]]>

British Broadcasting CorporationHome 5u2a19

Accessibility links

Your say - Lost for words 3l126w

Nice ice-cream 256v60

On holiday in Poland, we decided to buy ice-creams. I wanted a chocolate-flavoured one, so I asked the man for a kaka ice-cream. What I should have asked for was kakao, meaning 'chocolate'. Kaka is a slang expression for 'pooh'!

Editor's note: To ask for a chocolate ice-cream in Polish, say Poproszę loda czekoladowego - 'A chocolate ice-cream, please'.

Sent by: Anna

Comments 682840

Flic 2008-04-25

I was so proud of myself for learning the genitive declination, used among other things for negative statements. So when a friend wanted tatanka, a vodka cocktail, 'without ice', I was only too glad to go to the bar and show off my new-found grammatical skills. Only instead of saying 'bez lodu', I asked for it in the plural, bez lodów ... which means 'without ice-cream'...

Flag this comment

Nat P 2007-08-15

Would everyone please look in the comments and notice the case endings (spellings) on the end of the words and how they change. Three genders, singular and plural, and seven cases: Slavic languages like Polish are not easy.

Flag this comment

Monika 2006-11-06

You can also say it in easier way: Jedna czekoladowa proszę.

Flag this comment

Martyna 2006-02-24

You can also say: Lody czekoladowe, proszę. If you want to refer to a scoop: Jedna gałka czekoladowa, proszę.

Flag this comment

BBC navigation 1p2s5i

BBC © 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.