Polish National Tourist Office in London

Polish National Tourist Office in London

Basic Polish words and phrases

Just how do you pronounce Polish words?

Unlike English, Polish is pronounced phonetically. Once you understand where to break the word, and that the second-to-last syllable is always stressed, you'll do okay by keeping the following in mind. One note: if the word looks nothing like it sounds, put it down to some uniquely Polish characters not included here. The Polish alphabet does have its own surprises. If confused, just look it up in a good dictionary.

Start with something simple:

Yes: Tak (as in tick-'tack')

No: Nie (as in 'nyeh'-nyeh-na-na-na)

OK: Dobrze ('dough' plus a 'b' then 'shuh')

Excuse me: Przepraszam (difficult to pronounce because it includes that oh-so-not-English combo - 'p' merges into 'shey' followed by 'pra' and 'shem')

What: Co (often used like an English 'what??' and pronounced 'tso')

Where: Gdzie ( 'guh' and 'jay')

When: Kiedy ( 'key yeh dey')

Who: Kto ( 'k' and 'toe')

Why: Dlaczego ('dlah' and 'che' and 'go')

How: Jak (just like 'tock' but with a 'y')

Poles are big on greetings. Remember how to say 'good day'. You can even say it at night - it has such universality here.

Good day: Dzien dobry ('jean' and 'dough' plus 'bree' like the cheese)

Hi: Czesc (use this one on friends only: 'chay sh ch' but run it all together as one sound)

Bye: Czesc (works like 'aloha', making informal comings and goings easy)

Good bye: Do widzenia ('dough' and 'wid zen ya' comes close enough)

I don't speak Polish: Nie mowie po polsku ('nie' as above, 'movie' then 'po' as in really poor, and 'pole sku')

I don't understand: Nie rozumiem ( 'nie' we know by now and 'row zoo me m' works for the operative word)

Help me please: Prosze mi pomoc (for those unexpected tourist emergencies - note the 'prosze' making yet another appearance, 'mi' is just like 'me' in English in sound and meaning and the 'po moats' functions as the HELP signal)

Please write that down: Prosze to napisac (when you 'nie rozumiem' but want to, stumble out 'prosze' as above then 'toe' which means it, and end with 'nah pee sach' which means write)