# the twice-weekly parade has been cancelled



## Hikee

Hello fellow wordreference users,

It's been quite a while since my last visit and I find myself back here with quite a stickler on my hands.

I need to translate this phrase into Polish:

'the twice-weekly parade (has been cancelled)'

I would very much like to avoid the descriptive approach of:

'Parada odbywająca się 2 razy w tygodniu (została odwołana)'

However, I cannot really think of anything else. Any ideas would be much appreciated.


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## dn88

Hello—and welcome (back). 


Hikee said:


> However, I cannot really think of anything else.


Neither can I, and I doubt there's a succinct way of expressing that in Polish. You'll probably have to make do with the descriptive approach.

We do have the adjective "codwutygodniowy" (odd though it sounds) for something that happens every other week, but there seems to be no adjective for something that occurs twice a week...


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## dreamlike

Hi there Hikee,

Like Dn88, I honestly doubt anyone will be able to figure out a way around it.


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## Ben Jamin

dn88 said:


> "codwutygodniowy" (odd though it sounds) for something that happens every other week, but there seems to be no adjective for something that occurs twice a week...



"Codwutygodniowy" sounds like a neologism to me. It is perfectly understandable, but I wouldn't use it in a formal text.


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## dreamlike

It's a word which is oficially recognized by dictionaries, why would anyone object to using it in a formal setting?


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## Ben Jamin

dreamlike said:


> It's a word which is oficially recognized by dictionaries, why would anyone object to using it in a formal setting?


Can you quote in what dictionaries you can find the word?
By the way, there are many words in dictionaries that I wouldn't use in a formal text, either because of their register, or stylistic reasons. 
The word "codwutygodniowy" is a clumsy word, that breaks the Polish tradition of not creating long compound words consisting of many elements.
"Donaudampfschiffgesellschaftsbeamter" might be good German, but woud not make good Polish if translated as one word.


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## dreamlike

Ben Jamin said:


> Can you quote in what dictionaries you can find the word?
> By the way, there are many words in dictionaries that I wouldn't use in a formal text, either because of their register, or stylistic reasons.
> The word "codwutygodniowy" is a clumsy word, that breaks the Polish tradition of not creating long compound words consisting of many elements.
> "Donaudampfschiffgesellschaftsbeamter" might be good German, but woud not make good Polish if translated as one word.


Granted, just because a word is recognized by dicionaries is not an ample reason to use it. Still, I don't share your sentiments as far as the word 'codwutygodniowy' is concerned. Its aesthetic values are indeed low, but at least it saves us the trouble of saying 'odbywający się co dwa tygodnie', as is the case with 'twice-weekly.'. The word 'codwutygodniowy' can be found in the internet version of 'Słownik Języka polskiego', here.


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## Ben Jamin

dreamlike said:


> Granted, just because a word is recognized by dicionaries is not an ample reason to use it. Still, I don't share your sentiments as far as the word 'codwutygodniowy' is concerned. Its aesthetic values are indeed low, but at least it saves us the trouble of saying 'odbywający się co dwa tygodnie', as is the case with 'twice-weekly.'. The word 'codwutygodniowy' can be found in the internet version of 'Słownik Języka polskiego', here.


Thanks for the link, but this is an internet dictionary run by hobbyists. Such dictionaries have a very low threshold for accepting neologisms. I wouldn't be surprised if they accepted "costudwydziestodniowy" too.

 I see also that you partly agree with me. I'd also like to say, that sometimes it is better to.use a longer paraphrase than a word that you don't like, of course if you are concerned with style and esthetics.


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## marrish

Should the meaning of 'codwutygodiowy', whatever it is worth, not be ''happening each fortnight''? I thought 'twice-weekly' was something totally different. That is, forgive my Polish, "dwa razy w tygodniu"?


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## Ben Jamin

marrish said:


> Should the meaning of 'codwutygodiowy', whatever it is worth, not be ''happening each fortnight''? I thought 'twice-weekly' was something totally different. That is, forgive my Polish, "dwa razy w tygodniu"?


You are right, but nobody has claimed that 'twice-weekly'  means the same as 'codwutygodiowy'. 
dn88 wrote: "We do have the adjective "codwutygodniowy" (odd though it sounds) for something that happens every other week, but there seems to be no adjective for something that occurs twice a week..."


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## 676

The word "codwutygodniowy" is a valid word, just as "tysiącdwustuletni" or "ponadsiedemdziesięciokrotnie" would be, and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't find them in a dictionary. They just don't appear very often and may seem somewhat clumsy to some, but I wouldn't find it terribly awkward if I stumbled upon them in a piece of writing.

If you wish to make it just a little bit shorter, you can say

"Parada organizowana 2 razy w tygodniu"

It's still pretty descriptive, though.


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## marrish

Any idea if_ ''dwarazywtygodniowy'' or ''dwarazynatydzieniowy'' _would catch? I don't think it would be any useful but my question is if it can be understood or used under certain circumstances, and under which.


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## Thomas1

Sorry, Marrish, they aren't used. They might be understood, though.


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## Ben Jamin

marrish said:


> Any idea if_ ''dwarazywtygodniowy'' or ''dwarazynatydzieniowy'' _would catch? I don't think it would be any useful but my question is if it can be understood or used under certain circumstances, and under which.


They are not constructed in accordance with the rules of Polish word formation. 
In the first: you cannot add an adjectival suffix to a word in locative (or any other "dependent" case).
We don't form new words just simply adding a suffix to the word "tydzień". The nominative case of this word is a contraction of "ten dzień", and both the dependend cases (ecxept of the accusative) and new words follow the same rules as for the word "dzień", which is using the contracted stem "dń" (dnia, dniu, etc.)


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## wolfbm1

marrish said:


> Any idea if_ ''dwarazywtygodniowy'' or ''dwarazynatydzieniowy'' _would catch? I don't think it would be any useful but my question is if it can be understood or used under certain circumstances, and under which.


 That's not a bad idea. Though awkward, it gets across the message. 
Actually, I found a direct translation of "the twice-weekly event":
"dwa razy cotygodniowa podmiana wody wraz z mechaniczym usuwaniem tych brunatnych nitek, nawozy i wszystko inne bez zmian 
nie byłem na weekend w domu (podmieniam w piątki/czwartki), wracam, a tu czysto 
miałem to samo co Ty, tylko na parvuli, praktycznie nie było jej widać+całe podłoże zawalone" Source: A post of an aquarium enthusiast.

Anyway, English "twice-weekly (event)" is not the happiest combination of words, but it works. Although, I have not been able to find such dictionary entries as twice-weekly, thrice-weekly or three-times-weekly (thing).
I wonder how you would translate "dwa cotygodniowe loty" to English, for example in this sentence:
 Połączenie z Oslo do Fort Lauderdale dwa razy w tygodniu. Norwegian będzie obsługiwać dwa cotygodniowe loty z Norwegii z Oslo Gardermoen do Fort Lauderdale we wtorki i środy. 
Source: Poleć z Norwegian na Floryde.
How about "Norwegian has a twice-weekly service from Norway .... ?


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## głupi

Tak, "twice-weekly service" albo "twice-weekly flight". Ale to brzmi zupełnie naturalnie po angielsku. Nie zgadzam się, że nie jest to "the happiest combination of words".


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## wolfbm1

głupi said:


> Tak, "twice-weekly service" albo "twice-weekly flight". Ale to brzmi zupełnie naturalnie po angielsku. Nie zgadzam się, że nie jest to "the happiest combination of words".


Zaraz, zaraz. Twice to dwa razy, weekly - cotygodniowy, a więc twice-weekly to dwa-razy-cotygodniowy. Po polsku to nie bardzo brzmi. Ciekawe jak w innnych językach jest to wyrażenie tłumaczone. Ale, jak wspomniałem, wydaje się dobrze funkcjonować w języku angielskim. Chociaż, dlaczego mówi się "biweekly television drama" a nie twice-weekly? Z kolei, dlaczego w języku polskim mamy dwutygodnik (biweekly)?


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