AboutMaciej St. Zięba Expertise I am native Polish and I used to teach Polish to foreigners. I know (passively of actively) more than 15 other languages - so I can answer many questions concerning Polish grammar, pronounciation, spelling, ethymology and usage - as compared to English, French, German, Russian, Dutch, Esperanto or Norwegian. Also questions concerning other Slavic languages, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, or general linguistics, especially scripts (writing systems and transcriptions) - are welcome.
Experience Teaching English and French to Poles, Polish to foreigners, teaching Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan to philosophy students.
Expert: Maciej St. Ziêba Date: 3/13/2008 Subject: pronunciation and definition
Question I'm Polish from the Hamtramck area in Detroit. My great grandma could speak polish but spoke little to me. I moved away when I was 4 and unfortunately had little exposure to the polish language. For starters, I'd like the pronumciation of my own last name: Grzybowski. I pronounce it griz-BOW-ski in a very american way. Also, I remember my grandma saying to me (in english phonetics) "each ta dooma spatch" or something like that... I used to think it meant go home and go to bed...wondering what she really said! :) I always loved her heavy accent!
Thank you!
Answer Hi Rachel
The name should be pronounced "gzhih-BOSS-key". Pronounce "zh" as in "Brezhnev" or as "s" in "leisure", "ih" as "i" in "pit".
The phrase you write me it's most probably:
id do domu spać (idz' do domu spac'), pronounced: [EADJ daw DAW-moo spatch], "dj" like "dge" in "judge", "aw" like in "law".
