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Polish Audio Request

mikebond
56 Words / 3 Recordings / 3 Comments

Auto czy autobus?

Problem komunikacji miejskej istnieje na całym świecie, nie tylko w Warszawie.
Myślę, że budowa wielu linii metra albo linii tramwajowych to najlepsze rozwiązanie. Jeśli to niemożliwe, buspasy są dobrym pomysłem.
Samochód może być bardzo użyteczny, ale prawie nigdy w miastach. Tam trzeba moim zdaniem się poruszać tylko metrem, tramwajem, autobusem... albo pieszo, oczywiście!

Recordings

Comments

sobar
Aug. 9, 2011

Hi, I hope this helps. I wasn't sure if you were more after clarity or natural delivery. I think you might feel it a little too slow and handbook-like if you are really advanced. I think it's useful to note such preference in the request.

The "się" in the last sentence must come after "poruszać, because the whole verb comes after the parenthetical "moim zdaniem" which naturally creates a pause in the flow of the sentence and makes it sort of recommence at this point; obviously, "się porusza" isn't a good sequence for a beginning of clause. It would be different if you said:
"Tam, moim zdaniem, trzeba się poruszać..." -- this is okay, because the sentence is broken into at a different point and the "się" is buffered by "trzeba". Nonetheless, I think that
"Tam, moim zdaniem, trzeba poruszać się..."
still looks more elegant.

sobar
Aug. 9, 2011

I can't aspire to making generalisations or putting forth definitions, but while "się" before the verb often looks (and especially: sounds) a bit more natural in common talk, it's probably safer to put it after the verb in all situations except where the "się" would be the last word in a clause. (… in a clause containing something more than just the verb, to be precise.)

Another thing... okay, maybe I'm a purist, so you can skip this. Anyway,... yes, I can see that this word "buspas" is in use, so maybe it's already been accepted as a viable Polish word. But, to me, it does look and sound awful. Words are not constructed this way in Polish. Sure, we condone some borrowed terms (e.g. "sex-shop") where an alternative would be tough to find or potentially clumsy. But there's nothing very clumsy about "pas autobusowy" or "pas dla autobusów”, at least not in my opinion.

sobar
Aug. 9, 2011

"Buspas" is weird to pronounce, even weirder to hear, and... we don't call the public transport "bus" anyway! -- the primary term is "autobus".

Okay, enough sermonizing :). Good luck with your Polish!

Overview

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