Exam periods, presidential campaigns, floods. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. The author of Polandian PL->EN Translation Competition has absolutely no intention of sending you to early grave, he is just bending over backwards to make you scratch your heads over some peculiarities of both languages.
This week’s stars are phrasal verbs. For Poles they are generally hard to acquire because, as many claim at least, they have no equivalent in Polish. Beware though, some verbs akin to English phrasals occur in many languages – German abounds in Die zusammengestezten Verben (aufnehmen, absprechen, einfuehren, etc.), in Polish there are many verbs to which you can add a prefix to get a slightly different meaning, such as: nadsyłać (send in), rozsyłać (send out), wysyłać (send off), odsyłać (send back). There are also other less polite examples that tend to start with with ‘f’ in English and ‘p’ in Polish.
Bearing all this in mind I made a conscious decision to find out how quickly you could guess the right word when you are asked to come up with a phrasal verb.
1. stroić focha – to kick up a fuss (arturwarrior)
2. ględzić o – to rabbit on about (scatts)
3. wyżywać się na kimś – to take it out on sb (Anna)
4. rozgryźć kogoś – to work sb out (scatts)
5. walać się – to kick around (Jerzy Stachowiak)
6. przesrać (pieniądze) – to lash out (money) (Maggie)
7. dokazywać – to lark around (Basia z Szwecji)
8. besztać – to tick sb off (arturwarrior)
9. pajacować – to fool around (Anna)
10. rozbebeszyć – to jumble up (Anglopole)
This competition was almost ideal – it took the contestant over four days to guess all words and we have seven winners! I know you’re looking forward to the fifth round – don’t worry it comes out on (Polish) Father’s Day!
POLANDiAN 
It’s a hard one this time :)
8. besztać -tell off, tick off
That’s best I can come up with at the moment :O
1. stroić focha – ???
2. ględzić o – to harp on
3. wyżywać się na kimś – to issue a challenge to someone
4. rozgryźć kogoś – to figure someone out
5. walać się – to wallow (in self-pity, no doubt)
6. przesrać (pieniądze) – ???
7. dokazywać – to romp
8. besztać – to scold
9. pajacować – ???
10. rozbebeszyć – to tumble
1. stroić focha – take exeption to sth/sb, take sth amiss
2. ględzić o – blather on
3. wyżywać się na kimś – blow off steam on sb
4. rozgryźć kogoś – figure sb out
5. walać się – mooch around
6. przesrać (pieniądze) – fritter sth(money) away
7.dokazywać – romp
8.besztać – chide
9.pajacować – goof around
10.rozbebeszyć – rip
1. stroić focha – to be sulky
2. ględzić o – waffle about
3. wyżywać się na kimś – take it out at someone
4. rozgryźć kogoś – ??
5. walać się – kick around (about something)
6. przesrać (pieniądze) – fritter away (money) [most close to meaning I think]
7. dokazywać – play pranks
8. besztać – to chide
9. pajacować – to clown around
10. rozbebeszyć – take guts out (from something)
I meant hard one because i thought we were supposed to use phrasal verbs only – apparently this is not the case.
1. throw a fit/tantrum
3. wyżywać się na kimś – lash out at sb, vent one’s frustration
6. przesrać (pieniądze) – squander
9. pajacować – act the fool
10. rozbebeszyć – to gut sth
2. ględzić o – rambling on
Maybe this time I’ll give one response to all contestants:
Please don’t try to come up with anything other than phrasal verbs – you attempt will go in vain.
Decoy – ‘to harp on about’ is indeed very good and close, at least ‘on about’ correct, only the wrong verb.
ATH – mind the prepositions
‘to figure sb out’ is also very close to what I have in mind.
Keep on trying!
Depending on the context, of course:
1. stroić focha – to have a strop
2. ględzić o – to whinge about sth
3. wyżywać się nad kimś – to bully sb./have a go at sb.
4. rozgryść kogoś – he/she is an open book for me
5. walać się – scattered around (eg. clothes in a room)
6. dokazywać – drive sb. up a wall
7. przesrać (pieniądze) – to throw money down the drain
8. pajacować – take the mickey
9. besztać – give sb a piece of one’s mind
10. rozbebeszać- to jumble up
2. ględzić o – waffle about
2. babble
8. pajacować – clown about
sorry – I confess I didn’t notice the ‘phrasal verb’ requirement … oops :o)
2. ględzić o – to brag about
3. wyżywać się na kimś – to take it out on sb
4. rozgryźć kogoś – to figure someone out
5. walać się – to lay around
7. dokazywać – to boss around
9. pajacować – to fool around
Sorry, the attempt above was mine, forgot to fill in my name.
I see we’re moving ahead.
“fritter away’ is more like roztrownić,
no waffling, no figuring out, though some of your proposals are quite good hits.
7. dokazywać – lark around
2. ramble on
5. mess around
9. come down on
7. give sth away
9. tell off
Sorry I believe that 5. is more like
knock around
lie about
1. stroić focha – to act up
2. ględzić o – to moan about
6. przesrać (pieniądze) – to blow away (money)
I wonder if I got any of these right :)
1. stroić focha – to act uppity
2. ględzić o – bullshitting / whining
3. wyżywać się na kimś – to take it out on sb (Anna)
4. rozgryźć kogoś – to figure someone out
5. walać się –
6. przesrać (pieniądze) – what i do every month
7. dokazywać – lark around (Basia z Szwecji)
8. besztać – to tick sb off (arturwarrior)
9. pajacować – to fool around (Anna)
10. rozbebeszyć – to jumble up (Anglopole)
5. walać się – to kick around (I’ve seen it rather in continuous tenses: something is kicking around)
9. pajacować – to clown around
“I ain’t no Ronald McDonald, I don’t clown around”
2. ględzić o – to blather on
6. przesrać (pieniądze) – to pi** away (money)
1. stroić focha – put a fuss, throw the mood around
2. ględzić o – put a speech up
3. wyżywać się na kimś – bring it out on sb
4. rozgryźć kogoś – figure out
5. walać się – lie around
6. przesrać (pieniądze) – go through
7. dokazywać – frolick, act up
8. besztać – fuss at
9. pajacować – goof around
10. rozbebeszyć – gut sth out
We have only four phrasal verbs left and after two days you surely deserve some hints.
1. polkaontheisland was closing in on the right phrase
2. it has something in common with a small animal
4. many of you suggest “figure sb out” and “sb out” part is right, all you need to do is to guess the right verb
6. the same phrasal verb is used to to describe a sudden and aggressive attack on somebody.
Hope it’s cleared up
Hurray, I actually got one right! Amazing. :-)
4. rozgryźć kogoś – fathom out
6. przesrać (pieniądze) – splash out
However, not sure splash out could be used for a sudden attack on someone…
Bartek,
what about “false friends”.
It is very interesting part of Polish language where English sounding words have diffrent meaning in Polish!
6 – to lash out?
1 – to fuss about?
Marta, a good idea to make false friends a “leitmotiv” of one of the next competition, but I’d have to think about ten extraordinary ones, not those commonly given as examples.
6 – goooooooooooooooooooooooood
1 – there’s a fuss right there
1. fuss over sth
2. to go on
Or perhaps 2 to prate on??
4. rozgryźć kogoś – to make sb out
1. stroić focha – kick up or piss up a storm
2. ględzić o – sound off
4. rozgryźć kogoś – nail down
1. Get the hump?
2. Carp on about?
4. Work or suss (sb out)?
Come on England!!
yes, come on guys, you’re up to the task – I believe so
1. you can put together some of your proposal and get the right phrase
2. ****** on about – maybe if the number of letters in the verb is given it won’t take long to sign the competition off…
2. gabble/jabber/dwell on about?
1. kick up a fuss
2. gaggle on about (goose)
2. witter on about (small animal – ??)
2. babble on about (small animal – ??)
2. rattle on about (snake)
2. rat on about
It’s not a sound an animal makes, it’s a small animal, some poeple breed it at home, it usually lives in a
cavecage, unfortunately I don’t know what it eats…Now I’m confused.
Bats live in caves but there’s no such phrase as “bat on about”, neither is there “rat on about” though so perhaps it doesn’t really matter if anyone ever uses this phrase or not…….
Breed it at home……
Guinea Pig on about?
To make sure nobidy has guessed it I used Ctrl+F. And indeed you may have some way to go.
You’re confused – this competition is all about confusion, it seems to work!
Scatts, read carefully, six letters long. And I’m sorry for a spelling error – in a cage! My mistake!
Oh and the word starts with “r”, I’ve run out of hints…
Well then it’s obviously “Rabbit on about”. I actually put that in the previous comment and then deleted it as being too silly considering the caVe reference. :)
They eat things like lettuce and other vegetables and fruits – http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_rabbits_eat.
Sorry once again for the misleading lapse…
I wish to troić focha. That Union flag is upside down. Sneaky.
You do realise that’s an act of treason.