# deko



## Wen24

Hi, everyone. 

I was in the market, someone was buying "szynka". He was talking to market staff. I heard "deko" from their conversation.

What is "deko"? And how to use it?


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## Ben Jamin

_Deko _is a weight unit equal to 10 gram. It is short for _dekagram_ (from Greek _deka _= 10).
You use it Poland, almost only in shops where the shop assistants stand behind a counter with foodstuffs sold by the weight.


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## Wen24

Thank you very much.


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## Karton Realista

There is also kilo, from kilogram, you will probably run into that one pretty often.


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## Wen24

what is "that"? What did you want to point? Sorry, I can not understand this sentence well, did you want to tell me I will probably run into "kilo" pretty often?


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## Karton Realista

In short, I wanted to say it's commonly used.
So yes.


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## Wen24

OK, I see.


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## Piotr_WRF

Adding to the discussion, the correct form is _deka_. _Deko_ is used probably in analogy to _kilo_ (note the _o_).


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## Ben Jamin

Piotr_WRF said:


> Adding to the discussion, the correct form is _deka_. _Deko_ is used probably in analogy to _kilo_ (note the _o_).


"Jedno deko, dwa deka" is an established colloquial form in Polish. "Deka" is the correct form in Greek, and of the prefix in "_deka_gram" in the scientific language. You could as well argue that the correct form of kilo is "chilioi".


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## Wen24

Thank you for every comment.


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## Piotr_WRF

Ben Jamin said:


> "Jedno deko, dwa deka" is an established colloquial form in Polish. "Deka" is the correct form in Greek, and of the prefix in "_deka_gram" in the scientific language. You could as well argue that the correct form of kilo is "chilioi".



Weil, PWN disagrees here. It's not that I don't happen to say it sometimes myself but it's colloquial at best and incorrect at worst.


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## Ben Jamin

Piotr_WRF said:


> Weil, PWN disagrees here. It's not that I don't happen to say it sometimes myself but it's colloquial at best and incorrect at worst.


It is a known fact that Polish dictionaries don't recognize colloquial forms and label them all as incorrect. Have you ever heard anybody in a shop asking for "dwadzieścia dekagramów szynki"? If you did, it must have been a language professor.


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## jasio

Ben Jamin said:


> It is a known fact that Polish dictionaries don't recognize colloquial forms and label them all as incorrect. Have you ever heard anybody in a shop asking for "dwadzieścia dekagramów szynki"? If you did, it must have been a language professor.


I speak this way. And I'm neither a professor nor a language scientist. 
But probably I'm the only one in my neighbourhood speaking this way, or one of a few at the best.


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## Ben Jamin

jasio said:


> I speak this way. And I'm neither a professor nor a language scientist.
> But probably I'm the only one in my neighbourhood speaking this way, or one of a few at the best.


Then I guess that you are perceived as a pedant by the people hearing around.

Anyway, the point is that the Polish language is administered by antiquated people that ignore all diversity of the language including formal and informal speech, colloquial and high register, style of language, slang and dialects, and labels everything as simply correct or incorrect.


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## MB

For all it's worth, there's the highly colloquial (and maybe even dialectal?) "(z) deko/deka" phrase, which means _a tiny bit_, as in,
"-Chcesz trochę chińszczyzny?
-No, _z deko_ mogę spróbować./No, _z deko_ możesz mi dać./etc."
.


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