# coś tam



## EdK

A friend of mine in Poland who knows a fair amount of English asked me how I would translate coś tam.  I've never heard this term used before and other than the literal translation of "something there", I don't know of any other translation.  Is it a Polish idiom?  To give some context, the specific sentence that she asked me about is "jeśli będę miała coś tam".


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## Lara.m

You know it's not an idiom... we use it in a spoken language, informal. yes it mean exactly " something there" literally, but we can use it in cause like " Jak znajdziesz coś tam ciekawego, to powiedz mi o tym" " If you'ill have there something interesting, tell me about it" Do you understand, now ?


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## wolfbm1

"Jeśli będę miała coś tam" = if I will have something, anything at all; should I have something, anything at all.
"Coś tam" means whatever, anything at all.


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## EdK

wolfbm1 said:


> "Jeśli będę miała coś tam" = if I will have something, anything at all; should I have something, anything at all.
> "Coś tam" means whatever, anything at all.



Thanks Lara.m and wolfbm1.


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## wolfbm1

It can also mean an unknown, unspecified thing or X. When repeated, 'coś tam, coś tam' can mean 'that, that and that'.


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## Ben Jamin

Actually "coś tam" and "coś" mean almost the same, that is "something". "Tam" is used to make the expression more vague, indefinite.
It can also be used as an euphemism instead of a tabu word. 

Use of "coś tam" makes also the speach more informal, even sloppy. It is never used in formal speech or writing.


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## zapedowski

I believe that while speaking our mother tongues we don't readily recognize idioms. I believe that Lara.m is probably a native Polish speaker and naturally considers coś tam to be a perfectly normal expression, and it is, in Polish. 
When considered from the standpoint of the English language, coś tam when translated literally as something there appears to be idiomatic.


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## Ben Jamin

zapedowski said:


> I believe that while speaking our mother tongues we don't readily recognize idioms. I believe that Lara.m is probably a native Polish speaker and naturally considers coś tam to be a perfectly normal expression, and it is, in Polish.
> When considered from the standpoint of the English language, coś tam when translated literally as something there appears to be idiomatic.


As you can see at her profile, Lara.m IS a native Polish speaker. Native speakers of ALL languages can only seldom give good answers to questions about their native language from foreigners, unless they have reflected upon a particular question and/or studied them in depth or discussed with other people, or are educated linguists. The first, unreflected answer is usually very imprecise, and often quite wrong. The answer "coś tam = something there" is a good example.
It is correct only if one is using it in its literal sense, for example "Widzę coś, tam daleko" (even here the words must be separated by a comma in Polish, and don't really belong to each other). In most other uses "coś tam" is an idiom. I tried to explain the meaning of the idiom in the post #6, but I suppose that this explanation can still be improved or elaborated further.


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## zapedowski

You are correct, Ben Jamin. You refer to post #6.
I would be interested in reading this post. 
Being a newbie I could use an explanation of how to access a post based on a number.
Regards to Bat Smola.


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## Ben Jamin

zapedowski said:


> Young are correct, Ben Jamin. You refer to post #6.
> I would be interested in reading this post.
> Being a newbie I could use an explanation of how to access a post based on a number.
> Regards to Bat Smola.


Just scroll the screen towards the beginning of the thread until you reach post #6.


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## zapedowski

Thank you Ben Jamin, I now realize that I have to be signed in, in order to see the post numbers. I also just discovered that Polish accented characters can be obtained right above the quick reply page. I was copying and pasting. Androids and iPhones have a multitude of exotic keyboards, my computer has none. I find it easier to use a computer as opposed to a phone. Would you know of a site from which virtual foreign keyboards (specifically Polish, Russian and German) can be downloaded for a computer running Windows 7? Are there other pointers useful for newbies such as I? I hate to click "Go Advanced" at the bottom of this page since I am not acquainted with the purpose of this button.
Speaking of idioms, "Dziękuję z góry". "Thank you from a mountain"


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## wolfbm1

zapedowski said:


> Thank you Ben Jamin, I now realize that I have to be signed in, in order to see the post numbers. I also just discovered that Polish accented characters can be obtained right above the quick reply page. I was copying and pasting. Androids and iPhones have a multitude of exotic keyboards, my computer has none. I find it easier to use a computer as opposed to a phone. Would you know of a site from which virtual foreign keyboards (specifically Polish, Russian and German) can be downloaded for a computer running Windows 7? Are there other pointers useful for newbies such as I? I hate to click "Go Advanced" at the bottom of this page since I am not acquainted with the purpose of this button.
> Speaking of idioms, "Dziękuję z góry". "Thank you from a mountain"



Here is some information about the "Go Advanced" button. 

For Polish characters check this.


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## zapedowski

In reference to coś tam and the difference of opinion as to whether an expression is idiomatic or not, see posts #2, #6, #8, The following may shed some light on exactly what is meant by idiomatic:
Polish, German and English speakers will all agree that *"I am"* is not an idiomatic expression, after all, it translates to *"Ja jestem"* and *"Ich bin"*
It is quite obvious that translating this phrase (which is the conjugation of the verb "*to be,"* first person, present tense, singular) between those three languages' verbatim results, produces the same meaning in all three.
When considering *"I am"* from the standpoint of Russian, Arabic or Hebrew we are led to the opinion that it is an idiomatic expression.
Arabic and Hebrew are not Indo-European languages and one may expect them to be different. Russian is a Slavic language closely related to Polish yet while it possesses the word *"to be"* it does not conjugate it. Hebrew has no such word it is simply *"I".
* Considering the word *"am"* from the standpoint of these three languages it is an unnecessary, superfluous and a wholly idiomatic word. Other than grammatically, there is no difference between *"I am cold"* and *"I cold" *The above should make it clear that just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, idioms are in the linguistic hearing of the listener/reader.

I apologize if I detoured from the above thread, I have not yet learned how to start a new thread.


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## wolfbm1

Very interesting comment.
Goethe said that if you do not know another language, you know nothing about your own. Others say that another language is another soul, e.g in Polish it is chmury na niebie an in English chmury w niebie (clouds in the sky). We perceive the sky in two dimensions and the English see it in three dimensions.

I think it is possible to get an awareness of how another language expresses the same reality. Although it may not be easy it is worth trying.

To start a new thread, scroll to the top of this page. You will see: Home -> Forum -> Slavic Languages -> Polski (Polish) -> coś tam.
Click: Polski (Polish)
A new page will open.
Click: + Post New Thread

The topic you would like to discuss may have already been discussed, so use the "Dictionary and thread title search:" box. It is at the top in the middle. Type in the words from the title of your new thread. 
I typed in the word  idioms. I got this:

Dyskusje na forum ze słowami "idioms" w tytule:
Nie ma tytułów ze słowami "idioms"
Zapytaj na forum.
Odwiedź forum Polish.
Dyskusje na forum English Only

I typed 'go for a.'
I got:

'go for a' found in these entries
In the English description:
*take a walk*


Dyskusje na forum ze słowami "go for a" w tytule:
*Go for a low*
*We'll go for a walk as soon as I get home*
Zapytaj na forum.
Odwiedź forum Polish.

It's worth checking these features:
go for a definicja | in Spanish | Angielskie synonimy | w kontekście | obrazy

Dyskusje na forum English Only


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## zapedowski

Thank you very much Wolf, Your explanation is great.


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