Language

Many Poles, particularly younger people, have a fairly healthy command of the English language. Many will also be adept at other European languages with German being the most commonly spoken. Older Poles will fiercely contest that they have ‘forgotten’ the Russian taught to them at school but most will still have a reasonable understanding. Mastering the Polish tongue can be a terrifying ordeal and will often result in personal degradation as shop assistants laugh at your flustered attempts. That aside, learning a few key phrases will smooth your time in and may even win you friends and admirers.

On the positive side Polish sounds as it appears. This is a great help once you know how to pronounce each letter/combination of letters. Many letters represent the same sounds as they do in English. Below we have listed those particular to Polish.

Basic pronunciation of Polish vowels

‘ą’ sounds like ‘on’ in the French ‘bon’
‘ę’ sounds like ‘en’ as in the French ‘bien’
‘ó’ is an open ‘o’ sound like ‘oo’ in ‘boot’

Basic pronunciation of consonants

‘c’ like the ‘ts’ in ‘bits’‘
j’ like the ‘y’ in ‘yeah’
‘w’ is pronounced like the English ‘v’
‘ł’ like the ‘w’ in ‘win’
‘ń’ like the ‘ny’ in ‘canyon’
‘cz’ and ‘ć’ like the ‘ch’ in ‘beach’
‘dz’ like the ‘ds’ in ‘beds’
‘rz’ and ‘ż’ like the ‘su’ in ‘treasure’
‘sz’ and ‘ś’ like the ‘sh’ in ‘ship’
‘drz’ like the ‘g’ in ‘George’
r is always rolled and stress is generally always on the second to last syllable. Think you’ve got that?

Here are some words and phrases to get you started.

Civilities
cześć (cheshch) hi/bye
dzień dobry (jen do-bri) good morning/afternoon
dobry wieczór (do-bri vyeh-choor) good evening
dobranoc (dobrah-nots) good night
tak (tahk) yes
nie (nyeh) no
proszę (prosheh) please
na zdrowie (nah zdrovyeh) cheers
dziękuje (jen-koo-yeh) thank you
przepraszam (psheh-prasham) sorry
kocham cię (koham tshe) I love you
Mam na imię (mam nah ee-myeh) My name is
Jestem z Anglii (yehstem zanglee) I am from

Necessities
Gdzie są toalety? (gdjeh song toalety) Where are the toilets?
Czy mówi pan/pani po angielsku? (che mooveepan/panee poangyelskoo?) Do you (male/female)speak English?
Nie mówię po polsku (nyeh moovyeh popolskoo) I don’t speak Polish
Proszę to napisać (prosheh tohnapeesatch)
Please write it down
Czy można tu palić (che mohzhnah toopaleech?) Can I smoke here?
Jedno piwo poproszę (yedno peevo pohprosheh)
One beer please

Numbers
1 jeden yehden
2 dwa dva
3 trzy tshi
10 dziesięć jayshench

General
Airport lotnisko
Train station dworzec pkp
Bus station dworzec pks
Right/left prawo/lewo
One ticket to jeden bilet do
First/second class pierwsza/druga klasa