Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32838 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-26
• Original language: Polish, English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Customer Reviews

Relieves Conjugation Stress
After searching high and low for a book that could facilitate the sometimes arduous task of conjugating Polish verbs, I think the search is finally over. 301 Polish Verbs, by Klara Janecki, offers a logical and clear approach to learning the Polish verb. Simply by turning the first few pages you get the immediate immpression that this is a quality book. Written with wonderful attention to detail, and with explanations that are presented in clear effective English, success with the Polish verb is not too far around the corner. In addition, the contextualized examples give you a reasonable insight into how the verb can become an active part of your Polish vocabulary. For anyone who wants to increase the speed and effectiveness of their learning, this is a book for you.

Does what it says on the cover
This book does what it says on the cover - it is conjugations of 301 Polish verbs. If that is what you want it is the book for you. However, two health warnings: 1) the book is physically quite heavy (not as bad as a hard back, but no pocket edition either). As I don't have a car, it's my at home on the shelf reference book, rather than anything I take to my Polish classes with me. 2) Despite its size, it won't necssarily cover all the verbs you are interested in as thoroughly as you might hope. As a complete beginner back when I bought it, I was expecting every verb I came across in class (at least in the first few years) to be in there - it wasn't. The book could also do with a few more notes about which of the verbs it covers in its examples at the bottom of the page (rather than the verbs that get covered in full in the main body of the page) are imperfective and which are perfective, and what the paired verb is, if any.

Having said all that, this is the only Polish verb conjugation book I'm aware of on the market and it's perfectly clear about the verbs it covers in full. It even has grammar exercises (albeit ones it took me at least four years of Polish classes to be able to fill in). I just don't want readers to get over-excited about how wonderful it is before buying (based on the other reviews). It does have its limitations. But, if conjugations are what you're looking for, unless someone brings out a better book, this is the one for you. Overall, I would say it is well worth the money I paid for it.

Very useful for conjugation
This is one of the books that I carry EVERY day in my bag to help with my study (which I largely do on the train). It provides a very useful reference for a reasonable number of verbs, with the conjugation in present, past, future, conditional and imperative. There are examples at the bottom of each page showing the verbs in use. These examples are the only bit that I find disappointing about this book, as they could have been used to provide useful phrases as well as examples of conjugation. In reality, very few of the examples are likely to be used as phrases in their own right.