Native-language interference in the Polish certificate exam

Interference means transferring rules from your native language into Polish. Sometimes it helps, because the languages are similar. Often, however, it costs points, because the candidate chooses a form that sounds logical in Ukrainian, Russian or English, but is wrong in Polish. At B1 this is visible mainly in cases (przypadki), prepositions (przyimki), aspect (aspekt) and word order (szyk). At B2, complex sentences (zdania złożone), style and impersonal forms (formy bezosobowe) come in as well. At C1 the problem is even bigger, because you have to create forms independently, not only recognise the correct answer.

Where interference errors come from

The most common mechanism is simple: the candidate translates the sentence word for word. If in their language people say the equivalent of "czekać kogo", they choose the accusative (biernik). In Polish, however, we say: Czekam na kolegę. If in English people say "listen to music", the temptation appears: *słucham do muzyki. In Polish: Słucham muzyki.

The second mechanism is similarity of forms. Ukrainian and Russian have cases, so Slavic-language speakers often feel that the noun has to be declined. The problem is that government (rekcja), that is, the required case after a verb or preposition, is not always the same. That is why it is worth revising verb government (rekcja czasownika) and prepositions and their government separately.

The third mechanism is the absence of a category in the native language. English does not have cases in the same form as Polish, and it does not have the perfective and imperfective aspect (aspekt dokonany i niedokonany) as pairs such as pisać - napisać. That is why English speakers often learn Polish endings mechanically, but do not see why the genitive (dopełniacz) appears after negation, or why you sometimes have to say robiłem and sometimes zrobiłem.

Areas where interference hits hardest

In the exam, five groups of errors are seen most often.

Area	Typical calque	Correct version	What to check
Verb government	*Potrzebuję nowe dokumenty.	Potrzebuję nowych dokumentów.	The verb potrzebować takes the genitive.
Preposition	*Czekam ciebie.	Czekam na ciebie.	After czekać we use na plus the accusative.
Aspect	*Wczoraj pisałem podanie i wysłałem je o 10.	Wczoraj napisałem podanie i wysłałem je o 10.	A completed result requires the perfective aspect.
Negation	*Nie mam czas.	Nie mam czasu.	After negation, the genitive often appears.
Word order	*Ja jutro do urzędu idę.	Jutro idę do urzędu.	Polish word order is flexible, but neutral word order does not always copy English.
False friend	*Aktualnie mieszkam tu od pięciu lat.	Obecnie mieszkam tu od pięciu lat.	Aktualnie means rather "w tej chwili", but it is sometimes overused like English "actually".

The areas that generate the most points are government, cases and aspect, because they appear in many types of tasks. If you mix up noun endings, go back to the section cases and noun declension. If the problem is choosing pisałem or napisałem, revise perfective and imperfective aspect.

Verb government and prepositions: do not translate the preposition, learn the whole expression

Prepositions rarely correspond one to one. That is why you should not learn only the verb pytać, but the whole construction: pytać o coś. Do not learn czekać, but czekać na kogoś or na coś. Do not learn interesować się, but interesować się czymś.

It is worth writing down correct constructions in sentences:

• Szukam mieszkania blisko centrum.
• Potrzebuję zaświadczenia z urzędu.
• Czekam na decyzję wojewody.
• Interesuję się polskim prawem i historią.
• Rozmawialiśmy o terminie egzaminu.
• Dziękuję panu za pomoc.

You can see different cases here: the genitive after szukać and potrzebować, the accusative after czekać na, the locative (miejscownik) after rozmawiać o, the instrumental (narzędnik) after interesować się. Knowing only the meaning of the verb is not enough. You have to know its grammatical environment.

Aspect (aspekt): a Slavic language helps, but not always

Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking learners usually understand the idea of the aspect, because their languages also distinguish an action that is completed from one that is ongoing, repeated, or not focused on the result. Mistakes appear with specific pairs and in the future tense (czas przyszły).

In Polish we say: Jutro napiszę e-mail do dziekanatu, if we mean one completed result. We say: Jutro będę pisać e-mail, if we are interested in the process. In an exam task, the difference may depend on one word: już, w końcu, codziennie, długo, przez godzinę.

English-speaking learners often try to translate the aspect through English tenses. This is misleading. Polish aspect is not the same as the Present Perfect or the Past Continuous. English tenses mainly place an action in time and show its relation to the moment of speaking. Polish aspect tells you whether the speaker presents the action as a process, a repetition, or a completed result. The sentence Pisałem podanie przez godzinę talks about the process. The sentence Napisałem podanie talks about the result. Both can refer to the past, but grammatically they mean something different.

False friends and syntactic calques

False friends are words that are similar to words in another language but have a different meaning or a different range of use. The problem is not always that the word is completely wrong. Often it is correct in a different context.

Example: ewentualnie does not usually mean the English "eventually". The sentence *Ewentualnie dostałem certyfikat po miesiącu is a wrong calque. Correct: W końcu dostałem certyfikat po miesiącu. Ewentualnie means rather "if that is possible": Możemy spotkać się w piątek, ewentualnie w sobotę.

A syntactic calque is the transfer of sentence structure. In English, "I want you to help me" is natural. In Polish we do not say: *Chcę ciebie pomóc mi. We say: Chcę, żebyś mi pomógł. Such sentences are important at B2, because the standard requires work with complex sentences (zdania złożone), reported speech (mowa zależna), and the choice of construction depending on style. It is worth reviewing conjunctions and complex sentences as well as syntax (składnia) and word order (szyk wyrazów).

Example sentences in practice

• Nie znam jeszcze wyniku egzaminu, ale czekam na informację z ośrodka.
• Wczoraj wypełniłem wniosek i wysłałem go pocztą.
• Przez dwa tygodnie szukałam pokoju blisko uczelni.
• Nie mam ważnego zaświadczenia, dlatego muszę iść do urzędu.
• Interesuję się studiami w Polsce, bo chcę tu zostać na dłużej.
• Proszę pana o podpis na tym formularzu.
• Rozmawialiśmy z lektorką o części ustnej egzaminu.
• Gdybym wcześniej znał te konstrukcje, popełniłbym mniej błędów w pisaniu.

Typical mistakes made by Ukrainian-speaking, Russian-speaking and English-speaking learners

Ukrainian

• *Czekam ciebie instead of Czekam na ciebie. The error comes from the similarity of syntax (składnia) and from leaving out the Polish preposition (przyimek) na.
• *Dziękuję was instead of Dziękuję wam. This is a calque of government (rekcja). In Polish, dziękować requires the dative case (celownik): komu?
• *Pomagam dla kolegi instead of Pomagam koledze. The source is a prepositional calque. In Polish it is pomóc komuś, with no preposition.
• *Mam pytanie do temat egzaminu instead of Mam pytanie o temat egzaminu. This transfers the preposition from a different construction.

Russian

• *Uczę polski język instead of Uczę się języka polskiego. This is a calque from the Russian construction. In Polish it is uczę się czegoś, that is, the genitive (dopełniacz).
• *Boję się egzamin instead of Boję się egzaminu. The verb bać się requires the genitive.
• *Zadzwonię do ciebie po egzaminie i powiem rezultat instead of Zadzwonię do ciebie po egzaminie i podam wynik. Here a false friend and an unnatural choice of verb are at work.
• *On jest na pracy instead of On jest w pracy. This is a prepositional calque. In Polish we say w pracy, but na uniwersytecie.

English

• *Słucham do radia instead of Słucham radia. This is a calque from "listen to". Polish has no "to" here: słuchać combines directly with the genitive.
• *Jestem 30 lat instead of Mam 30 lat. This is a calque from "I am 30". In Polish, age is expressed with the construction mieć ileś lat.
• *To zależy od jeśli mam czas instead of To zależy od tego, czy mam czas. This is a syntactic calque from "it depends if". In Polish you need the construction od tego, czy.
• *Zrobiłem decyzję instead of Podjąłem decyzję. This is a calque from "make a decision". In Polish, decyzję się podejmuje.
• *Nie mam czas instead of Nie mam czasu. English does not have the Polish genitive of negation, so it is easy to leave the accusative (biernik) or the basic form (forma podstawowa).

What this looks like in the exam

Interference is not a separate topic in the paper, but it appears in several modules. Most directly, it appears in the "grammatical accuracy" module, which is a separate part of the exam.

At B1, according to the sample papers from March 2020, grammar has 8 tasks and lasts 45 minutes. The module is worth 30 points. The tasks include, among others: choosing the correct form of nouns, adjectives and pronouns, completing gaps with conjunctions, verb forms, questions about parts of a sentence, sentence transformations, aspect (aspekt) and moods (tryby), and prepositions. These are exactly the places where a calque from your native language gives a wrong answer. At B1 you must get at least 50% in each module of the written part separately and in the oral part.

At B2, grammar has 8 tasks, 60 minutes and 40 points. Participles (imiesłowy), impersonal forms (formy nieosobowe), the passive voice (strona bierna), changing complex sentences into single sentences, and more complex form selection are added. Here interference often damages style: the sentence is understandable, but it sounds foreign or has the wrong government. At B2 the threshold is at least 60% in each module separately and in the oral part.

At C1, grammar has 7 tasks, 60 minutes and 40 points. In the sample papers there are no closed tasks in this module, so you have to produce every form yourself. This matters, because you cannot rely on recognizing the correct answer from a list. At C1 you also have to get at least 60% in each module separately and in the oral part. Points from the modules are not replaced by an average. One weak module can mean failing the exam.

Interference also lowers your score in writing and speaking. In a letter, application, description or spoken response, the examiner sees not only communication, but also the accuracy of forms, syntax and style.

What to review before the exam

• The list of verbs with government: potrzebować czego, szukać czego, słuchać czego, pomagać komu, interesować się czym.
• The most common prepositions with cases (przypadki): do, z, dla, o, na, w, po, przy, przed, między.
• The genitive (dopełniacz) after negation: Nie mam czasu. Nie znam adresu. Nie dostałem odpowiedzi.
• Aspect pairs in sentences with a result and a process: pisać - napisać, robić - zrobić, wypełniać - wypełnić.
• Constructions that must not be translated literally from English, Ukrainian or Russian.
• False friends that you actually use in your own texts, not random lists from the internet.