Polish Language

*The "r" should be rolled like in Scottish or Spanish.

The letters q, v, and x, if they appear in words, should be pronounced the way they are in the original language. Every letter and cluster is pronounced (no silent k's or e's like English). Consonants that appear at the ends of words have softer sounds (e.g. bez should be pronounced as bes, bóg as book, etc.). When the letter "u" is preceded by an "a" or "e" it sounds more like the "w" in English.

In words of 2 or more syllables, the stress falls on the second to last syllable (with rare exceptions, particularly specific verbal constructions and in foreign words like matematyka, where it falls on the 3rd to last syllable, in this case matematyka rather than *matematyka). Monosyllabic words combine with either their preceding or following word and keep the stress on the second to last syllable of the entire phrase (e.g. przez niego, przeze mnie).

Grammatical Points

Grammatically, Polish is an SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) arranged language like English. However, word order can be very fluid as Polish uses a case system to denote the role of each word in a phrase. Therefore, words do not need to appear in the SVO order. There are 7 cases in Polish: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative. Even first and last names can be declined! There are no articles (no "the" and "a/an"). When translating into English, it's up to you to decide if "the" or "a" sounds better or conveys the correct meaning of the phrase. Nouns have number (singular or plural, dual disappeared in the 15th century), gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter), and case. Masculine nouns are divided into animate and inanimate (in the singular) and personal and non-personal (in the plural). Masculine nouns typically end in a consonant, feminine with the vowel -a, and neuter with -o, -e, or -ę; of course there are exceptions. Adjectives agree with the noun they modify in number, gender, and case; they precede the noun they modify (again, a few exceptions, particularly in place names and fixed expressions).

Example: When Grandma's cousin Apolonija Jagodzińska sent a postcard of herself to grandpa Joe & grandma Stella, she writes "Panjątka Kochanemu Wujkowi i Wujece" meaning something like "A souvenir for (my) beloved uncle and aunt."

Panjątka means souvenir, I've chosen to say "a souvenir" rather than "the souvenir" based on the context of the postcard. Kochanemu comes from kochany and means "beloved." It is in the dative case because the noun it modifies is wujkowi (the dative form of the noun wujek). Kochanemu is declined as an animate masculine singular adjective, implying only her uncle (Joe) was "beloved" otherwise she would have chosen the plural dative form of the adjective. Wujenka also appears in the dative form as wujece. Her mother, Jozefa, was a sister of grandpa Joe.

The personal pronouns are ja (I), ty (you sing.), on (he), ona (she), ono (it), my (we), wy (you pl.), oni (they masc.), one (they fem. or inanimate).

When a personal pronoun functions as a subject pronoun, it is typically dropped from the sentence. The conjugation of the verb makes the subject pronoun apparent. When they do appear in a sentence, it is often for emphasis (of contrasting).

Example: "I am American" is Jestem Amerykaninem. But, "John is American, whereas I am English" is John jest Amerykaninem, a ja jestem Anglikiem. Notice how ja is used for emphasis, "whereas I am English."

Unlike English, whose verbs are tense based, Polish verbs are aspect based. Each verb is either imperfective, meaning that it denotes continuous or habitual events, or perfective, meaning that it denotes single completed events (perfective verbs have no present tense). Verbs often occur in imperfective and perfective pairs – for example, jeść and zjeść both mean "to eat", but the first has imperfective aspect, the second perfective. Imperfective verbs have 3 tenses: present, past, and future. Perfective verbs have a past tense and a simple future tense. The past tense conjugations of verbs must agree with their subject's number and gender. There are also imperative, conditional, and subjunctive moods for verbs.

Helpful Expressions (Greetings, Questions, etc.) & Cultural Notes

Those educated prior to 1989 often don't speak or understand English (or any other foreign languages besides Russian). However, younger generations frequently take English courses in school (and to a lesser extent also German, French, and Spanish).

When speaking with Poles, note that there are some cultural differences. Poles tend to be more reserved than Americans, so greetings in Polish are usually not as long or drawn out as they are in America. That is to say, the "hello" is not automatically followed by the question "how are you?" If you ask this question to a Pole, they will begin to tell you about their day, whether it's good or bad, in detail. That is to say, they won't reply with a simple "good," or "fine," or "eh, so-so."

Polish, like many foreign languages, also distinguishes its speech based on formal and informal terms. When greeting a stranger, instead of using the pronoun ty which means you (singular), you should use Pan or Pani (feminine). Although they are taking the place of a 2nd person singular pronoun, they are treated like 3rd person singular pronouns. So when you conjugate your verb, you should use the 3rd person singular form not the 2nd person singular form. You should also use these forms when speaking to anyone older than you are, unless they agree to be on more familiar terms (ty-terms) with you.

Here is a list of some basic greetings and phrases you might find helpful. (Try putting them into Google Translate to hear what they sound like).