Sarah is under the impression that ‘tak’ in Polish always means ‘yes’. She either forgets or doesn’t know that ‘tak’ more often means ‘so’. E.g.: ‘nie tak szybko’ doesn’t mean ‘not yes fast’ but ‘not so fast’.
@Pat Ludwa You must have taken a look only at the beginner level Polish language courses where they want to keep things as simple as possible and avoid confusing people unless absolutely necessary. I am saying this because there is no way to say in Polish ‘so well’ (or ‘so’ followed by any adverb) without using the word ‘tak’.
First one is maybe easier to understand if I explain it this way: - Thanks (Dzięki) - You are welcome (Nie ma za co) [you HAVE NOTHING you can thank me FOR] - with big letter i marked words which are really used ^^
For some reason it reminds me of the French "de rien." I couldn't quite translate that exactly, the second word of course is easy. When I see "nie ma za co", My brain translates it as "It's nothing" which is a common response in English. Then again, decades ago, before the internet, when I tried learning from books, it seems I learned the opposite of jest (meaning there is) is nie ma (obviously, there isn't.) And I could be wrong in that explanation. But I think the book was going a step further and attempting to explain where to use the genitive case or something like that. Yes, I was ambitious when I was 26 ;) But not as much as you might think. What I thought first was maybe like some of my friends I could learn Russian. That would be very exotic in 1985 before the fall of the Iron Curtain when we had no idea what it was like over there, except that it wasn't good. But then fortunately I caught a look at the Cyrillic alphabet and decided that no, definitely not Russian. A while later, I noticed my coworker trying to teach my boss some words in Polish - I never knew why and never thought to ask - but it sounded like Russian. Of course Slavic languages sound similar but what did I know? I was young. I had only gone to high school. I lived in the US. And of course I had no idea what a Slavic language was. In school we had first French and then Spanish, Latin, and German. I had no desire to learn Latin or German. Funny thing about the Latin: It has five cases. I didn't know what they were but I certainly didn't want to learn them and here I am now, with seven. Perhaps first I should learn some more nouns and verbs. Like for example someone's use of the verb explain which looks very much like translate. Thankfully, UA-cam will translate. But before I Hit that button, I try to figure it out for myself. And of course this is just reading. If I was listening to somebody actually speak I probably would be totally lost. Back in the '80s I gave up after 10 months of banging my head against the wall. It was the prepositions that sent me off the deep end. I have a thought that if there had been a course in high school, it would have been easier. There would have been a lot more exposure. Our teachers always spoke to us in whichever language they were teaching. And we had class 4 days a week most of the time. On my own I had no classes and four different books with four different approaches. I can understand why they took different approaches. It is not the pronunciation of Polish which is difficult!
@@pamelajaye i didn't read the whole thing but "it's nothing" Is a pretty good Translation of "nie ma za co". Also when it comes to pronouciation - e has a different sound in polish, image "beeee" a sound that a sheep would make
@@risist4502 It's possible I don't listen to a lot of sheep :-) I thought the e was sort of "eh" like when you don't care or something isn't so great. I had some trouble with it at first because after all that Spanish I was pronouncing it ay (yeah it's hard to explain sounds across languages. But sort of like The Fonz. My coworker corrected at least that error pretty quickly. Beyond that she thought I was kind of hopeless. But now we have the internet. My sz may still sound like my si (because I really can't hear the difference - and that is something that somebody on Instagram was asking about so maybe I will bring it up.) Also, thanks :-)
Nie ma za co is literally like Spanish DE NADA. CLoser to 'forget it" than "you are welcome' in literal sense, but you can use also "that's nothing" in English. However general usage is that of You're welcome - Nie ma za co is pretty idiomatic.
Nie ma za co. - It's nothing. / No reason for (a thank you). Proszę bardzo. - Your welcome. You are welcome. - Witamy. / Zapraszamy (do środka). Proszę, zapraszam do środka. - Please, I invite you inside. / Please, come in.
It's insane that one can use some phrases the whole life never even thinking about how absurd they are. This "outside perspective" is so refreshing :) As for "Nie ma za co", yes in general it means "you're welcome", but usually there is some implicit part depending on what you responds to with this phrase. Two most common situations will be to respond with this for "sorry" or "thank you". Examples: -Dziękuję [Thank you] -Nie ma za co [there is nothing to thank for] -Przepraszam [I'm sorry] -Nie ma za co [there is nothing to be sorry about] About "mamy tak", I think that the situation you described translates to: Mamy "tak" [We have an agreement/We have a "yes"]. TBH It's not that commonly used, and the meaning of this phrase itself depends very much on the context. For "jako tako", even translating literally it is not "how yes". "Jako [as]" is not the same as "jak [how or like (i.e. like an eagle)]". And "tako" is not the same as "tak". It's meaning is closer to another Polish word: "takowy" [like a / such a]. So what we have here literally translates to "as such". It's mostly used for describing medium quality value. Examples: -Jak się masz? [How are you?] -Jako tako [so-so] (BTW. isn't "so-so" hilarious itself?) -I udało mi się to *jako tako* naprawić [And I've managed to fix it *good enough*]
you say absurd, I would rather say shortcut. Przepraszam [I'm sorry] / Dziękuję [thank you] are shorter forms for: Przepraszam za (coś) [Sorry for sth] / Dziękuję za (coś) [Thank you for sth] because if you think of it: you always thank or sorry For something - in most cases you just don't need to formulate what it was because context of the situation does it for you. But the answer "Nie ma za co" [there is nothing to be sorry or to thank for] addreses this cause. It's a polite way to say that: That (unformulated) reason you are sorry/thankful for is so tiny that not even worth reacting this way. So treat it "as nothing happened". "mamy tak" / "my tak mamy" / "tak jest" / "tak było" / "tak się zdażyło" / tak się złożyło" TAK in polish has two meanings first is dominant, means YES second meaning appears only is some expressions and is kind of equvalent to "this / that/ these" - indicators that in polish do not exist in such direct form, so instead we use TAK is this indicator or determiner. "mamy tak" full version "My tak mamy" can be translated as "we do things this way" or "that's the way we act" or "that's how we... "tak jest" = That's how it is "tak było" = that's how it's happened / (or in general context) that't how it used to be (in the past) "tak się zdażyło" = well, things happens (this way) / this just happened to happen (not my intention or I did not want it to happen) "jako tako" - again, "tak" in a second meaning, as indicator but with "tako" - old polish version book title example: Tako rzecze Zaratustra = Thus Spoke Zarathustra
@@bogna8877 I would even say that the meaning “so” is the first, if you compare the Polish language with other Slavic languages. For example in Russian “tak” means “so” while “da” means “yes”.
As for „blue almonds” - in polish, adjective „niebieski” comes from the word „niebo” = sky (so „niebieski” as a colour means the colour of the sky = blue) BUT ! „niebo” in Polish means also „heaven”, which is different in english where sky and heaven are separate words. „Niebieski” in „myśleć o niebieskich migdałach” stands for heavenly / of heaven, not blue. Almonds on the other hand stands for some rare and special delicacies (which is what almonds used to be some centuries ago) Another example is „królestwo niebieskie” which means „the kingdom of heaven” not „blue kingdom” So „myśleć o niebieskich migdałach” means „to think (dream) about heavenly delicacies”, which makes the actual meaning in polish more clear for english speakers.
A żeby było jeszcze weselej (dla uczących się języka polskiego), to jest jeszcze słowo "niebiański". :) Co do "myślenia o niebieskich migdałach" to ma jeszcze inne znaczenie, niż "rozmyślanie o rzeczach nieziemskich (pięknych)". Wyrażenie to stosuje się również, gdy ktoś wykazuje brak skupienia na tym, co ważne: "Skup się! Są rzeczy do zrobienia, a ty ciągle myślisz o niebieskich migdałach!"
If anyone would say 'mamy tak', I would expect a list of things, eg. mamy tak: ziemniaki, sałatkę... on the other hand, as a sum up, we use 'mamy to'. like: ziemniaki - checked sałatka - checked ... mamy to! jako tako - 'tako' rather comes from 'taki', which means, more or less, 'like that', it's not a 'yes' with the extra 'o' ;) Thanks fo the effort you put into learning polish and keep up the good work :)
I've never heard the expression "mamy tak". It sounds like something is missing here. Are you sure it's not "mamy to [, tak]?" (do we have it [,yes]?) or "mamy tak + smth", for example. "mamy tak samo?" (do we have [something] which is basically the same thing?). I think you're confused with "tak", because this word has more meanings. It could also mean "so" if you want to emphasize something. For example: "I tried so hard" = "Starałem się tak bardzo" "It's so hard to live here" = "Tu żyje się tak ciężko" It could also mean "way" or "in this way". "Zrób tak" - "Do it this way". Or "tak to trzeba zrobić" - this is the way you should do it". And also it could show that two things are similar. For example, "też tak mam" means "I'm like that, too." or "I have the same". In comparison to the most common meaning of "tak" which is "yes", the other meanings should be conjugated, ex. "Ona jest taka mądra!" - "She is so smart!" or "On jest taki wysoki" - "He is so tall".
Small correction to the last section (about comparisons): not “conjugated”, but “inflected”. Conjugation is an inflection of verbs, an inflection by persons, tenses, and so on.
Yup, exactly, "tak" has more meanings. It's something like a custom answer for "how"(eng)="jak"(pol). It's like when-then, where-there, how-(dunno, "like that"?). In polish it's kiedy-wtedy, gdzie-tam, jak-tak. And "tako" is always this sort of thing, it's never a synonym of "yes". Btw. "Jako" means "as" in english, when you say that something could be seen as something else, like "you see learning polish as a painful thing" = "widzisz naukę polskiego jako coś bolesnego". And "Nigdy nie jeżdżę"= "I never drive", but what you say Sarah sounds kind of close to "nigdy nie jedzcie" = "don't ever eat". If you live in Poland already 4 yrs, you know that it doesn't mean I have bad intentions when I'm correcting you, but rather something else - I find it impressive that you learn our language, I wish you the best, and I want to support you :)
My favourite Polish sayings (that I actually use and most of which are nonsensical when directly translated to English), among others include: - Nie udawaj Greka. - Jajo mądrzejsze od kury. - Indyk myślał o niedzieli, ale w sobotę łeb mu ścięli. - Musi to na Rusi, a w Polsce jak kto chce. - Gadał dziad do obrazu, a obraz do niego ani razu. - Wart Pac pałaca, a pałac Paca.
Wart Pac pałaca, a pałac Paca; Pac worth a palace, and Pac's palace. In the 17th century, Pac was one of the magnates. It's the equivalent of a prince in GB. Of course, he must have had a suitably rich palace. Hence the saying.
Also, I think a way to make sense of “nie ma za co” is to think that basically what you’re saying is like someone thanks you and you say “there’s nothing (to thank me for)” and that part in brackets is implied in “nie ma za co”
Exactly, it's always in the context of "thank you" - "there is nothing to thank me for" with "thank" being implied. And when someone opens the door for you and says "nie ma za co", they are just being facetious as they suggest you should have thanked them in this situation.
As a translator of the PL/ENG language pair, you are correct. English has the biggest lexic in the world but Polish is pretty unique to its own. Eng to Pl? Nope. Pl to Eng? Easy. I do both. English is Germanic, Polish is Slavic, I struggle every translation but I have been doing this... pushing 18 years and counting. Great words, thank you. I could never express this as you just did, Creator. Thank you. edit: I am trilingual, English, German and Polish. Fun fact: alternately to the blue almond part you can say: "Chodzę z głową w chmurach.": I am walking with my head in the clouds. It's the same, a bit older. It literally means my body is grounded but my mind is separated and wandering the clouds :).
Yeah, I must agree that translating Polish to English is quite difficult, it's much easier to translate English to Polish (and you could even do it in multiple ways). For instance, let's get some kind of an absurd phrase like "Mój kot nie potrafi gryźć kości." It could be translated to "My cat cannot/is unable to/won't chew/eat/gnaw/ bones" each of this resembling the original meaning. For me, as a native speaker, it's natural to easily translate something from eng to pl since I am aware of multiple contexts in which given phrase could be translated. By the way, I guess that "Z głową w chmurach" and "o niebieskich migdałach" is quite similar in literal meaning. I was unaware until I read a comment here but indeed "niebieskie migdały" could be translated to "heavenly almonds" not "blue almonds" but if you reffer to a heavenly you usually refer to niebiańskie or write "Niebieski" with a capital N to differentiate between a dimension (plane? State of being? Could you really refer it to an another dimension?) and a color.
Spróbuj nagrać film po Polsku, nawet jeśli miałabyś wpisywać każde zdanie w google translate, i powtarzać wymowę. Dlaczego? 1.Polacy uwielbiają, gdy obcokrajowcy próbują mówić po Polsku, więc jest szansa że film będzie popularny. 2. Nagrywanie filmów po Polsku to dobra okazja na naukę języka. Try to record a video in Polish, even if you have to type every sentence in google translate, and repeat the pronunciation. Why? 1. Poles love when foreigners try to speak Polish, so it might become popular. 2. Recording films in Polish is a good opportunity to learn the language.
Po polsku, nie po Polsku, nie ma kogoś takiego jak Polsek, więc nie można niczego po nim robić. Skąd do cholery cięzkiej się bierze ta maniera przerabiania naszej ortografii na angielska modłę?
@@tymdo To nie jest pomyłka, tylko plaga ostatnimi czasy. Wtrącanie angielskich słów wszędzie gdzie się da, do tego zupełnie niepotrzebnie i pisanie przymiotnika "polski" wielką literą tam, gdzie nie jest częścią nazwy własnej. Przypuszczam, ze dla słowa "niemiecki" nikt by już nie miał takiego "szacunku".
Dobrze że nawija po angielsku. Dzięki temu mówi o Polsce w języku jej znajomych i subskrybentów. Mówiąc po polsku trafią z przekazem di Polaków którzy wiedzą to co może o polsce powiedzieć a zresztą jak dla mnie jest to motywacja do nauki angielskiego.
Poles are using shortcuts in sentences just like native English speakers. Polish "to nie tak " is a short cut from "To nie jest tak jak ..." which is similar to English "It is not like that". Which means that someone has wrong idea about something. Polish "Nigdy nie ...." has similar meaning as English " Don't you ever ...". Polish "Nigdy nie pij tego" is similar to English "Don't you ever drink it". Direct translation "word to word" from one language to another leads in most cases to misunderstandings because of different codes specific for each language. We learn these codes in environment of our native language and culture since early childhood. When we enter as adults another environment and culture of foreign language, we are struggling because we don't know its vocabulary and don't understand its codes. For Sarah some Polish sayings don't make sense because she doesn't know their etymology. Consider an example of Polish kids who were born in English language environment and go to preschool and elementary school. They learn English from its very basics level (along with specific codes contained in songs, fairy tales, children literature e.tc.) and soon these kids can correct pronunciation of their parents who learned English as adults.
Exactly, here come Idioms. If someone in Poland would like to literally word for word translate "It's raining with cats and dogs" - it does completely make no sense. In the opposite direction - how would you find it if someone said: it rains like from a bucket (leje jak z cebra)? Some frases just cannot be translated word by word
The one that startled me the first time I realized what it was when someone asked me how much they owed me was "Ile jestem ci winny?" I had learned winny as "guilty". so hearing that the first time and figuring out what they were really saying (how much do I owe you) and it had nothing to do with doing something wrong - then I smiled. The other thing that is so different in Polish is that they say every letter...those double "n's" are said two times. That was so funny to me at first and hard to remember for the first few times.
Another fun fact about Polish is when you want to describe the lack of something, you don't say "there is no ..." or "there isn't any ..." but instead you say "it doesn't have..." For example: There is (some) milk in the fridge - W lodówce jest mleko (In the fridge is milk) There is no milk in the fridge - W lodówce nie ma mleka (In the fridge it doesn't have milk)
That is what my book wanted to teach me. Except I would be sitting there going "okay Which ending do I have to put at the end of milk, now that it is a different case?" (Genitive I think.) {Also it was like 35 years ago? I gave up, and then when Ukrainians started moving to Poland and showing up on UA-cam I started recognizing words in comments. Yeah that was a long recess.} But at least it's a longer sentence. Now instead of there isn't any milk, it also isn't in the refrigerator. I love lodówka. Because it's like lody (ice cream) and then I can understand lód (maybe. Is that ice?) Meanwhile I can't remember the difference between knife and spoon...
@@pamelajaye I think that in pretty much every sentence, when you negate it, the case of the object changes, but I never really thought about it. It just comes naturally to me since it's my first language. I also wouldn't be able to name the cases in English sorry.
Until very recently the food was hard to keep for a longer time. It was still eatable, to an extend, but very bad in taste. Therefore the invention of such sauces as ketchup, mustard or sos chrzanowy - the problem was world-wide. Food, especially meat, without sauce was indeed something that could be a show-stopper.
Hello Sarah, I'm Polish. I'm glad you like Poland. The Polish language is indeed one of the most difficult in the world to learn. "Być nie w sosie" is an idiom which translated literally doesn't make sense. On the other hand some idioms are similar in Polish and English, for example, "acid test" and "próba ognia" (fire test). Perhaps since the recording of the movie, you have come across the following examples, but if not, I hope their translation will be interesting for you: 1. Co ma piernik do wiatraka? 2. Mieć węża w kieszeni 3. Musztarda po obiedzie. Have fun!😀
Just because I'm moving to Krakow and planning to live there permanently, I'm already learning Polish language on a mobile application and it's very helpful. Just in two days giving my one hour regularly I've learned a lot, I can even make sentences now in Polish.
I’m always impressed if someone from abroad come over to Poland and learn our. language. In Japan they are learning Polish to place that ability into their CV. As a hard to know ability. And for foreigner - especially English speaking - Polish language might be one of the thoughest to learn. But there is several English speaking UA-camrs who are now having channels focused only on Poland (for example “Rob’s react”. For Sarah here is two tips- first it’s a time to get the good microphone, as the channel is more and more popular and interesting - there is time to get better sound in it. It will also grind you more audacity. The second tip- to learn Polish- books, books,books. Most of foreign books on Polish market are translated from English. So most of your favourite books should be already translated to Polish. And reading them in Polish might significantly improve your Polish. Looking forward for more videos from you. It is always nice to see foreigners knowing our language or history. 😊
I'm trying to find some example using "mamy tak". And the only sensible supposition I came up with: - Dzień dobry. Czy wszyscy rodzice już przybyli na miejsce? - Mamy tak, ojcowie nie. - Good morning. Have all the parents arrived yet? - Mothers yes, fathers no.
I'v never heard anyone use the phrase "mamy tak" before. Mayby in a different context not "mamy tak" but "tak mamy". For example: "my tak mamy i wy tak macie"...
Pisałem już pod.czyimś postem: Mamy tak w naszym kraju, że lubimy narzekać..... Mamy tak: śpiwory, dmuchane materace, palnik, żywność etc, potrzebujemy jeszcze namiotu i możemy jechać na biwak.
"Mamy tak" is not about an agreement. It is about what the current situation is or what are the "initial conditions" that we are going to deal with.. The literal translation is "we have so" ("tak" means "so" here), so it means more or less "the situation is this:..." or "we have the following situation:". Also in "jako-tako", although it cannot be translated literally, the meaning of the word "tako" is closer to "so", not "yes". It's something like "how - so" (somehow ?). And a classic: if someone in Poland is telling you something "z góry" (lit. "from the mountain") it means just "in advance". This phrase is used by us Poles as a symbol of naive/incorrect English speaking, when a Polish person is not aware that the phrase is an idiom and translates it literally to English : _"I tell you from the mountain"_ :) Good luck with learning Polish! (That was not sarcasm ;) )
I know about "być nie w sosie". It's really old - it comes from the times that it was believed that we have these "juices" inside us that constitute us, ex. Blood, gall etc. And if your mood was off - your juices/sauces were inbalanced. That's where it comes from. And we have other one with sauce here: "kisić się we własnym sosie" it will translate like "be closed" or "keep oneself to yourself". It has negative meaning like not being open minded, be closed, become more and more stiff. While word by word it is "pickle onself in your own sauce" 😄
1. nie rob wiochy -> don't make a village 2. szkło poszło -> glass go 3. wierzę ci -> I tower you 4. zwierzę ci się -> I will animal it to you 5. jadę do Łodzi -> I am going to Boat 6. nie drzyj sie -> don't tear yourself 7. dziękuję z góry -> I thank you from the mountain 8. bez ogródek -> without garden 9. wioska zabita dechami -> village killed by desks 10. czuję do ciebie pociąg -> I feel train to you 11. zapalenie opon mózgowych -> fire of the brain tyres 12. spadek cen -> heritage of prices 13. zbieg okoliczności -> fugitive of circumstances 14. obraz Moneta -> Coin's painting 15. tam jest Opole - there is Oh-field 16. nie mam zasięgu -> I have no reach 17. bardzo mi droga dziewczyna -> very expensive girl 18. wspomnienie lata -> memory of flying/ flying memory 19. wyjść na ludzi -> go on people 20. wysłać go na zakupy -> post him on shopping 21. muzyka poważna -> serious music 22. nie łódź się -> don't boat yourself 23. student zaoczny -> behind eye student 24. porachunki -> after bills 25. odpieprz się -> from-pepper yourself 25. wyskok -> wyjump 26. stopy metali -> feet of metals 27. stare dobre czasy -> good old tenses 28. siatkówka oka -> volleyball of the eye 29. nie zawracaj mi gitary -> don't turn my guitar 30. Prawo Powszechnego Ciążenia -> The Universal Pregnancy Law 31. kolej na ciebie -> rail on you 32. nie mam wyjścia -> I have no exit 33. golnąć kielicha -> to shave a glass 34. cukier w kostkach -> sugar in ankles 35. pociąg do Zakopanego -> a train to the Buried 36. Droga Pani Y -> Road Woman Y 37. pokój z tobą -> room with you 38. w mordę jeża -> in the face of a hedgehog 39. psiakość! -> dogs' bone! 40. złóż to do kupy -> assemble it to the shit
6:37 yeah, blue almonds make no sense, and i'm saying it as pole, but there's story behind it the original saying was: "Myśleć o niebiańskich migdałach" - to think of heavenly almonds almonds at that time were something rare and delicacy, a rare thing in an unnatural color, so it means to think of something imaginary/non-existent/unrelated to the topic but because "niebiańskich" and "niebieskich" are very similar, because both of them come from "niebo" - sky (also "niebo" can mean heaven, hence heavenly), so over time it turned into "niebieskich" as it was easier to pronounce for exactly the same reason we get the impression "królestwo niebieskie" literally meaning blue kingdom even though it means heavenly kingdom
I've never used 'mamy tak' but I definitly use the rest! We have also funny one when we want to ask somebody if is something wrong and we say 'coś nie tak?' which literally means "something no yes'. Hope you will get better in polish, I'm sure you're gonna get the hang of it.
my parents are polish but I live in Australia so I don't know a lot of polish slang, but the first phrase equates to 'No worries", "No problem" is the way I interpret it.
@@duner4105 depends on context. If it would be: "Thank you" "No worries" then it would be Nie ma za co. Otherwise no worries or no problem would be nie ma zmartwienia, nie martw się, nie ma czym And, BTW Nie ma za co is not slang. It is a high language.
It's hard to explain some of this phrases. - Nie ma za co = No need to thanks for, - Mamy tak ~ We've got it. Meaning of this phrase depends of context. - Jako tako = So, so. This phrase is a quite new in Polish (neologism). - Nigdy nie (robię tego). I heve never (do this). Double negatives is common in "satem" languages (Slavic, Baltic). - Myśleć o niebieskich migdałach. "To think of blue almonds". It's a typical idiom. It means, somebody waste his time thinking about unrealistic things. - Być nie w sosie. Another polish idiom. You explained it very well. Another polish idioms/phrases. - Czuję pociąg do ciebie - "I feel pulling to You".
Perhaps "I feel drawn to you"? It's kind of old fashioned but I used to hear it on Ally McBeal - *a lot*. Google translate came up with attracted to you, so that's similar. It's definitely something that you would like to know is a figure of speech or idiom because otherwise you would be like "what train? Where?" :-) I think in the past 30 years I've forgotten about idioms... Spent all my time speaking English unless I was around someone whose first language was not English. Then I also spoke English but I tried to speak it more simply. I believe National Public radio does their broadcasts in Simple English. Maybe not. But it's definitely different from what I am used to hearing in the other places. And yet, it's English. Well, American English.
@@pamelajaye That is not an idiom. It has nothing to do with "train" either. The word "pociąg" literally means "inclination, propensity" just like "przeciąg" means "draft".
Your channel is so interesting to me as my native language is Polish but me and my brother are practically bilingual because of bilingual schools and honestly, the mixing up of structures and stuff like translating sentences straight from one language to the other is very common 😅 It’s the bane of our Polish teachers, who despite teaching native students have to keep explaining that some sentences we write in their assignments are NOT correct over and over again LMAO. So like, aside from obviously incorrect translations, I wouldn’t worry too much about using more English-like structures because everyone will still understand (and thankfully Polish sentence structure is pretty flexible either way)
1. Myśleć o niebieskich migdałach or 2. być nie w sosie -these phrases we use very rarely. The first one only my mother used to talk to me when i didn’t listen her, the second phrase I mostly found in the books.
My dad would yell at me to stop thinking about blue almonds and get to work lol Personally I still use nie w sosie, so I guess it depends on the region or people you hang out with~
"nie być w sosie " (to be in a bad mood- from google translator ) is a reference to an emotional situation when one is about to have a bad day: a bad day or someone's emotionally bad mood. it has a few other uses but mainly we Poles use it in this context.
''tak mamy'' (refers to some habits, sometimes irritating ones) or ''mamy to'' (when you've achieved/finished doing sth important) not ''mamy tak'' - it doesn't make any sense. We sometimes say ''mamy tak:'' and then enumerate some things. E.g. Mamy tak: lettuce, cucumbers, oil, salt. We can make salad.
So interesting! Yeah, all of our Polish teachers say "mamy tak" as well as our Polish friends and classmates. I've asked them to clarify and they all say that they mean to say "mamy tak". So I don't know...I'm just going based on what I've heard!
@@SarahAchleithner Don't you just love it? Some things do tend to be in groups or in different parts of Poland - probably eventually spreading to the whole.
@@SarahAchleithner mamy tak tak się mówi. Kiedy sprawdzamy jakieś odpowiedzi między grupami uczniów i oni mogą powiedzieć - mamy tak. To znaczy tak, jak pani kazała, tak jak wzór,,wg którego mieli zrobić. To jest krótka, bardzo krótka informacja ich efektów.
@@SarahAchleithner oczywiście są też i inne sytuację, żeby powiedzieć - mamy tak- Chodzi o wszelaką zgodność z czym się porównujemy. Mamy tak to jest krótka forma od - mamy tak samo,czujemy tak samo, zachowujemy się tak samo, reagujemy tak samo i gdy inni o tym opowiadają, i ty tak samo czujesz możesz powiedzieć. - mam tak, też tak mam, lub liczba mnoga mamy tak, też też mamy tak. Oczywiście szyk można zmieniać mamy tak, tak mamy.
I've never heard "mamy tak" before. In the situations you described we use "mamy to", very colloquial way of saying "we have an agreement". The problem with learning any language, actually, is we tend to translate it to our native language e.g. you hear something in Polish, then translate it to English in your head 1 to 1, you think about how to answer (in English) and then you translate it to Polish and speak. This way you often sound weird or use wrong expressions. You need to learn to think in Polish (or any other language you learn). This is how I learned English and spoken Russian (can't write it unfortunately, mostly use it at work only, anyways) and that's how I'm currently learning Japanese. Good luck with your Polish.
I think the best way to think about the word "tak" in Polish is that it defines a state of being, something that is so. For example in English one person would ask "like this?" The other says "yes". In Polish one would ask "tak?" The other responds "tak". Think of saying "yes" in Polish as saying "it is so". In the case of "mamy tak" it would be like saying "we have this situation" or "this is the way things are". Again you are affirming a state of being. A police interrogator in English might say "here are the facts" in Polish he could say "mamy tak".
Nie ma za co (dziękować) - it means when someone thanks you for something like opening the door you reply "nie ma za co (dziękować)". In USA you say "you welcome" while we say "you don't have to be thankful for it" but we use the phrase "nie ma za co (dziękować)". No need to be thankful. It was a pleasure to open a door for you. That's the meaning.
"Nie ma za co" is short version of "nie ma za co mnie przepraszać/mi dziękować" which means "there is no reason to apologise/thank me". But we do not say this last words "apologise/thank me", so literally it doesn't make any sense if you hear only "there is no reason".
I am honestly flabbergasted by "mamy tak". There is "mamy to!" - "we got it! " and "my [już] tak mamy" - "that's [just] how we are", but "mamy tak" sounds like some sort if misunderstanding. Anyway, great video, thanks !
In Poland we have jokes about "thank you from the mountain" what would be the direct translation of Polish "z góry dziękuję". Of course real translation is "thank you in advance".
The phrase "nie ma za co" has pretty simple genesis, I think... All polish words, such as dziękuję (thank you), przepraszam (I apologise), proszę (please) are gramatically verbs, so it can be translated this way, i.e.: - dziękuję (I am showing my gratitude) - nie ma za co (there is nothing for) Simply saying, that's phrase used when you want to be polite :)
Fraza "nie ma za co" oznacza ona, że osoba mówiąca nie uważa, że należy się jej podziękowanie lub wdzięczność za coś, co zrobiła. W praktyce jest to odpowiedź na "dziękuję" i można ją porównać do angielskiego wyrażenia "you're welcome" lub "don't mention it".
With "nie ma za co" it's basically all a shortening. Situation: I: **I hold the door for you** You: "Dziękuję (za przytrzymanie drzwi)" - "Thank you (for holding the door)" I: "Nie ma za co (dziękować)" - "There is nothing (to thank) for" In other words "my action was so small it's not worth thanking for".
"Nie ma za co" makes perfect sense. Somebody thanks you, and you resond "there's nothing [to thank me] for". Jako-tako doesn't come from "tak" as "yes", but from "taki/taka/takie" as "such". So jako-tako literally means "how? [in] such [way]".
I moved to the US when I was 14 with barely knowing any English.. For the first 2-4 years I had lots of trouble speaking with people.. Lot's of times I didn't understand what was said, and had to ask "what" like 5 times sometimes - at times I just went on and ignored what was said because I simply didn't understand.. I'd recommend not speaking English at all, if you want to learn Polish - or any other language - it's the best way. For those weird words/phrases that don't make sense - you just gotta get used to them and the meaning behind them, not the actual words. This way you should be able to hold a pretty decent conversation within a few months.. GOOD LUCK! ❤❤ PS. "Jako tako" and "Nie jestem w sosie" aren't very commonly used phrases - but of course they do make sense. Like I said it's important to start speaking with locals in Polish, and over time you will naturally pick up more phrases/words that aren't maybe super obvious that you learned them at school. The words you're learning will be enough for you to say whatever you want, but you need to put in the effort to get out there and practice the language in person. Your brain is unconsciously learning all the time, even if you don't understand something. Some things will somehow click out of the blue. So yeah, good luck and I'd love to see more videos.
I agree with all that you wrote. I've learned Turkish and I'm pretty fluent in it. I don't pay attention to direct translation and everything is fine. 🙂
My mother was of polish parents. My grandfather, born in 1894, emigrated from what was Prussia, a village now called Mary Plock, Poland, back then it was Plock according to his citizenship paper. He was 5 years old at that time. He could not become a citizen until 1935. I have his My grandmother was born in this country. My mom used to speak Polish in her younger days along with her older brothers and next in line sister. Visiing my grandparents, when sitting around the table when they didn't want me to understand something, they would use Polish. Whenever they disagreed, it was done in Polish. My mom went to the 6th grade in a polish speaking school that taught English and the Catholic mass was said in Polish until Pope John XXIII. I never learned how to speak it. Wish I did when I was young. Only thing I can remember is dog's blood and I do not know how to spell it. I was told it was a cuss word. Sounds like sha clef. I appreciate that you posted this. Thank you. Also the comments are enjoyable.
well i know english and polish so yea i know basically everything that you need to know when you are poland i teached english by watching a lot of english videos like yours and i know almost every word in english sometimes i can remember from english but not from poland its weird but i think the best way to teach polish is to just know the basics alfabet and watch a lot of random videos
hi Sarah, great videos, want to mention one saying from the past, still used in my family, using word NO as YES (tak), especially when someone was agreeing with you, my grandparents used it a lot, , and even my mom still does it, when talking with me or other relatives, another one about mamy tak, we used to say tak jest, when acknowledging or agreeing or confirming something, many different situations, , looking forward to more videos, btw i grew up in Katowice, back when the times were very different, was exposed to local silesian accent, very different, i am sure some still use it,
1/3 As for double negative, the most surprising thing is that, under a certain condition in Polish, you can negate with a doubled "tak" (yes). If someone says something you don't agree with, you can reply: "tak, tak..." (yes, yes...) but provided that the ironic context of your answer is clear to those listening. 2/3 Just as you are surprised by the double negation in Polish, I used to be surprised by its absence in English. Well, because what sense does a sentence make: "I have nothing."? After all, you can only have that which exists, which is therefore something and not nothing. 3/3 As for "niebieskie migdały" (blue almonds), they are no weirder than a "red herring", are they? Serdeczności. Prowadzisz fajny kanał, Saro, szkoda że dopiero teraz na niego trafiłem.
Although "mamy tak" does make a vague sense, loosely translates to "We have it like this:" and there should be followed by a sequence of what we actually have. But when you say examples of use, it idicates that they would be summed up with "mamy to" = "we've got it", "we've come to conclusion", and raw translation is similar "We have it"
In Polish we've lost the original Slavic word for 'yes', which was probably 'da'. Instead, our ancestors began using 'tako', itself a shortcut of the phrase 'tako jest', meaning 'it is like that', 'exactly'. The adverb 'tako' links to the adjective 'taki', meaning 'so', and to the interrogative adverb 'jako?', Later on, both 'jako' and 'tako' dropped the final 'o'. Another confirmative verb is 'ano', typically shortened to 'no', and this one may be called THE real 'yes'.
I'm Polish and English is my second language. 'Nie ma za co' is basicallly a mental shortcut. In my region, it's almost exclusively used in this sense: 'There is nothing to thank me for' (Nie ma za co [mi dziękować]). 'Mamy tak' is weird because I heard a different version of it more frequenly and I myself use it only in this sense: 'Mam tak samo' (it's something along the line of 'The same is true for me'). Which is to say that 'tak samo' roughly means 'the same' or 'same here'. 'Jako tako' is a totally colloquial term. You'll never hear it in a formal situation. The descriptive version of it would be something like: 'alright, but not amazing'. For example: 'Jak się czujesz?' (How are you feeling?) - 'Jako tako' (I am feeling alright, but not amazing.) Furthermore, I believe that 'jako tako' is so popular because it's a rhyme. 'Nigdy nie', or rather the phenomenon it stands for, is related to the emotional side of the Polish people. Double negative arguably exists because it appropriately conveys the state of emotions of Poles. I don't know if it makes sense, but it's directly related to how the Polish language evolved over centuries. The linguists say it does make sense when you delve into the mechanisms of the language. 'Myśleć o niebieskich migdałach' is the same as, if I'm not mistaken, 'woolgathering' in English, which means being absent-minded. It's more common to hear 'bujanie w obłokach' which means the same thing. 'Bujanie w obłokach', when translated word-to-word, is 'rocking in the clouds' which, I guess, sounds weird for an English native. 'Być nie w sosie' has its etymology in old beliefs. They say it's related to what our ancestors believed to course through the body of a human being. According to the beliefs, four types of liquid course through our bodies, one of them being said sauce (or 'sos'). This stuff even sounds stupid, but again, beliefs tend to be odd from today's perspective. One more thing, 'tak' doesn't always mean 'yes'.
In germanic languages You can create nouns by adding two other to itself. In English is nowdays more american habbit since british have more loanwords, for instance from french. In slavic languages nouns are created from word-formation root. In western slavic branch, root is usually marked in spelling, therefore in polish both ,,RZ" and ,,Ż" sounds the same.
I just wanted to ask a question that is not linked to the video but maybe material for the future one. What are the things that you like to do in your free time if you stay in the city? Do you find Krakow entertaining enough?
Great questions! I work a full time job from home, so the weekends are usually spent doing errands, cleaning, and other adult daily life activities. But when we do venture out into the city, I find there is a lot to do here! There are so many restaurants, bars, cafes, and outdoor activities (like hiking, biking, running, etc) that you can do in the area. But when I'm not adventuring, traveling, going out, hanging with friends, or being active, I LOVE reading a good book!
Sarah, much sense in polish sentences is I wouldn't say hidden, but well, default. "Nie ma za co" is reaction for "dziękuje", and means "nie ma za co dziękować" (there is nothing to be thankful for" but the context is so obvious, that everybody says just " Nie ma za co".
actually it's not so complicated as 1) nie ma za co means 'there is nothing to thank for' = 'no problem', 2) mamy tak means 'we have such@ as 'tak' translates to 'yes' as well to 'such'
Small but usful tip for spelling / reading polish letters. Lern Millitary style spelling / callsigns. U knew Alpha Beta Ceta. Polish letters mostly sound like those callsigns so letter "e" sounds more like in word "Echo" and letter "i" is more like english "e" and sounds like a word "iguana". I hope this tip will help you learn faster.
Not all phrases are so commonly used, but in generally yes, we use them. Let me try to explain some of the phrases. "Nie ma za co" - It is shortened sentence "Nie ma za co dziękować" that shortened become a phrase on it's own, which you can translate as "There is nothing to thank for". "Mamy tak" - because "tak" can mean both "yes" and "that" the more correct, but still direct translation would be "We have that". For example: "Mamy tak, że jemy obiad o 16." -> "We have that we eat dinner at 16." Other sentence when "tak" means "that" is: "Mówiąc tak tracisz poparcie." -> "By saying that you lose support." Lastly I would say every language has it's own weird phrases and without looking far english "This is not my cup of tea." We weren't talking about the tea! Have a nice day everyone!
Jako tako: Jak, Jaki, Jaka, Jakie, Jako - 1. "How"(How's your day? - Jak twój dzień?) 2. "Like"("similar to" - It looks like a dog - Wygląda jak pies) Tak: 1. Yes 2. So So, "Jako tako" means literally "Like so". Easy. The "o" at the end of the "tako" is added to add some rhyme with "jako", as it is unofficial, slang Polish.
So.. this is my thought on what you said: - "Jako Tako" means more as "So So" in english. "How yes" isn't the direct translation. more suitable might be "As this". In the dictionary I found "after a fashion" for this also. - "Nie ma za co" directly means more "No for what". English equivalent is "Don't mention it" or "It was nothing". - "Mamy tak" isn't any saying and I think you got something wrong here. I never ever heard anything like it. Maybe its "Tak mamy" or "Tak już mamy" which means dir. "This we have" and equivalent is "That's our thing" or "It's our thing". Hope that helps Sarah
Ok, this is my fourth comment in a row 🙃, didn't mean to flood this section, but you asked for it ;) There are PLENTY of phrasal verbs that we use. We even learn them at school, because there are so many of them and they literally make no sens, unless you learn their meanings. Yes, we use those aformentioned, "myśleć o niebieskich migdałach", "być nie w sosie", and many many others. However, this isn't something unusuall, I guess, because English has it's own collection of phrasal verbs, so stop 'beating around the bush' and admit it before I 'hit the sack'! 😂
About "Nigdy nie" and other negatives / positives. There is even polish joke which goes something like below: Prophesor during lectures on philology: - As you know, there is not only one negation in Polish language. There are double negatives or even double negatives as positives. However, there are NO double positives as negatives. Then, sleeping student sitting in the last row: - Okay, okay (dobra, dobra) I hope you will astonish your polish friends, when they will try to fool you and you will say "dobra, dobra" ;)
Sarah, I’m Polish and I’ve never heard anything like “mamy tak” in polish language. I think you misheard this. It’s more like “mamy to” and then it means like we’re all set. The other thing is “być nie w sosie” which is very uncommon. I don’t know if you meet this phrase in a daily conversation. And it means “to feel blue”. And btw “to feel blue” sounds weird as well for polish people.
Double negatives in Polish are used for either emphasis or, in the case of nigdy nie, clarifying that something never happened, rather than just didn't happen recently. Nigdy nie can be translated as: 'never have ( I ) ever'. In your example: Nigdy nie jeździłam.' would be 'Never have I ever driven.'
"Nie ma za co" - this etymologically means something like "There's nothing to thank for". "Mamy tak" - "We have such a situation", "Our situation is this..."
"Nice work!" "Wow, that's impressive work." "You are a fast learner." I'm so proud of your effort." "Your effort makes me proud." "Your level of expertise is impressive." "I hope to be as good as you one day." "I'm excited to see what you will do next." Pozdrawiam Grzegorz
"Jako tako" is actually a short version of the whole thing. Q: Jak ci idzie? / How it's going? (Asking about task) A: Po japońsku, czyli jako tako. / As in Japanese, about so so. "Jako tako" sound like something from Japan (Yako Tako - Octopus Yako?) "Nigdy nie" is something like Never ever. "Nie w sosie" is like "Not in the mood" or "being upset"
As Pole I never heard "Mamy tak" as agreement, I always heard "Mamy to" - "We have it" as agreement, "Mamy tak" is used in different case for example: "Czemu twoja rodzina zawsze jeździ wszędzie na rowerach?" "Nie wiem, mamy tak" "Why your family always go everywhere on the bikes?" "I don't know, we have yes" that means something like "We have it like that"
One of famous polish gaming channel did similar experiment. They had translated ( even multiple times ) game titles and were guessing what original title was.And those translated titles were indeed hilarioius.
In my opinion (as a Pole) "nie ma za co" makes a lot of sense. Someone says "dziękuję" and you say "nie ma za co" because something you did was a small favor (like holding the door), so you say „nie ma za co (dziękować)” :)
I'd go for "Theres nothing [to thank] for" with the first one which I feel falls closer to the logic of Nie ma [dziękować] za co. The second one I'd translate is "Here's what we have" so logically it's a "we have something" as in a solution or a plan and the tak: is more used as an introduction to a list of what we have so far. As to "Myśleć o niebieskich migdałach" "niebieski" uses the old meaning of the word meaning, which was "heavenly". The almonds were a delicacy around XVth century when they appeared in Poland, so they were also used to describe something as a delicacy, special treat. Heavenly delicacies were something extremely rare that you could only dream about, so the phrase used to mean "to dream about something, to daydream".
I think the term "nie ma za co" will make sense to you if you just remember that it refers to giving thanks to you by someone. You could say "nie ma za co dziękować" and it will mean the same thing (although saying it like that can often be followed by an explanation that you actually shouldn't be thanking me as I didn't really do you a favor with whatever that was I did, it might be even quite the opposite) just maybe you more clearly see the intention that someone is happy to help you and doesn't expect anything in return including your thanks ;-)
"Nie ma za co" means "you're welcome", as you said, but to explain for you why it sounds weird for you: Basically when someone says "dziękuję" (thank you) you answear "nie ma za co" which directly means that's there's not for what to say "thank you". I hope that you understood my explanation, English is not my first language hah.
wow You r in Poland 4y 👋. Lots of Poles went to Ameriaca- US in 80's and now lots of American coming to Poland. I am surprise. All the best in my country. I have never been in America - US. I would like to go ..and see lots of nice places. Maybe in the future ...
In Polish language there's no difference in tenses when you speak "I don't drink" or "I'm not drinking". They are the same - "Nie piję". So if you want to express that you don't drink(generally at all) you have to add "never" into the sentence, like "I don't drink, never"(Ja nie piję, nigdy), and you can say that this way and it would be correct. But those are two micro sentences divided by a comma, so we'd rather put the "never" to the beginning of the sentence, making it one simple sentence - "Nigdy nie piję". The "nigdy" being first means that you want to especially emphasize that saying "never" you really mean "never"(not sometimes). The same thing happens when you want to say that you are drinking now. When you say "Piję" or "Ja piję" a Polish person would not have the certainty if you mean "I'm drinking"(like right now) or "I drink"(like your general attitude, maybe you're an alcoholic). So, if you want to say that you're drinking right now, you have to say like "I drink, now" ("Piję, teraz" or "Ja piję, teraz), again it being two micro sentences, so it is better to put the "now" to the beginning of the sentence. This is why we say "Teraz piję" (I'm drinking, now), "Nigdy nie piję"(I don't drink, never),"Wcale nie piję"(I don't drink, at all) "Zawsze piję"(I always drink), "Teraz nie piję"(I'm not drinking, now) etc
When it comes to the word "tak" It has two meanings. Now I'm learning russian and after Initial learning i think in old slavic we had to have 2 separate words for that, like in russian. In russian you have da and tak. Da means yes, though they still use tak in situation Poles would use a different meaning. Example - "tak samo" - means "the same". There many words that come from tak, and they oscilate about the different meaning, like "także", "taki/taka/takie". So bassically it's the other way around - we say "Soo" In place of yes
I want to give you an interesting fact about the city of Krakow and the entire province. You can often hear in Krakow that when you see someone wanting to leave, for example, an apartment or a house outside - when you ask where he is going, you will hear "I'm going to the field". 70% percent of Poles from other regions of Poland, especially the central-north and western regions, will not understand what's going on at first, because they use the phrase ''I'm going to the court''
@mk60mk I heard that about going outside. I don't know where because I've been bouncing all over UA-cam since maybe April. And there seem to be multiple people who would like to teach you Polish in multiple ways and some of them will even get into regional dialect. I really shouldn't have looked at my tablet again tonight... I'm not going to be conscious in the morning, since technically it's almost morning now. Why oh why did I look at my notifications??? Oh joy, Teraz jestem głodna.
Jako Tako - I've not heard that one or the Mamy Tak. Or the Nie w sosie...but the blue almonds and the first one you said - yes - nie ma za co. I think I would translate to myself that as "it's nothing" when replying to someone in Polish. One of the first ones I learned was "Nie mam zielonego pojecia" - I have no idea" or probably better translated - "I have no earthly idea" - which is probably where the earthly (green) part is from. I'm not Polish - but am an American in Poland. I don't know as many expressions like this as I would wish so thanks for these. I know that one expression for not feeling either that great but not terrible is "Tak sobie".
Tak sobie and jako tako mean exactly the same, so-so. Jako tako is heard frequently in some circles, depends what people use more, in other group tak sobie may be common. I do not think that one is more frequently used than the other. You may not hear jako tako often, as it really expresses the middle of emotional spectrum. In fact, Poles are rather bipolar, so if you ask "Jak się masz?" (how are you) they say either "Super" or "Wspaniale" (great) or they would express total discontent. Often using powerful expressions that I cannot repeat here. We are not a so-so nation. Nie mam zielonego pojęcia is I have no idea whatsoever - I do not think there is anything earthly implied. It just sounds funny and underlines the fact that the speaker has no idea. Whatsoever.
Sarah is under the impression that ‘tak’ in Polish always means ‘yes’. She either forgets or doesn’t know that ‘tak’ more often means ‘so’. E.g.: ‘nie tak szybko’ doesn’t mean ‘not yes fast’ but ‘not so fast’.
@Pat Ludwa You must have taken a look only at the beginner level Polish language courses where they want to keep things as simple as possible and avoid confusing people unless absolutely necessary. I am saying this because there is no way to say in Polish ‘so well’ (or ‘so’ followed by any adverb) without using the word ‘tak’.
@Pat Ludwa For some reason I thought that you were disagreeing with me. After re-reading your comment, I agree with what you said. Sorry!
Something is no yes😉
@@ikskaD That’s a good one! 😀
@@ikskaD OMG SO TRUE I needed a second to decipher it and I am Polish myself, the translation problems goes two ways XD
First one is maybe easier to understand if I explain it this way:
- Thanks (Dzięki)
- You are welcome (Nie ma za co) [you HAVE NOTHING you can thank me FOR] - with big letter i marked words which are really used ^^
For some reason it reminds me of the French "de rien." I couldn't quite translate that exactly, the second word of course is easy.
When I see "nie ma za co", My brain translates it as "It's nothing" which is a common response in English. Then again, decades ago, before the internet, when I tried learning from books, it seems I learned the opposite of jest (meaning there is) is nie ma (obviously, there isn't.) And I could be wrong in that explanation. But I think the book was going a step further and attempting to explain where to use the genitive case or something like that. Yes, I was ambitious when I was 26 ;) But not as much as you might think. What I thought first was maybe like some of my friends I could learn Russian. That would be very exotic in 1985 before the fall of the Iron Curtain when we had no idea what it was like over there, except that it wasn't good. But then fortunately I caught a look at the Cyrillic alphabet and decided that no, definitely not Russian. A while later, I noticed my coworker trying to teach my boss some words in Polish - I never knew why and never thought to ask - but it sounded like Russian. Of course Slavic languages sound similar but what did I know? I was young. I had only gone to high school. I lived in the US. And of course I had no idea what a Slavic language was. In school we had first French and then Spanish, Latin, and German. I had no desire to learn Latin or German. Funny thing about the Latin: It has five cases. I didn't know what they were but I certainly didn't want to learn them and here I am now, with seven. Perhaps first I should learn some more nouns and verbs. Like for example someone's use of the verb explain which looks very much like translate. Thankfully, UA-cam will translate. But before I Hit that button, I try to figure it out for myself. And of course this is just reading. If I was listening to somebody actually speak I probably would be totally lost.
Back in the '80s I gave up after 10 months of banging my head against the wall. It was the prepositions that sent me off the deep end. I have a thought that if there had been a course in high school, it would have been easier. There would have been a lot more exposure. Our teachers always spoke to us in whichever language they were teaching. And we had class 4 days a week most of the time. On my own I had no classes and four different books with four different approaches. I can understand why they took different approaches. It is not the pronunciation of Polish which is difficult!
@@pamelajaye i didn't read the whole thing but "it's nothing" Is a pretty good Translation of "nie ma za co". Also when it comes to pronouciation - e has a different sound in polish, image "beeee" a sound that a sheep would make
@@risist4502 It's possible I don't listen to a lot of sheep :-) I thought the e was sort of "eh" like when you don't care or something isn't so great. I had some trouble with it at first because after all that Spanish I was pronouncing it ay (yeah it's hard to explain sounds across languages. But sort of like The Fonz. My coworker corrected at least that error pretty quickly. Beyond that she thought I was kind of hopeless.
But now we have the internet. My sz may still sound like my si (because I really can't hear the difference - and that is something that somebody on Instagram was asking about so maybe I will bring it up.)
Also, thanks :-)
Nie ma za co is literally like Spanish DE NADA. CLoser to 'forget it" than "you are welcome' in literal sense, but you can use also "that's nothing" in English. However general usage is that of You're welcome - Nie ma za co is pretty idiomatic.
Nie ma za co. - It's nothing. / No reason for (a thank you).
Proszę bardzo. - Your welcome.
You are welcome. - Witamy. / Zapraszamy (do środka).
Proszę, zapraszam do środka. - Please, I invite you inside. / Please, come in.
It's insane that one can use some phrases the whole life never even thinking about how absurd they are. This "outside perspective" is so refreshing :)
As for "Nie ma za co", yes in general it means "you're welcome", but usually there is some implicit part depending on what you responds to with this phrase. Two most common situations will be to respond with this for "sorry" or "thank you". Examples:
-Dziękuję [Thank you]
-Nie ma za co [there is nothing to thank for]
-Przepraszam [I'm sorry]
-Nie ma za co [there is nothing to be sorry about]
About "mamy tak", I think that the situation you described translates to: Mamy "tak" [We have an agreement/We have a "yes"]. TBH It's not that commonly used, and the meaning of this phrase itself depends very much on the context.
For "jako tako", even translating literally it is not "how yes". "Jako [as]" is not the same as "jak [how or like (i.e. like an eagle)]". And "tako" is not the same as "tak". It's meaning is closer to another Polish word: "takowy" [like a / such a]. So what we have here literally translates to "as such". It's mostly used for describing medium quality value. Examples:
-Jak się masz? [How are you?]
-Jako tako [so-so] (BTW. isn't "so-so" hilarious itself?)
-I udało mi się to *jako tako* naprawić [And I've managed to fix it *good enough*]
you say absurd, I would rather say shortcut.
Przepraszam [I'm sorry] / Dziękuję [thank you]
are shorter forms for:
Przepraszam za (coś) [Sorry for sth] / Dziękuję za (coś) [Thank you for sth]
because if you think of it: you always thank or sorry For something - in most cases you just don't need to formulate what it was because context of the situation does it for you.
But the answer "Nie ma za co" [there is nothing to be sorry or to thank for] addreses this cause.
It's a polite way to say that: That (unformulated) reason you are sorry/thankful for is so tiny that not even worth reacting this way. So treat it "as nothing happened".
"mamy tak" / "my tak mamy" / "tak jest" / "tak było" / "tak się zdażyło" / tak się złożyło"
TAK in polish has two meanings first is dominant, means YES
second meaning appears only is some expressions and is kind of equvalent to "this / that/ these" - indicators that in polish do not exist in such direct form, so instead we use TAK is this indicator or determiner.
"mamy tak" full version "My tak mamy" can be translated as "we do things this way" or "that's the way we act" or "that's how we...
"tak jest" = That's how it is
"tak było" = that's how it's happened / (or in general context) that't how it used to be (in the past)
"tak się zdażyło" = well, things happens (this way) / this just happened to happen (not my intention or I did not want it to happen)
"jako tako" - again, "tak" in a second meaning, as indicator but with "tako" - old polish version
book title example: Tako rzecze Zaratustra = Thus Spoke Zarathustra
@@bogna8877 zdarzyło pisze się przez rz
@@beatamichalska6220 tak, moja wina, nie zauważyłam
@@bogna8877 I would even say that the meaning “so” is the first, if you compare the Polish language with other Slavic languages. For example in Russian “tak” means “so” while “da” means “yes”.
too confusingly academic for the starters and irrelevant for straight non-idiomatic communication @@bogna8877
As for „blue almonds” - in polish, adjective „niebieski” comes from the word „niebo” = sky (so „niebieski” as a colour means the colour of the sky = blue)
BUT !
„niebo” in Polish means also „heaven”, which is different in english where sky and heaven are separate words.
„Niebieski” in „myśleć o niebieskich migdałach” stands for heavenly / of heaven, not blue. Almonds on the other hand stands for some rare and special delicacies (which is what almonds used to be some centuries ago)
Another example is „królestwo niebieskie” which means „the kingdom of heaven” not „blue kingdom”
So „myśleć o niebieskich migdałach” means „to think (dream) about heavenly delicacies”, which makes the actual meaning in polish more clear for english speakers.
A żeby było jeszcze weselej (dla uczących się języka polskiego), to jest jeszcze słowo "niebiański". :)
Co do "myślenia o niebieskich migdałach" to ma jeszcze inne znaczenie, niż "rozmyślanie o rzeczach nieziemskich (pięknych)". Wyrażenie to stosuje się również, gdy ktoś wykazuje brak skupienia na tym, co ważne: "Skup się! Są rzeczy do zrobienia, a ty ciągle myślisz o niebieskich migdałach!"
If anyone would say 'mamy tak', I would expect a list of things, eg.
mamy tak: ziemniaki, sałatkę...
on the other hand, as a sum up, we use 'mamy to'.
like:
ziemniaki - checked
sałatka - checked
...
mamy to!
jako tako - 'tako' rather comes from 'taki', which means, more or less, 'like that', it's not a 'yes' with the extra 'o' ;)
Thanks fo the effort you put into learning polish and keep up the good work :)
I've never heard the expression "mamy tak". It sounds like something is missing here. Are you sure it's not "mamy to [, tak]?" (do we have it [,yes]?) or "mamy tak + smth", for example. "mamy tak samo?" (do we have [something] which is basically the same thing?).
I think you're confused with "tak", because this word has more meanings.
It could also mean "so" if you want to emphasize something. For example:
"I tried so hard" = "Starałem się tak bardzo"
"It's so hard to live here" = "Tu żyje się tak ciężko"
It could also mean "way" or "in this way". "Zrób tak" - "Do it this way". Or "tak to trzeba zrobić" - this is the way you should do it".
And also it could show that two things are similar.
For example, "też tak mam" means "I'm like that, too." or "I have the same".
In comparison to the most common meaning of "tak" which is "yes", the other meanings should be conjugated, ex. "Ona jest taka mądra!" - "She is so smart!" or "On jest taki wysoki" - "He is so tall".
Super to wytłumaczyłeś! Chciałem o tym napisać ale nawet po polsku brakowało mi słów ;) żeby podać każdy przykład.
Small correction to the last section (about comparisons): not “conjugated”, but “inflected”. Conjugation is an inflection of verbs, an inflection by persons, tenses, and so on.
Maybe "mamy to" - we have it..
Samo wyrażenie "mamy tak" użyte bez rozwinięcia albo wstępu rzeczywiście nie ma sensu.
Yup, exactly, "tak" has more meanings. It's something like a custom answer for "how"(eng)="jak"(pol). It's like when-then, where-there, how-(dunno, "like that"?). In polish it's kiedy-wtedy, gdzie-tam, jak-tak. And "tako" is always this sort of thing, it's never a synonym of "yes".
Btw. "Jako" means "as" in english, when you say that something could be seen as something else, like "you see learning polish as a painful thing" = "widzisz naukę polskiego jako coś bolesnego".
And "Nigdy nie jeżdżę"= "I never drive", but what you say Sarah sounds kind of close to "nigdy nie jedzcie" = "don't ever eat".
If you live in Poland already 4 yrs, you know that it doesn't mean I have bad intentions when I'm correcting you, but rather something else - I find it impressive that you learn our language, I wish you the best, and I want to support you :)
“Nie ma za co” means “there’s nothing to thank for”😊
,, i feel train to you" xD
Lol
thank you from the mountain xD
Do not pretend to be a Greek
😂😂😂OMG this killed me😂😂😂
Jest jeszcze ' nikt nic nie wie "potrójne zaprzeczenie 😜😀
that's just pure Italian - 'nobody knows nothing'
Nigdy nigdzie niczego nikomu nie zdradziłem - 5xnie
Czeski film
noone nothing no know XD
@@sonicbull7276 In polish it's nobody doesn't know nothing
My favourite Polish sayings (that I actually use and most of which are nonsensical when directly translated to English), among others include: - Nie udawaj Greka. - Jajo mądrzejsze od kury. - Indyk myślał o niedzieli, ale w sobotę łeb mu ścięli. - Musi to na Rusi, a w Polsce jak kto chce. - Gadał dziad do obrazu, a obraz do niego ani razu. - Wart Pac pałaca, a pałac Paca.
The saying about the turkey is excellent 👌👍
Brać nogi za pas - zmiatam stąd - I * bombki strzelił...
to piękny język jest :)
Wart Pac pałaca, a pałac Paca; Pac worth a palace, and Pac's palace. In the 17th century, Pac was one of the magnates. It's the equivalent of a prince in GB. Of course, he must have had a suitably rich palace. Hence the saying.
@@yabu8523 Interestingly, it may have a positive or negative meaning, depending on context.
@@benwars9524 Of course.
Also, I think a way to make sense of “nie ma za co” is to think that basically what you’re saying is like someone thanks you and you say “there’s nothing (to thank me for)” and that part in brackets is implied in “nie ma za co”
Exactly, it's always in the context of "thank you" - "there is nothing to thank me for" with "thank" being implied. And when someone opens the door for you and says "nie ma za co", they are just being facetious as they suggest you should have thanked them in this situation.
As a translator of the PL/ENG language pair, you are correct. English has the biggest lexic in the world but Polish is pretty unique to its own. Eng to Pl? Nope. Pl to Eng? Easy. I do both. English is Germanic, Polish is Slavic, I struggle every translation but I have been doing this... pushing 18 years and counting. Great words, thank you. I could never express this as you just did, Creator. Thank you. edit: I am trilingual, English, German and Polish. Fun fact: alternately to the blue almond part you can say: "Chodzę z głową w chmurach.": I am walking with my head in the clouds. It's the same, a bit older. It literally means my body is grounded but my mind is separated and wandering the clouds :).
Yeah, I must agree that translating Polish to English is quite difficult, it's much easier to translate English to Polish (and you could even do it in multiple ways). For instance, let's get some kind of an absurd phrase like "Mój kot nie potrafi gryźć kości." It could be translated to "My cat cannot/is unable to/won't chew/eat/gnaw/ bones" each of this resembling the original meaning.
For me, as a native speaker, it's natural to easily translate something from eng to pl since I am aware of multiple contexts in which given phrase could be translated.
By the way, I guess that "Z głową w chmurach" and "o niebieskich migdałach" is quite similar in literal meaning. I was unaware until I read a comment here but indeed "niebieskie migdały" could be translated to "heavenly almonds" not "blue almonds" but if you reffer to a heavenly you usually refer to niebiańskie or write "Niebieski" with a capital N to differentiate between a dimension (plane? State of being? Could you really refer it to an another dimension?) and a color.
Spróbuj nagrać film po Polsku, nawet jeśli miałabyś wpisywać każde zdanie w google translate, i powtarzać wymowę. Dlaczego?
1.Polacy uwielbiają, gdy obcokrajowcy próbują mówić po Polsku, więc jest szansa że film będzie popularny.
2. Nagrywanie filmów po Polsku to dobra okazja na naukę języka.
Try to record a video in Polish, even if you have to type every sentence in google translate, and repeat the pronunciation. Why?
1. Poles love when foreigners try to speak Polish, so it might become popular.
2. Recording films in Polish is a good opportunity to learn the language.
Po polsku, nie po Polsku, nie ma kogoś takiego jak Polsek, więc nie można niczego po nim robić. Skąd do cholery cięzkiej się bierze ta maniera przerabiania naszej ortografii na angielska modłę?
@@fox570808 z tą ortografią muszę się zgodzić, bo nienawidzę jak ktoś mówi "rasowym polglish'em" ale z pomyłką duża/mała litera bym nie przesadzał
@@tymdo To nie jest pomyłka, tylko plaga ostatnimi czasy. Wtrącanie angielskich słów wszędzie gdzie się da, do tego zupełnie niepotrzebnie i pisanie przymiotnika "polski" wielką literą tam, gdzie nie jest częścią nazwy własnej. Przypuszczam, ze dla słowa "niemiecki" nikt by już nie miał takiego "szacunku".
Dobrze że nawija po angielsku. Dzięki temu mówi o Polsce w języku jej znajomych i subskrybentów. Mówiąc po polsku trafią z przekazem di Polaków którzy wiedzą to co może o polsce powiedzieć a zresztą jak dla mnie jest to motywacja do nauki angielskiego.
Poles are using shortcuts in sentences just like native English speakers. Polish "to nie tak "
is a short cut from "To nie jest tak jak ..." which is similar to English "It is not like that". Which means that someone has wrong idea about something. Polish "Nigdy nie ...." has similar meaning as English " Don't you ever ...". Polish "Nigdy nie pij tego" is similar to English "Don't you ever drink it". Direct translation "word to word" from one language to another leads in most cases to misunderstandings because of different codes specific for each language. We learn these codes in environment of our native language and culture since early childhood. When we enter as adults another environment and culture of foreign language, we are struggling because we don't know its vocabulary and don't understand its codes. For Sarah some Polish sayings don't make sense because she doesn't know their etymology. Consider an example of Polish kids who were born in English language environment and go to preschool and elementary school. They learn English from its very basics level (along with specific codes contained in songs, fairy tales, children literature e.tc.) and soon these kids can correct pronunciation of their parents who learned English as adults.
Exactly, here come Idioms. If someone in Poland would like to literally word for word translate "It's raining with cats and dogs" - it does completely make no sense. In the opposite direction - how would you find it if someone said: it rains like from a bucket (leje jak z cebra)? Some frases just cannot be translated word by word
The one that startled me the first time I realized what it was when someone asked me how much they owed me was "Ile jestem ci winny?" I had learned winny as "guilty". so hearing that the first time and figuring out what they were really saying (how much do I owe you) and it had nothing to do with doing something wrong - then I smiled. The other thing that is so different in Polish is that they say every letter...those double "n's" are said two times. That was so funny to me at first and hard to remember for the first few times.
😅😅😅 I can definitely relate to that!
Another fun fact about Polish is when you want to describe the lack of something, you don't say "there is no ..." or "there isn't any ..." but instead you say "it doesn't have..."
For example:
There is (some) milk in the fridge - W lodówce jest mleko (In the fridge is milk)
There is no milk in the fridge - W lodówce nie ma mleka (In the fridge it doesn't have milk)
That is what my book wanted to teach me. Except I would be sitting there going "okay Which ending do I have to put at the end of milk, now that it is a different case?" (Genitive I think.)
{Also it was like 35 years ago? I gave up, and then when Ukrainians started moving to Poland and showing up on UA-cam I started recognizing words in comments. Yeah that was a long recess.}
But at least it's a longer sentence. Now instead of there isn't any milk, it also isn't in the refrigerator.
I love lodówka. Because it's like lody (ice cream) and then I can understand lód (maybe. Is that ice?) Meanwhile I can't remember the difference between knife and spoon...
@@pamelajaye I think that in pretty much every sentence, when you negate it, the case of the object changes, but I never really thought about it. It just comes naturally to me since it's my first language. I also wouldn't be able to name the cases in English sorry.
I have no idea how "sauce" became "mood" but I like to imagine it like a dry peace of food that suppose to be in sauce but is without one 😆
Exactly, in Polish traditional cusine meat is mostly served with sauce, and dry piece of roasted meat isn't good taste without sauce.
It is similar in english when someone says "we got ourselves into right pickle".
Until very recently the food was hard to keep for a longer time. It was still eatable, to an extend, but very bad in taste. Therefore the invention of such sauces as ketchup, mustard or sos chrzanowy - the problem was world-wide.
Food, especially meat, without sauce was indeed something that could be a show-stopper.
Hello Sarah, I'm Polish. I'm glad you like Poland. The Polish language is indeed one of the most difficult in the world to learn. "Być nie w sosie" is an idiom which translated literally doesn't make sense. On the other hand some idioms are similar in Polish and English, for example, "acid test" and "próba ognia" (fire test). Perhaps since the recording of the movie, you have come across the following examples, but if not, I hope their translation will be interesting for you: 1. Co ma piernik do wiatraka? 2. Mieć węża w kieszeni 3. Musztarda po obiedzie. Have fun!😀
Just because I'm moving to Krakow and planning to live there permanently, I'm already learning Polish language on a mobile application and it's very helpful. Just in two days giving my one hour regularly I've learned a lot, I can even make sentences now in Polish.
That's great to hear!
Zawsze kiedy zaczyna się weekend mówię do znajomych "dobrze, że dziś jest sobota a nie jutro jak wczoraj" ;)
Kradnę
I’m always impressed if someone from abroad come over to Poland and learn our. language. In Japan they are learning Polish to place that ability into their CV. As a hard to know ability.
And for foreigner - especially English speaking - Polish language might be one of the thoughest to learn.
But there is several English speaking UA-camrs who are now having channels focused only on Poland (for example “Rob’s react”.
For Sarah here is two tips- first it’s a time to get the good microphone, as the channel is more and more popular and interesting - there is time to get better sound in it. It will also grind you more audacity.
The second tip- to learn Polish- books, books,books. Most of foreign books on Polish market are translated from English. So most of your favourite books should be already translated to Polish. And reading them in Polish might significantly improve your Polish.
Looking forward for more videos from you. It is always nice to see foreigners knowing our language or history. 😊
I'm trying to find some example using "mamy tak". And the only sensible supposition I came up with:
- Dzień dobry. Czy wszyscy rodzice już przybyli na miejsce?
- Mamy tak, ojcowie nie.
- Good morning. Have all the parents arrived yet?
- Mothers yes, fathers no.
I'v never heard anyone use the phrase "mamy tak" before.
Mayby in a different context not "mamy tak" but "tak mamy".
For example: "my tak mamy i wy tak macie"...
Pisałem już pod.czyimś postem:
Mamy tak w naszym kraju, że lubimy narzekać.....
Mamy tak: śpiwory, dmuchane materace, palnik, żywność etc, potrzebujemy jeszcze namiotu i możemy jechać na biwak.
Jeśli robimy jakieś porównanie np. odpowiedzi z testu i one się zgadzają, powiemy właśnie. MAMY TAK. Więc zdaliśmy.
"Mamy tak" is not about an agreement. It is about what the current situation is or what are the "initial conditions" that we are going to deal with.. The literal translation is "we have so" ("tak" means "so" here), so it means more or less "the situation is this:..." or "we have the following situation:".
Also in "jako-tako", although it cannot be translated literally, the meaning of the word "tako" is closer to "so", not "yes". It's something like "how - so" (somehow ?).
And a classic: if someone in Poland is telling you something "z góry" (lit. "from the mountain") it means just "in advance". This phrase is used by us Poles as a symbol of naive/incorrect English speaking, when a Polish person is not aware that the phrase is an idiom and translates it literally to English : _"I tell you from the mountain"_ :)
Good luck with learning Polish! (That was not sarcasm ;) )
"Mysleć o niebieskich migdałach" would actually be "To think about heavenly almonds" which I think makes much more sense.
I know about "być nie w sosie". It's really old - it comes from the times that it was believed that we have these "juices" inside us that constitute us, ex. Blood, gall etc. And if your mood was off - your juices/sauces were inbalanced. That's where it comes from. And we have other one with sauce here: "kisić się we własnym sosie" it will translate like "be closed" or "keep oneself to yourself". It has negative meaning like not being open minded, be closed, become more and more stiff. While word by word it is "pickle onself in your own sauce" 😄
1. nie rob wiochy -> don't make a village
2. szkło poszło -> glass go
3. wierzę ci -> I tower you
4. zwierzę ci się -> I will animal it to you
5. jadę do Łodzi -> I am going to Boat
6. nie drzyj sie -> don't tear yourself
7. dziękuję z góry -> I thank you from the mountain
8. bez ogródek -> without garden
9. wioska zabita dechami -> village killed by desks
10. czuję do ciebie pociąg -> I feel train to you
11. zapalenie opon mózgowych -> fire of the brain tyres
12. spadek cen -> heritage of prices
13. zbieg okoliczności -> fugitive of circumstances
14. obraz Moneta -> Coin's painting
15. tam jest Opole - there is Oh-field
16. nie mam zasięgu -> I have no reach
17. bardzo mi droga dziewczyna -> very expensive girl
18. wspomnienie lata -> memory of flying/ flying memory
19. wyjść na ludzi -> go on people
20. wysłać go na zakupy -> post him on shopping
21. muzyka poważna -> serious music
22. nie łódź się -> don't boat yourself
23. student zaoczny -> behind eye student
24. porachunki -> after bills
25. odpieprz się -> from-pepper yourself
25. wyskok -> wyjump
26. stopy metali -> feet of metals
27. stare dobre czasy -> good old tenses
28. siatkówka oka -> volleyball of the eye
29. nie zawracaj mi gitary -> don't turn my guitar
30. Prawo Powszechnego Ciążenia -> The Universal Pregnancy Law
31. kolej na ciebie -> rail on you
32. nie mam wyjścia -> I have no exit
33. golnąć kielicha -> to shave a glass
34. cukier w kostkach -> sugar in ankles
35. pociąg do Zakopanego -> a train to the Buried
36. Droga Pani Y -> Road Woman Y
37. pokój z tobą -> room with you
38. w mordę jeża -> in the face of a hedgehog
39. psiakość! -> dogs' bone!
40. złóż to do kupy -> assemble it to the shit
so many interesting phrases!
6:37 yeah, blue almonds make no sense, and i'm saying it as pole, but there's story behind it
the original saying was:
"Myśleć o niebiańskich migdałach" - to think of heavenly almonds
almonds at that time were something rare and delicacy, a rare thing in an unnatural color, so it means to think of something imaginary/non-existent/unrelated to the topic
but because "niebiańskich" and "niebieskich" are very similar, because both of them come from "niebo" - sky (also "niebo" can mean heaven, hence heavenly), so over time it turned into "niebieskich" as it was easier to pronounce
for exactly the same reason we get the impression "królestwo niebieskie" literally meaning blue kingdom even though it means heavenly kingdom
Thanks for sharing!
This was great. Thanks! Loved "jako tako!"
Glad you enjoyed it!
I've never used 'mamy tak' but I definitly use the rest! We have also funny one when we want to ask somebody if is something wrong and we say 'coś nie tak?' which literally means "something no yes'. Hope you will get better in polish, I'm sure you're gonna get the hang of it.
my parents are polish but I live in Australia so I don't know a lot of polish slang, but the first phrase equates to 'No worries", "No problem" is the way I interpret it.
That's wrong. "Nie ma za co (dziękować)" means nothing to thank for ;)
But your interpretation could work aswell I think.
@@duner4105 depends on context. If it would be:
"Thank you"
"No worries"
then it would be Nie ma za co.
Otherwise no worries or no problem would be nie ma zmartwienia, nie martw się, nie ma czym
And, BTW Nie ma za co is not slang. It is a high language.
It's hard to explain some of this phrases.
- Nie ma za co = No need to thanks for,
- Mamy tak ~ We've got it. Meaning of this phrase depends of context.
- Jako tako = So, so. This phrase is a quite new in Polish (neologism).
- Nigdy nie (robię tego). I heve never (do this). Double negatives is common in "satem" languages (Slavic, Baltic).
- Myśleć o niebieskich migdałach. "To think of blue almonds". It's a typical idiom. It means, somebody waste his time thinking about unrealistic things.
- Być nie w sosie. Another polish idiom. You explained it very well.
Another polish idioms/phrases.
- Czuję pociąg do ciebie - "I feel pulling to You".
Perhaps "I feel drawn to you"? It's kind of old fashioned but I used to hear it on Ally McBeal - *a lot*. Google translate came up with attracted to you, so that's similar. It's definitely something that you would like to know is a figure of speech or idiom because otherwise you would be like "what train? Where?" :-)
I think in the past 30 years I've forgotten about idioms... Spent all my time speaking English unless I was around someone whose first language was not English. Then I also spoke English but I tried to speak it more simply. I believe National Public radio does their broadcasts in Simple English. Maybe not. But it's definitely different from what I am used to hearing in the other places. And yet, it's English. Well, American English.
Jako tako to nie neologizm
@@pamelajaye That is not an idiom. It has nothing to do with "train" either. The word "pociąg" literally means "inclination, propensity" just like "przeciąg" means "draft".
Your channel is so interesting to me as my native language is Polish but me and my brother are practically bilingual because of bilingual schools and honestly, the mixing up of structures and stuff like translating sentences straight from one language to the other is very common 😅 It’s the bane of our Polish teachers, who despite teaching native students have to keep explaining that some sentences we write in their assignments are NOT correct over and over again LMAO. So like, aside from obviously incorrect translations, I wouldn’t worry too much about using more English-like structures because everyone will still understand (and thankfully Polish sentence structure is pretty flexible either way)
haha I can appreciate that. Thanks for watching!
the last two are typical examples of idioms, which can't be directly translated, same thing is in English:)
1. Myśleć o niebieskich migdałach or 2. być nie w sosie -these phrases we use very rarely. The first one only my mother used to talk to me when i didn’t listen her, the second phrase I mostly found in the books.
It used to be more popular, but it's not anymore.
My dad would yell at me to stop thinking about blue almonds and get to work lol
Personally I still use nie w sosie, so I guess it depends on the region or people you hang out with~
Those are figures of speech. In English the same applies. If you dissect figures of speech used in English they also don't make sense.
@@wsciekypies7216 Exactly what I was planning to say 😀 Both figures of speech and idioms cannot be translated literally.
"nie być w sosie " (to be in a bad mood- from google translator ) is a reference to an emotional situation when one is about to have a bad day: a bad day or someone's emotionally bad mood. it has a few other uses but mainly we Poles use it in this context.
It sounds like the English phrase "I'm not in my element".
I drew a poor parallel. It's more like "feeling under the weather" or "not feeling a hundred percent".
That's a great video. Love it😂
Thanks 😆
"Bob's your uncle" ;)
''tak mamy'' (refers to some habits, sometimes irritating ones) or ''mamy to'' (when you've achieved/finished doing sth important) not ''mamy tak'' - it doesn't make any sense. We sometimes say ''mamy tak:'' and then enumerate some things. E.g. Mamy tak: lettuce, cucumbers, oil, salt. We can make salad.
Yeah, I guess this one is quite unusual
Instead of Jako Tako I use Może Być
that's a good one!
As Polish person, I never used "mamy tak" expression (in the meaning you talk about). And I live in Kraków. Maybe a copy from AGT show.
So interesting! Yeah, all of our Polish teachers say "mamy tak" as well as our Polish friends and classmates. I've asked them to clarify and they all say that they mean to say "mamy tak". So I don't know...I'm just going based on what I've heard!
@@SarahAchleithner Don't you just love it? Some things do tend to be in groups or in different parts of Poland - probably eventually spreading to the whole.
@@SarahAchleithner mamy tak tak się mówi. Kiedy sprawdzamy jakieś odpowiedzi między grupami uczniów i oni mogą powiedzieć - mamy tak. To znaczy tak, jak pani kazała, tak jak wzór,,wg którego mieli zrobić. To jest krótka, bardzo krótka informacja ich efektów.
@@SarahAchleithner oczywiście są też i inne sytuację, żeby powiedzieć - mamy tak-
Chodzi o wszelaką zgodność z czym się porównujemy. Mamy tak to jest krótka forma od - mamy tak samo,czujemy tak samo, zachowujemy się tak samo, reagujemy tak samo i gdy inni o tym opowiadają, i ty tak samo czujesz możesz powiedzieć. - mam tak, też tak mam, lub liczba mnoga mamy tak, też też mamy tak. Oczywiście szyk można zmieniać mamy tak, tak mamy.
'mamy tak' is a new expression in Polish language. I never heard of it when I grew up in Poland years ago.
Still nobody heard it.
A czy słyszałaś kiedykolwiek, że może być cicho jak makiem zasiał ?
I've never heard "mamy tak" before. In the situations you described we use "mamy to", very colloquial way of saying "we have an agreement". The problem with learning any language, actually, is we tend to translate it to our native language e.g. you hear something in Polish, then translate it to English in your head 1 to 1, you think about how to answer (in English) and then you translate it to Polish and speak. This way you often sound weird or use wrong expressions. You need to learn to think in Polish (or any other language you learn). This is how I learned English and spoken Russian (can't write it unfortunately, mostly use it at work only, anyways) and that's how I'm currently learning Japanese. Good luck with your Polish.
I think the best way to think about the word "tak" in Polish is that it defines a state of being, something that is so. For example in English one person would ask "like this?" The other says "yes". In Polish one would ask "tak?" The other responds "tak". Think of saying "yes" in Polish as saying "it is so". In the case of "mamy tak" it would be like saying "we have this situation" or "this is the way things are". Again you are affirming a state of being. A police interrogator in English might say "here are the facts" in Polish he could say "mamy tak".
Nie ma za co (dziękować) - it means when someone thanks you for something like opening the door you reply "nie ma za co (dziękować)". In USA you say "you welcome" while we say "you don't have to be thankful for it" but we use the phrase "nie ma za co (dziękować)". No need to be thankful. It was a pleasure to open a door for you. That's the meaning.
"Nie ma za co" is short version of "nie ma za co mnie przepraszać/mi dziękować" which means "there is no reason to apologise/thank me". But we do not say this last words "apologise/thank me", so literally it doesn't make any sense if you hear only "there is no reason".
I am honestly flabbergasted by "mamy tak". There is "mamy to!" - "we got it! " and "my [już] tak mamy" - "that's [just] how we are", but "mamy tak" sounds like some sort if misunderstanding. Anyway, great video, thanks
!
English speakers when they directly translate polish sentences: 🤖👽😸😣🙁🥳🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
Hahaha so true
In Poland we have jokes about "thank you from the mountain" what would be the direct translation of Polish "z góry dziękuję".
Of course real translation is "thank you in advance".
The phrase "nie ma za co" has pretty simple genesis, I think... All polish words, such as dziękuję (thank you), przepraszam (I apologise), proszę (please) are gramatically verbs, so it can be translated this way, i.e.:
- dziękuję (I am showing my gratitude)
- nie ma za co (there is nothing for)
Simply saying, that's phrase used when you want to be polite :)
Nie ma za co (dziękować),
Nothing to thank for.
we also say "masz muchy w nosie" - "you have flies in your nose"....which means you're upset
🤣🤣🤣
Fraza "nie ma za co" oznacza ona, że osoba mówiąca nie uważa, że należy się jej podziękowanie lub wdzięczność za coś, co zrobiła. W praktyce jest to odpowiedź na "dziękuję" i można ją porównać do angielskiego wyrażenia "you're welcome" lub "don't mention it".
Some of these phrases are quite old, it makes sense that they are in textbooks. But what we use IRL is more, like, slang?
"Nie ma za co" translates very well to Spanish "no hay de que"
Literally it means "there's nothing to thank for"
With "nie ma za co" it's basically all a shortening.
Situation:
I: **I hold the door for you**
You: "Dziękuję (za przytrzymanie drzwi)" - "Thank you (for holding the door)"
I: "Nie ma za co (dziękować)" - "There is nothing (to thank) for"
In other words "my action was so small it's not worth thanking for".
"Nie ma za co" makes perfect sense. Somebody thanks you, and you resond "there's nothing [to thank me] for". Jako-tako doesn't come from "tak" as "yes", but from "taki/taka/takie" as "such". So jako-tako literally means "how? [in] such [way]".
I moved to the US when I was 14 with barely knowing any English.. For the first 2-4 years I had lots of trouble speaking with people.. Lot's of times I didn't understand what was said, and had to ask "what" like 5 times sometimes - at times I just went on and ignored what was said because I simply didn't understand.. I'd recommend not speaking English at all, if you want to learn Polish - or any other language - it's the best way. For those weird words/phrases that don't make sense - you just gotta get used to them and the meaning behind them, not the actual words. This way you should be able to hold a pretty decent conversation within a few months.. GOOD LUCK! ❤❤
PS. "Jako tako" and "Nie jestem w sosie" aren't very commonly used phrases - but of course they do make sense. Like I said it's important to start speaking with locals in Polish, and over time you will naturally pick up more phrases/words that aren't maybe super obvious that you learned them at school.
The words you're learning will be enough for you to say whatever you want, but you need to put in the effort to get out there and practice the language in person.
Your brain is unconsciously learning all the time, even if you don't understand something. Some things will somehow click out of the blue.
So yeah, good luck and I'd love to see more videos.
I agree with all that you wrote. I've learned Turkish and I'm pretty fluent in it. I don't pay attention to direct translation and everything is fine. 🙂
@@andrewpienio5361 Yeah, our brains are smarter than we think. They learn while we don't even realize it :)
My mother was of polish parents. My grandfather, born in 1894, emigrated from what was Prussia, a village now called Mary Plock, Poland, back then it was Plock according to his citizenship paper. He was 5 years old at that time. He could not become a citizen until 1935. I have his My grandmother was born in this country. My mom used to speak Polish in her younger days along with her older brothers and next in line sister. Visiing my grandparents, when sitting around the table when they didn't want me to understand something, they would use Polish. Whenever they disagreed, it was done in Polish. My mom went to the 6th grade in a polish speaking school that taught English and the Catholic mass was said in Polish until Pope John XXIII. I never learned how to speak it. Wish I did when I was young. Only thing I can remember is dog's blood and I do not know how to spell it. I was told it was a cuss word. Sounds like sha clef. I appreciate that you posted this. Thank you. Also the comments are enjoyable.
well i know english and polish so yea i know basically everything that you need to know when you are poland i teached english by watching a lot of english videos like yours and i know almost every word in english sometimes i can remember from english but not from poland its weird but i think the best way to teach polish is to just know the basics alfabet and watch a lot of random videos
thanks for the advice!
hi Sarah, great videos, want to mention one saying from the past, still used in my family, using word NO as YES (tak), especially when someone was agreeing with you, my grandparents used it a lot, , and even my mom still does it, when talking with me or other relatives, another one about mamy tak, we used to say tak jest, when acknowledging or agreeing or confirming something, many different situations, , looking forward to more videos, btw i grew up in Katowice, back when the times were very different, was exposed to local silesian accent, very different, i am sure some still use it,
Thanks for sharing!
1/3 As for double negative, the most surprising thing is that, under a certain condition in Polish, you can negate with a doubled "tak" (yes). If someone says something you don't agree with, you can reply: "tak, tak..." (yes, yes...) but provided that the ironic context of your answer is clear to those listening.
2/3 Just as you are surprised by the double negation in Polish, I used to be surprised by its absence in English. Well, because what sense does a sentence make: "I have nothing."? After all, you can only have that which exists, which is therefore something and not nothing.
3/3 As for "niebieskie migdały" (blue almonds), they are no weirder than a "red herring", are they?
Serdeczności. Prowadzisz fajny kanał, Saro, szkoda że dopiero teraz na niego trafiłem.
I'm from Poland and it was first time when i Heard "mamy tak", everyone I know use "Mamy to", "We have it/this"
Although "mamy tak" does make a vague sense, loosely translates to "We have it like this:" and there should be followed by a sequence of what we actually have. But when you say examples of use, it idicates that they would be summed up with "mamy to" = "we've got it", "we've come to conclusion", and raw translation is similar "We have it"
In Polish we've lost the original Slavic word for 'yes', which was probably 'da'. Instead, our ancestors began using 'tako', itself a shortcut of the phrase 'tako jest', meaning 'it is like that', 'exactly'. The adverb 'tako' links to the adjective 'taki', meaning 'so', and to the interrogative adverb 'jako?', Later on, both 'jako' and 'tako' dropped the final 'o'. Another confirmative verb is 'ano', typically shortened to 'no', and this one may be called THE real 'yes'.
"dziękuję z góry" - thank you from the mountain (thank you in advance)
"z gory" can also mean from above, thank you from above, hence "in advance"
@@Aogi_9 ah!
@@Aogi_9 nie psuj zabawy!
I'm Polish and English is my second language.
'Nie ma za co' is basicallly a mental shortcut. In my region, it's almost exclusively used in this sense: 'There is nothing to thank me for' (Nie ma za co [mi dziękować]).
'Mamy tak' is weird because I heard a different version of it more frequenly and I myself use it only in this sense: 'Mam tak samo' (it's something along the line of 'The same is true for me'). Which is to say that 'tak samo' roughly means 'the same' or 'same here'.
'Jako tako' is a totally colloquial term. You'll never hear it in a formal situation. The descriptive version of it would be something like: 'alright, but not amazing'. For example: 'Jak się czujesz?' (How are you feeling?) - 'Jako tako' (I am feeling alright, but not amazing.) Furthermore, I believe that 'jako tako' is so popular because it's a rhyme.
'Nigdy nie', or rather the phenomenon it stands for, is related to the emotional side of the Polish people. Double negative arguably exists because it appropriately conveys the state of emotions of Poles. I don't know if it makes sense, but it's directly related to how the Polish language evolved over centuries. The linguists say it does make sense when you delve into the mechanisms of the language.
'Myśleć o niebieskich migdałach' is the same as, if I'm not mistaken, 'woolgathering' in English, which means being absent-minded. It's more common to hear 'bujanie w obłokach' which means the same thing. 'Bujanie w obłokach', when translated word-to-word, is 'rocking in the clouds' which, I guess, sounds weird for an English native.
'Być nie w sosie' has its etymology in old beliefs. They say it's related to what our ancestors believed to course through the body of a human being. According to the beliefs, four types of liquid course through our bodies, one of them being said sauce (or 'sos'). This stuff even sounds stupid, but again, beliefs tend to be odd from today's perspective.
One more thing, 'tak' doesn't always mean 'yes'.
In germanic languages You can create nouns by adding two other to itself. In English is nowdays more american habbit since british have more loanwords, for instance from french.
In slavic languages nouns are created from word-formation root. In western slavic branch, root is usually marked in spelling, therefore in polish both ,,RZ" and ,,Ż" sounds the same.
RZ and Ż only now sopund the same, historically those wre two different sounds. But it was ages ago.
@@gliderfan6196 Duh.. just like Ó used to be long O.
I believe in czech both sounds for ż(ž) and rz (ř) are preserved.
I just wanted to ask a question that is not linked to the video but maybe material for the future one.
What are the things that you like to do in your free time if you stay in the city? Do you find Krakow entertaining enough?
Great questions! I work a full time job from home, so the weekends are usually spent doing errands, cleaning, and other adult daily life activities. But when we do venture out into the city, I find there is a lot to do here! There are so many restaurants, bars, cafes, and outdoor activities (like hiking, biking, running, etc) that you can do in the area. But when I'm not adventuring, traveling, going out, hanging with friends, or being active, I LOVE reading a good book!
Sarah, much sense in polish sentences is I wouldn't say hidden, but well, default. "Nie ma za co" is reaction for "dziękuje", and means "nie ma za co dziękować" (there is nothing to be thankful for" but the context is so obvious, that everybody says just " Nie ma za co".
"Nie ma za co" is strictly connected with "dziękuję". It's like: "ther's nothing to thank about", "don't mention"
actually it's not so complicated as 1) nie ma za co means 'there is nothing to thank for' = 'no problem', 2) mamy tak means 'we have such@ as 'tak' translates to 'yes' as well to 'such'
Small but usful tip for spelling / reading polish letters. Lern Millitary style spelling / callsigns. U knew Alpha Beta Ceta. Polish letters mostly sound like those callsigns so letter "e" sounds more like in word "Echo" and letter "i" is more like english "e" and sounds like a word "iguana". I hope this tip will help you learn faster.
i have a hard mission try to say polish
tongue breaker :wyrewolwowany rewolwer wyrewolwował wyrewolwowanego rewolwera
😲😲😲😲
Not all phrases are so commonly used, but in generally yes, we use them. Let me try to explain some of the phrases.
"Nie ma za co" - It is shortened sentence "Nie ma za co dziękować" that shortened become a phrase on it's own, which you can translate as "There is nothing to thank for".
"Mamy tak" - because "tak" can mean both "yes" and "that" the more correct, but still direct translation would be "We have that". For example:
"Mamy tak, że jemy obiad o 16." -> "We have that we eat dinner at 16."
Other sentence when "tak" means "that" is: "Mówiąc tak tracisz poparcie." -> "By saying that you lose support."
Lastly I would say every language has it's own weird phrases and without looking far english "This is not my cup of tea." We weren't talking about the tea!
Have a nice day everyone!
Jako tako:
Jak, Jaki, Jaka, Jakie, Jako -
1. "How"(How's your day? - Jak twój dzień?)
2. "Like"("similar to" - It looks like a dog - Wygląda jak pies)
Tak:
1. Yes
2. So
So, "Jako tako" means literally "Like so". Easy.
The "o" at the end of the "tako" is added to add some rhyme with "jako", as it is unofficial, slang Polish.
So.. this is my thought on what you said:
- "Jako Tako" means more as "So So" in english. "How yes" isn't the direct translation. more suitable might be "As this". In the dictionary I found "after a fashion" for this also.
- "Nie ma za co" directly means more "No for what". English equivalent is "Don't mention it" or "It was nothing".
- "Mamy tak" isn't any saying and I think you got something wrong here. I never ever heard anything like it. Maybe its "Tak mamy" or "Tak już mamy" which means dir. "This we have" and equivalent is "That's our thing" or "It's our thing".
Hope that helps Sarah
Ok, this is my fourth comment in a row 🙃, didn't mean to flood this section, but you asked for it ;)
There are PLENTY of phrasal verbs that we use. We even learn them at school, because there are so many of them and they literally make no sens, unless you learn their meanings. Yes, we use those aformentioned, "myśleć o niebieskich migdałach", "być nie w sosie", and many many others. However, this isn't something unusuall, I guess, because English has it's own collection of phrasal verbs, so stop 'beating around the bush' and admit it before I 'hit the sack'! 😂
About "Nigdy nie" and other negatives / positives. There is even polish joke which goes something like below:
Prophesor during lectures on philology:
- As you know, there is not only one negation in Polish language. There are double negatives or even double negatives as positives. However, there are NO double positives as negatives.
Then, sleeping student sitting in the last row:
- Okay, okay (dobra, dobra)
I hope you will astonish your polish friends, when they will try to fool you and you will say "dobra, dobra" ;)
- Jak się czujesz?
- Po japońsku.
- Czyli?
- Jako tako.
Sarah, I’m Polish and I’ve never heard anything like “mamy tak” in polish language. I think you misheard this. It’s more like “mamy to” and then it means like we’re all set.
The other thing is “być nie w sosie” which is very uncommon. I don’t know if you meet this phrase in a daily conversation. And it means “to feel blue”.
And btw “to feel blue” sounds weird as well for polish people.
Double negatives in Polish are used for either emphasis or, in the case of nigdy nie, clarifying that something never happened, rather than just didn't happen recently. Nigdy nie can be translated as: 'never have ( I ) ever'. In your example: Nigdy nie jeździłam.' would be 'Never have I ever driven.'
"Nie ma za co" - this etymologically means something like "There's nothing to thank for".
"Mamy tak" - "We have such a situation", "Our situation is this..."
Thanks from the mountain.
"Nice work!" "Wow, that's impressive work." "You are a fast learner." I'm so proud of your effort." "Your effort makes me proud." "Your level of expertise is impressive." "I hope to be as good as you one day." "I'm excited to see what you will do next." Pozdrawiam Grzegorz
dzięki za miłe słowa
"Jako tako" is actually a short version of the whole thing.
Q: Jak ci idzie? / How it's going? (Asking about task)
A: Po japońsku, czyli jako tako. / As in Japanese, about so so.
"Jako tako" sound like something from Japan (Yako Tako - Octopus Yako?)
"Nigdy nie" is something like Never ever.
"Nie w sosie" is like "Not in the mood" or "being upset"
OMG You actually believe jako tako comes from a Polish-Japanese joke?
@@sylwiatime Don't know where it came from. What I know that my grandfather used to say it like that.
As Pole I never heard "Mamy tak" as agreement, I always heard "Mamy to" - "We have it" as agreement, "Mamy tak" is used in different case
for example:
"Czemu twoja rodzina zawsze jeździ wszędzie na rowerach?"
"Nie wiem, mamy tak"
"Why your family always go everywhere on the bikes?"
"I don't know, we have yes" that means something like "We have it like that"
One of famous polish gaming channel did similar experiment. They had translated ( even multiple times ) game titles and were guessing what original title was.And those translated titles were indeed hilarioius.
In my opinion (as a Pole) "nie ma za co" makes a lot of sense. Someone says "dziękuję" and you say "nie ma za co" because something you did was a small favor (like holding the door), so you say „nie ma za co (dziękować)” :)
I'd go for "Theres nothing [to thank] for" with the first one which I feel falls closer to the logic of Nie ma [dziękować] za co.
The second one I'd translate is "Here's what we have" so logically it's a "we have something" as in a solution or a plan and the tak: is more used as an introduction to a list of what we have so far.
As to "Myśleć o niebieskich migdałach" "niebieski" uses the old meaning of the word meaning, which was "heavenly". The almonds were a delicacy around XVth century when they appeared in Poland, so they were also used to describe something as a delicacy, special treat. Heavenly delicacies were something extremely rare that you could only dream about, so the phrase used to mean "to dream about something, to daydream".
I am from Poland and I use every of this without "mamy tak" .
I think the term "nie ma za co" will make sense to you if you just remember that it refers to giving thanks to you by someone. You could say "nie ma za co dziękować" and it will mean the same thing (although saying it like that can often be followed by an explanation that you actually shouldn't be thanking me as I didn't really do you a favor with whatever that was I did, it might be even quite the opposite) just maybe you more clearly see the intention that someone is happy to help you and doesn't expect anything in return including your thanks ;-)
4:00 it's because tak at the end doesn't mean yes
it means :
mamy tak, means literally we have:
Sometimes I love to say in english "something is not yes" which is in polish translation ''coś jest nie tak' xD aka something is wrong
hahahha yes this is also a good one!
"Nie ma za co" means "you're welcome", as you said, but to explain for you why it sounds weird for you: Basically when someone says "dziękuję" (thank you) you answear "nie ma za co" which directly means that's there's not for what to say "thank you". I hope that you understood my explanation, English is not my first language hah.
To be honest, i hear the "mamy tak" first time, and sayings like "być nie w sosie" are known but not used that much anymore
wow You r in Poland 4y 👋. Lots of Poles went to Ameriaca- US in 80's and now lots of American coming to Poland. I am surprise. All the best in my country. I have never been in America - US. I would like to go ..and see lots of nice places. Maybe in the future ...
In Polish language there's no difference in tenses when you speak "I don't drink" or "I'm not drinking". They are the same - "Nie piję".
So if you want to express that you don't drink(generally at all) you have to add "never" into the sentence, like "I don't drink, never"(Ja nie piję, nigdy), and you can say that this way and it would be correct. But those are two micro sentences divided by a comma, so we'd rather put the "never" to the beginning of the sentence, making it one simple sentence - "Nigdy nie piję". The "nigdy" being first means that you want to especially emphasize that saying "never" you really mean "never"(not sometimes).
The same thing happens when you want to say that you are drinking now. When you say "Piję" or "Ja piję" a Polish person would not have the certainty if you mean "I'm drinking"(like right now) or "I drink"(like your general attitude, maybe you're an alcoholic). So, if you want to say that you're drinking right now, you have to say like "I drink, now" ("Piję, teraz" or "Ja piję, teraz), again it being two micro sentences, so it is better to put the "now" to the beginning of the sentence. This is why we say "Teraz piję" (I'm drinking, now), "Nigdy nie piję"(I don't drink, never),"Wcale nie piję"(I don't drink, at all) "Zawsze piję"(I always drink), "Teraz nie piję"(I'm not drinking, now) etc
This is an excellent guide. Dziękuję bardzo.
When it comes to the word "tak" It has two meanings. Now I'm learning russian and after Initial learning i think in old slavic we had to have 2 separate words for that, like in russian. In russian you have da and tak. Da means yes, though they still use tak in situation Poles would use a different meaning. Example - "tak samo" - means "the same". There many words that come from tak, and they oscilate about the different meaning, like "także", "taki/taka/takie". So bassically it's the other way around - we say "Soo" In place of yes
I want to give you an interesting fact about the city of Krakow and the entire province. You can often hear in Krakow that when you see someone wanting to leave, for example, an apartment or a house outside - when you ask where he is going, you will hear "I'm going to the field". 70% percent of Poles from other regions of Poland, especially the central-north and western regions, will not understand what's going on at first, because they use the phrase ''I'm going to the court''
@mk60mk I heard that about going outside. I don't know where because I've been bouncing all over UA-cam since maybe April. And there seem to be multiple people who would like to teach you Polish in multiple ways and some of them will even get into regional dialect.
I really shouldn't have looked at my tablet again tonight... I'm not going to be conscious in the morning, since technically it's almost morning now. Why oh why did I look at my notifications???
Oh joy, Teraz jestem głodna.
bardzo interesujące!
Jako Tako - I've not heard that one or the Mamy Tak. Or the Nie w sosie...but the blue almonds and the first one you said - yes - nie ma za co. I think I would translate to myself that as "it's nothing" when replying to someone in Polish. One of the first ones I learned was "Nie mam zielonego pojecia" - I have no idea" or probably better translated - "I have no earthly idea" - which is probably where the earthly (green) part is from. I'm not Polish - but am an American in Poland. I don't know as many expressions like this as I would wish so thanks for these. I know that one expression for not feeling either that great but not terrible is "Tak sobie".
In Russian people also say "так себе", meaning "so-so".
Tak sobie and jako tako mean exactly the same, so-so. Jako tako is heard frequently in some circles, depends what people use more, in other group tak sobie may be common. I do not think that one is more frequently used than the other. You may not hear jako tako often, as it really expresses the middle of emotional spectrum. In fact, Poles are rather bipolar, so if you ask "Jak się masz?" (how are you) they say either "Super" or "Wspaniale" (great) or they would express total discontent. Often using powerful expressions that I cannot repeat here. We are not a so-so nation.
Nie mam zielonego pojęcia is I have no idea whatsoever - I do not think there is anything earthly implied. It just sounds funny and underlines the fact that the speaker has no idea. Whatsoever.