Zuzanna, Zuzanka, Zuza, Zuzia, Zula, Zuzka...

Yesterday, 11th of August, was my name day. My name is Sanna.

I was kind of overwhelmed by the multipotentialism thing yesterday, so I only talked about that in my blog, but I promised to tell you what I did - so here it comes.

I worked with

* lexemes - I worked with my flashcards together with Reverso Context - it makes it easier to understand the word when one sees it used in context, so the cue word on the back of the flashcard becomes just that. It's not the literal translation, but a cue. Also, more writing ;-)

* się and swój

"The reflexive pronoun "się" is of protoindoeuropean origin much like spanish "se", English "self", German "sich" or Swedish "sig"."

http://polishclasses.blogspot.com/2014/08/lets-not-be-afraid-of-swoj.html

"swój" is the Scandinavia "sin" - so, easy peasy :-D

Also, it comes as a suprise to many learning Scandinavian languages to learn that they do have gender - but not masculine and feminine. They used to exist, but "melted" into one, "en", which is "common", while "et" is "neuter"

https://medium.com/@mailmyswedish/nouns-and-gender-e715faefde7f

* some verb work, training present tense

- to be
- to have
- to eat
- to drink
- to want
- to need
- to "can"
- to "must
- to like
- to hate
- to go
- to come
- to read
- to write
- to say
- to know

* CO MOŻE MORZE?

Got my attention, because of this:

* interrogative pronouns

https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/polish-interrogative-pronouns/

co what
gdy when
kto who
gdzie where
czemu why
jak how

* some polite phrases

Most phrasebooks will teach you how to say certain things, like please, thank you, how are you, I'm fine, thank you, excuse me, I'm sorry, pardon, etc. etc.
and all of that is based on the politeness in the author's culture.
In Finnish it is possible to say these things, but... are they being said?

There really isn't a word "please" in Finnish. We have "ole hyvä" (be good, if you could be so kind), which isn't really the same thing, and isn't used the same way either. It's more "here you are", than "please". So, don't learn that. We use quite a lot of "kiitos" (thank you).
Like "kuppi kahvia, ole hyvä" (babelfish translation of a cup of coffee please) gets "er... excuse me, what?" reaction, because that is what the waiter says when he gives you the cup. It's "kuppi kahvia, kiitos".

How about Polish?

"Jak się masz? sounds very stilted, which is why hardly any Pole uses it in everyday speech.
While it’s true that the phrase is one of the most literal translations of “how are you?” into Polish, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it sounds good to the Polish ear. People who say jak się masz? are mostly foreigners… or Poles who just want to sound quirky."

https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/how-are-you-in-polish/

When I started studying Basque, the first thing I learned was "don't use the politeness phrases. The use of those is very prominent part of both French and Spanish, which are the languages of the oppressors, and is like a red rag to a bull to the basque people, kind of saying "I'm with them" and "look at me how polite and better than you I am!".

https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/essential-polish-phrases/

Today, 12th of August, I'm taking it easy. I have done a little bit of Duolingo and a little bit of LingQ and a little bit of Clozemaster.