we just say: "I'm going home."

And we don't say: "I'm leaving from now"; "I'm just going to leave now."

Intonation.

So, many Polish people feel that Britain "eat their words", I've heard it described before;

that we...

The stress is all kind of unusual, and that there's too, sort of...

Too much stress in the language, meaning that some Polish people feel quite self-aware when

they are copying the intonation patterns they hear in English.

But what I would encourage you to do is have a go.

Yeah?

Listen: What are you hearing from other people?

And then try to kind of copy some of the intonation patterns.

Give it a go.

Questions.

So, for a...

If a question has a yes or no answer, then you go up at the end.

For example: "Did you remember to buy the bread?

Did you remember to buy the bread?"

Yup.

So, it's either yes or no.

So, I go: "bread"-up-"bread".

Whereas if it's a "w" question: "Who?", "What?", "Why?", "When?", "Where?" - yeah, you're going

to go down.

"Where did you get that?

Where did you get that?

Where did you get that?", "Why did you ask him here?

Why?

Why did you ask him here?"

Okay.

Articles.

"The" - this is the definite article.

"The train", I'm talking about the train there.

If I say: "a train", it could be the train there, it could be the train there, it could

be the train there.

So, "the", I know which one it is; "a" could be any old one.

So, a little test for you, here.

Which one should we use?

Definite or indefinite?

"I like ___ green t-shirt."

Yeah, that's right, it's "the", because we're talking about a particular green t-shirt.

"120 miles ___ hour".

"...the hour"? "...a hour"? "...an hour".

Okay, so we use "an" for a vowel.

Vowels are: "a"...

Yeah, so if a word begins with a vowel, then you're going to use "an" if you need to use

the indefinite article.

But "h" sometimes uses "an" as well because it's a soft sound to sort of begin with.

It's like a... "...a hour" doesn't sound quite right, so you're kind of...

You need that consonant in there to sort of continue the sound.

"Where's ___ key I gave you?"

Is it talking about a definite key?

Is there an exact key?

Yes, there is; therefore, we're going to use "the".

What about this one?

"Do you still live in ___ Liverpool?"

What do you think? "...the"? "...a"? "...a Liverpool"? "...the Liverpool"?

Actually, you don't need one there at all; very misleading.

So, places you're not going to have one.

We're going to flip this board over; I've got some more tips for you.

So, on this side of the board we've decided to go for some Polish colours.

Have enjoyed a few trips to Poland myself; I've been to Krak�w, Zakopane down in the

mountains, and at one stage I got quite lost in Katowice.

Don't know why I was there.

Anyway, what should...?

Other things to look out for.

Using "it" as a subject.

It's okay to do this in English.

I know there's not such an equivalent in Polish, but we can do this.

For example: "Today is hot."

Yeah.

The subject can be "It": "It is hot today."

Another example: "Here is quiet".

Rather, I would say: "It is quiet here".

"Is 4 o'clock."

Okay?

If you're talking about the time: "It is 4 o'clock.", "It is midday.", "It is 7 in the

evening.", "It is quarter to 2."

Let's write that on.

Position of adverbs.

What I want you to remember is that an adverb does not go between a verb and an object.

For example: "She spelt...

She speaks well French."

So, my adverb needs to go after the object: "She speaks French well".

"I visit often", so here is my adverb.

Okay?

It can't be between the verb and the object, so let's move it.

So, it could be: "I visit my parents often."

or "I often visit my parents."

There is an exception, here, with particles such as...

"Particles" are just the small bits of words; "up", "down", "off", "on".

"I run up the hill.", "I slide down the hill."

More of that in my lesson on eccentric Britain: The cheese rolling down the hill.

Down the hill.

Okay.

You can put adverbs at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence.

If it's at the beginning, you're probably talking about time: "Eventually, I got onto

the airplane."

We might put it in the middle; this is, like, quite a nice, formal effect: "Eventually,

I got onto the airplane; however, I realized that my bag was not on the plane."

Or we could do it at the end: "I got onto the airplane"...

Let's have an adverbial phrase that's describing the action: "I got onto the airplane in one

piece; with all of my body not bruised, head not cut off yet."

"ing" and the infinitive.

Now, in the Polish language, where they would use an infinitive, in English we would use

a present participle - "ing".

For example: "I enjoy to sail."

That's in the infinitive.

What we need to do to put it into correct English: Take it and put it "ing".

"I enjoy sailing".

"I like", cross out the "to", here's my verb, I need an "ing".

"I like to watch Chelsea."

Yeah, there's someone who needs to give me a Chelsea ticket; he hasn't quite yet done

it yet.

Maybe he'll watch this and get some ideas.

"I like"...

Or maybe you'd like to put a tip after this video.

"I like watch...

I like watching Chelsea."

Okay?

So, "ing" instead of the infinitive.

Other major area: Phrasal verbs, because there aren't any in Polish.

We've got a ton of those lessons on this site, so get involved.

There's some of mine up there; crime phrasal verbs, phrasal verbs to deal with driving

- all sorts of ones.

Take your pick, have some fun, and play around with your intonation.

Okay.

Until next time, good bye.