# miewa



## autap6

Hello

In my phrasebook, _how are yo_u is translated by *jak się pan miewa*.

But when I look up *miewa *in my Polish dictionary, I can't find anything like it.

What does *miewa *mean? Is it a verb?

Dziękuję


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## majlo

You can't find it because it's not the infinitive. Look "miewać się" up.


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## BezierCurve

... in case it's still not there: it's a frequentative form for "mieć (się)", (lit.: "to have oneself") which is an idiomatic expression, just like in English "How are you doing?".


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## autap6

Ah ok, I understand it better now, 
because I was surprised at the translation of _how are you_, 
which I thought was * jak się pan ma?*

Can the ending *-wa* be added to all verbs?
mieć -> mie-wa => robić -> robiwa?


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## jazyk

Miewać is one of the frequentative verbs. There are a few more in this thread.


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## majlo

There are plenty of translations of "How are you?". Frankly, I find "Jak się pan miewa?" quite formal, and I believe quite old-fashioned.


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## LilianaB

I find it very stylish. You can say: _Jak sie Pan ma_. But you should listen to the people who live in Poland more than to me, because you may learn a language that would sound out of date, or too reserved. You can always use it for formal meetings, in fact this is what is required at press conferences, etc, but people in Poland may consider it too formal.   I like _Jak sie Pan miewa _more. Jak sie Pani miewa, albo jak sie Pani ma, will be used if you are referring to a woman.


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## Thomas1

I sometimes use "Jak się Pan/Pani miewa?". It depends, of course, on whom I'm talking to, as it is quite formal in register, something like "How are you faring?" in English, I believe.


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## Ben Jamin

autap6 said:


> Ah ok, I understand it better now,
> because I was surprised at the translation of _how are you_,
> which I thought was * jak się pan ma?*
> 
> Can the ending *-wa* be added to all verbs?
> mieć -> mie-wa => robić -> robiwa?



No, there is no such verb as ‘robiwa’. Only a few verbs in Polish (about 20) have the habitual aspect.


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## BezierCurve

I guess it would be "robić" > "rabiać", if only it existed in Polish.

There is however a verb "porabiać" ("Co porabiasz?" lit.: "what are you doing (these days)").


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## Ben Jamin

BezierCurve said:


> I guess it would be "robić" > "rabiać", if only it existed in Polish.
> 
> There is however a verb "porabiać" ("Co porabiasz?" lit.: "what are you doing (these days)").



Note that the verb ‘porabiać'  belongs to another group than the verbs which belong to what  I call “habitual aspect”, like miewać, siadywać, jadać, etc.  They are actually a subcategory of imperfective verbs. 
The “habitual verbs” should be translated to English using the expression “used to”.
I managed to track down only seventeen such verbs, and new ones are not any longer created. Creation of this category of verbs ceased actually quite a long time ago, probably more than a century ago. The use of them declines (mostly used in literary language). 
Porabiać is not a “habitual verb”. It is an imperfective verb, but belongs to another group of verbs with a somewhat specialized meaning. I do not really know how the group should be called, but they all express a meaning of “doing something in a <partial>, noncommittal way, on a little scale”.They begin usually with the prefix ‘po’ or ‘pod’. Examples: podśpiewywać, podjadać (pojadać), pomrukiwać.  It is not quite clear if all of them are imperfective.
Note that it is not possible to guess if a verb beginning with ‘po’ or pod’ belongs to this class or not, you must learn the definition for each single verb. Following verbs, for example, are definitely not in the mentioned group: popierać, podpisać, popić, pociągać. Most Polish speakers use these verbs without reflecting on their classification, and will not be able to resolve to which group they belong, if asked.


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## BezierCurve

Ah, what are the missing two of them? We got only 15 of them in the other thread. 

I think I saw another one a while ago, which existence I'd doubt but for the dictionary I was using at that time. Can't recall it now, unfortunately.


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## Ben Jamin

In addition to those 15 i will suggest 'sadzać' and 'prowadzać'.


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## BezierCurve

Both of them are there already, it must be different ones.


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## guniang

Bonjour, 
En polonais, il existe un verbe multiple (czasownik wielokrotny). "Osobną grupę czasowników stanowią czasowniki wielokrotne, które oznaczają częste powtarzanie danej czynności. Przykładami takich czasowników są np. "czytywać", "pisywać", "bywać", "pijać" itd." ce qui veut dire " Les verbes multiples constituent une groupe séparée de verbes. On utilise les verbes multiples pour marquer la repetition souvente d'une action." Jak się pan miewa = comment vous vous sentez souvent/parfois; bywa = il est souvent/parfois.


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## BezierCurve

The links won't work, but thanks for the input anyway.


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## Ben Jamin

BezierCurve said:


> Both of them are there already, it must be different ones.


Here are the 17 verbs ordered by endings:
jadać, sadzać, sypiać, pijać, bijać, chadzać, prowadzać
miewać, mawiać, 
bywać, grywać, polegiwać, siewać, siadywać, czytywać, pisywać, widywać


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## BezierCurve

Would it be possible to trace back "siewać" (I mean the source)? I can't seem to find it in dictionaries I use, but it can be added if only I can provide the source.


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## Ben Jamin

BezierCurve said:


> Would it be possible to trace back "siewać" (I mean the source)? I can't seem to find it in dictionaries I use, but it can be added if only I can provide the source.


I read it only once, in Wyspiański's "Wesele": "Tym to casem sie nie siwo" (Lesser Poland dialect). In standard Polish it would be "W tym czasie się nie siewa".
I included this word under doubt, knowing that it is extremely rare, and not used any more.


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## marco_2

In Polish dialects you can find lots of various non-standard forms, cf this fragment of a song from Kurpie region: _A gdziez moja najmilejso, com do nij *chodzywoł  *_instead of standard *chadzał.*


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## Thomas1

BezierCurve said:


> I guess it would be "robić" > "rabiać", if only it existed in Polish. [...]


It does. 



Ben Jamin said:


> [...]
> The “habitual verbs” should be translated to English using the expression “used to”.



Or, even 'would', which seems to me quite a good equivalent for the following reasons:
--it describes characterisitc routines of a person
--it is imperfective


Ben Jamin said:


> I managed to track down only seventeen such verbs, and new ones are not any longer created. Creation of this category of verbs ceased actually quite a long time ago, probably more than a century ago. The use of them declines (mostly used in literary language).
> Porabiać is not a “habitual verb”. It is an imperfective verb, but belongs to another group of verbs with a somewhat specialized meaning. I do not really know how the group should be called, but they all express a meaning of “doing something in a <partial>, noncommittal way, on a little scale”.They begin usually with the prefix ‘po’ or ‘pod’. Examples: podśpiewywać, podjadać (pojadać), pomrukiwać.  It is not quite clear if all of them are imperfective.
> Note that it is not possible to guess if a verb beginning with ‘po’ or pod’ belongs to this class or not, you must learn the definition for each single verb. Following verbs, for example, are definitely not in the mentioned group: popierać, podpisać, popić, pociągać. Most Polish speakers use these verbs without reflecting on their classification, and will not be able to resolve to which group they belong, if asked.


I think that 'porabiać' can be used in the iterative meaning [if 'polegiwać' can, why 'porabiać' shouldn't?]. However, I've got some problems coming up with a context where the 'partial' meaning denoted by 'po-' would emerge. If one says: 'Co porabiasz?' to someone they haven't seen in a while, it can mean 'co robisz na ogół/czym się zajmujesz?', which in turn mean 'what do you usually do?'. 
'Podjadać' suggests to me eating from time to time [with some frequency if you will] in small quantities whereas 'pojadać' the same but in big quantities. Cf. 'pojeść' as in: Pojedliśmy, a teraz idziemy się zdrzemnąć. [We have eaten a lot (we are full), and now we're going to take a nap.]. So by ananlogy: pojadać is an iterative equivalent of a 'one time' 'pojeść'.
The example 'pomrukiwać' suggests to me, first, purring, second, that it reapeats and third that it isn't intense. Here I can discern some 'partial' meaning, but I can't in 'porabiać'.



Ben Jamin said:


> Here are the 17 verbs ordered by endings:
> jadać, sadzać, sypiać, pijać, bijać, chadzać, prowadzać
> miewać, mawiać,
> bywać, grywać, polegiwać, siewać, siadywać, czytywać, pisywać, widywać


pasać
bierać
legiwać
The last two are quite rare in modern Polish. 
You may find this interesting.


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## BezierCurve

No właśnie, _pasać_! Co do _bierać, pierać, legiwać, naszać, sługiwać_ i może jeszcze kilku, pewnie ciężko je będzie namierzyć we współczesnych słownikach... W każdym razie ciekawy link.

Yes, _pasać_! As for _bierać, pierać, legiwać, naszać, sługiwać_ and maybe a few more, I guess they're hard to find in modern dictionaries... An interesting link anyway.


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## Ben Jamin

Thomas1 said:


> pasać: in my opinion it is an ordinary imperfective verb, but the ending may be confusing
> bierać: it does not exist, it is only a lexical stem without a prefix that makes it a functioning verb (zbierać, dobierać, etc9
> legiwać: never heard or read, theoretically possible, but I doubt if ever used


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## BezierCurve

Wouldn't the ordinary form for "pasać" be "paść" though?


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## Ben Jamin

BezierCurve said:


> Wouldn't the ordinary form for "pasać" be "paść" though?



I think that this verb has probably two meanings: a simple imperfective and habitual. Or maybe the two are somehow merged into one.


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## Thomas1

> pasać: in my opinion it is an ordinary imperfective verb, but the ending may be confusing


Could you please give an example where it's not an iterative verb?


> bierać: it does not exist, it is only a lexical stem without a prefix that makes it a functioning verb (zbierać, dobierać, etc9


W szable nie byłem zbyt tęgi, wszakże bierali ludzie i ode mnie cięgi. (Mickiewicz, A., _Pan Tadeusz_)


> legiwać: never heard or read, theoretically possible, but I doubt if ever used


Razem chodzili do szkół, siadywali i legiwali na jednej ławie. (Prus, B., _Kart._)

Jeśli chodzi o 'porobić', to da się go zastosować rówież ze znaczeniem dystrybutywnym.


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## Ben Jamin

Thomas1 said:


> Could you please give an example where it's not an iterative verb?


 Not now, maybe later

[/QUOTE]W szable nie byłem zbyt tęgi, wszakże bierali ludzie i ode mnie cięgi. (Mickiewicz, A., _Pan Tadeusz_)

Razem chodzili do szkół, siadywali i legiwali na jednej ławie. (Prus, B., _Kart._)

Jeśli chodzi o 'porobić', to da się go zastosować rówież ze znaczeniem dystrybutywnym.[/QUOTE]
Nie pamiętam aż tak dobrze Pana Tadeusza, a Prusa tego utworu nie czytałem. Jednak dziś są to słowa od dawna nie używane. Możnaby pewno jeszcze znaleźć więcej przykładów w staropolszczyźnie, ale nie w we współczesnym języku.


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