# Happy to be your first friend



## katie_here

cześć,

I have a colleague at work who is Polish.  

He has joined Facebook and I'm the first (and only) friend he has.  (I'm sure that will change in the next 10 minutes). 

but quickly, I would like to write him a message that says. 

Welcome to Facebook.  I'm happy to be your first friend.  

He will be very impressed if I write in Polish, as he has his preferred language as Polski. 

Dziekuje!.


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## Amerykańska kobieta

I will take a stab at this, very beginning Polish learner:

Jestem szczęśliwa być twoja pierwsza koleżanka.

This literally translated to:  I am happy to be your first friend.

This is assumes a woman speaking.  There are many words for friends (female in these examples), including koleżanka, znajoma and przyjaciólka.  Not sure which is most appropriate.  The last is for the closest of friends if I learned correctly.

Now I need some correction and how it really would be said.

Ak


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## scarlett_wilk

Hello,

I would agree with what Amerykańska kobieta wrote but I guess more correct sentence would be: "Jestem szczęśliwa, że jestem Twoją pierwszą koleżanką/znajomą." with the capital letter in "Twoją" which is more polite. Although I'd rather say something like this: "Jestem szczęśliwa, że mogę być Twoją pierwszą koleżanką/znajomą."

So the whole message would be: "Witaj w Facebooku. Jestem szczęśliwa, że mogę być Twoją pierwszą koleżanką/znajomą.".


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## katie_here

Thankyou for your help.   If I understand correctly kolezanka is the same as work associate, or colleague.  If so, that's too informal.  Would znajoma be better?


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## scarlett_wilk

Not necessarily, _koleżanka_ can mean both a workmate, colleague, and a girlfriend, someone you know but not well. 
The gradation would be something like that:

_przyjaciółka_ - very close girlfriend;
_koleżanka_ - quite close but not so close as _przyjaciółka_; its also used for describing a person you know from college, work etc., and it's more informal than _znajoma_;
_znajoma_ - someone you know from college (classmate), work (workmate) etc.,

But if you think that _koleżanka_ is too informal because you don't know the person you're writing to too well I advise you to use _znajoma _rather than_ koleżanka_.


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## katie_here

scarlett_wilk said:


> But if you think that _koleżanka_ is too informal because you don't know the person you're writing to too well I advise you to use _znajoma _rather than_ koleżanka_.




Sorry,  my mistake.  I meant too formal!!!!   (not informal) 

I sent the message and used znajoma, but please, have I used the term for a female friend?  I did mention it was "him".


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## scarlett_wilk

katie_here said:


> I sent the message and used znajoma, but please, have I used the term for a female friend?  I did mention it was "him".



To be honest, I'm a bit lost here. If I understand your dilemma correctly, you're not sure if _znajoma_ refers to your friend? _Znajoma_ refers to you as you're a woman, nothing in your message indicates the gender of your friend (I'd say that the message is appropriate for both male and female receiver of the message).


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## katie_here

Okay, I'm getting confused now.  

This is what I wrote at first, in my first post 



> but quickly, I would like to write   him a message that says.
> 
> Welcome to Facebook. I'm happy to be your first friend.



Because I don't understand the gender differences (as we don't have them in English, as such), when you said girlfriend, I assume you think my friend is a girl.  Is that right. 

My friend is male, (I am female) but I guess you knew that .    I just wanted to make sure that I haven't referred to him as female.  

ahh!!! the penny drops.  

I realise now why we are both confused.  Please forgive me.  I realise now that I'm referring to myself as his friend, not him as mine.  

I think I'll just go and lie down a while.   Just ignore me.


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## Greg from Poland

I'm not sure whether the fact that you have became his friend can make you "szczęśliwą". I would use "Cieszę się, że zostałam Twoją pierwszą znajomą/koleżanką."

Still, "szczęśliwa" is also perfectly correct.


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## mcibor

Hi Katie,
here "koleżanka" refers to you - you are his "girl"friend. 
If you talk to him, you can write that you are his koleżanka,
if you only say hello and that's all, then you are znajoma.

I would say, that neighbourgs are mostly znajomi, whereas friend of any kind is koleżanka, kolega

Word znajomy means, that you know, recognize that person, from verb znać - to know


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## katie_here

That's brilliant,  thankyou.  It's so much clearer now.


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## Greg from Poland

I totally agree with mcibor.

Znajomy/znajoma is someone who is on nodding terms with you, whereas kolega/koleżanka is for instance a workmate, classmate or perhaps somebody with whom you have a casual conversation from time to time.


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## robin74

May I point out that we are talking about an actual application, which exists both in Polish and English and uses "znajomy" in a Polish version where it uses "friend" in an English one?

I'd say "Cieszę się, że zostałam Twoją pierwszą znajomą".


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## katie_here

Thankyou everyone for you help.  I saw my friend today, and he was very impressed with my message.  (and even more impressed with my own profile picture of me with blue hair - but that's another story).


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## BezierCurve

> and even more impressed with my own profile picture of me with blue hair


 
Now you've got me really interested in this topic


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## Szymon Krulikowski

Clarification of the levels of friendship in Polish as I see it.

Przyjaciel/Przyjaciółka > Kolega/Koleżanka > Znajomy/Znajoma


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## Szymon Krulikowski

katie_here said:


> Welcome to Facebook.  I'm happy to be your first friend.



I'd translate it as follows:
Witam w Facebook'u. Cieszę się, że zostałam pierwszą osobą w twoich kontaktach.

sth like:
Welcome to Facebook. I'm happy that I've become the first person in your 'contacts'.


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## kknd

English 'girlfriend' is often translated as _dziewczyna_ (lit. girl) or sometimes _sympatia_ (lit. sympathy); word 'girl-friend' used before in meaning of friend being also a girl should be replaced with something like 'female friend' to avoid confusion.



Szymon Krulikowski said:


> I'd translate it as follows:
> Witam w Facebook'u. Cieszę się, że zostałam pierwszą osobą w twoich kontaktach.



Apostrophe in "Facebook'u" is misplaced; it means that preceding letter isn't read but nothing like this happens in given phrase (_k_ is spoken, cf. "George'a" where _e_ before apostrophe is mute).


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## Szymon Krulikowski

kknd said:


> Apostrophe in "Facebook'u" is misplaced; it means that preceding letter isn't read but nothing like this happens in given phrase (_k_ is spoken, cf. "George'a" where _e_ before apostrophe is mute).



Thanks for your correction *kknd*.


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