1.Polish is considered as one of the most difficult languages! I’m so lucky to be Polish 😉
2. The population in Poland is around 38mln but there are more than 50mln people speaking Polish language in the World!
3. Many important people are/were Poles like: Mikołaj Kopernik (Nicolaus Copernicus), Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Andrzej Wajda, Adam Małysz, Fryderyk Chopin or Święty Jan Paweł II (Saint John Paul II).
4. It is believed that the geographical center of Europe is situated in Poland. Exactly in Polish village called “Suchowola”.
5. Zamek w Maborku (Malbork’s Castle) is one of the biggest gotic castle in the World. It was the most powerful fortress of medieval Europe. It is one of my favourite spots to visit in Poland!
Today we will learn how to say “hello” and other greetings used in everyday Polish language.
Let’s get it started! 🙂
Powitania-Greetings
Słowniczek – Glossary:
Cześć = Hi/hello
Hej = Hi
Witam/Witaj = Welcome
Dzień dobry = Good morning/ good afternoon
Dobry wieczór = Good evening
Dobranoc = Goodnight
Do widzenia = Goodbye
Do zobaczenia = See you
Do jutra = See you tomorrow
Pa pa = Bye bye
In Poland we are distinguishing formalandunformal language. Formal language is to be used with strangers, our supervisors and elder people. On the other hand, unformal will be used talking with your family, friends or ocassionaly with peers (f.e. if they are not your supervisors/bosses).
That language rule can be broken only if a person would ask you to be called by their name:
“Proszę, mów mi Anna…” – Please, call me Anna…”.
“Cześć”, “Hej” and “Pa pa” – are typical for unformal language, we won’t use them in formal conversation.
In formal convesation we would use“Witam”, “Dzień dobry”, “Dobry wieczór”, “Do widzenia”.
Of course, it is not a crime to use “Witaj!” with your friends but it might cause a smile on their faces. That rule is more about putting in life good education and manners. A child wouldn’t say “Cześć” to a teacher beacause it is simply inappropiate 🙂
There are 7 two letter combinations in Polish language. Each of them corresponds a single sound. Letters ch = h and rz = ż are pronunced exactly the same way.
1.Watch the videos with pronunciation, pause the video and repeat the sound of each letter!
2. Make a list of the words with each letter of the Polish alphabet. F.e. “a” – auto, “d” – dom, “z” – zebra (you can use the words that appeared in the videos or other words that you already know).
3. Find similarity! Write down to which sound in your language the sound is similar f.e. “cz” in Polish word “cześć” for English speaker would be like “ch” in the “chocolate”.
4 .Make your letter “memory word”! For each of the letters have one word that is going to be like your reminder when you will forget how the letter sounds. F.e. the word “dom” is going to be always your “memory word” for the letter “d”.
5. Learn all the rules “Remember that” from last post!
6. Make sure to update your list and add new words to it!
Do you have any ideas how to make learning Polish alphabet easier?
there are no words starting with letters „ą”, „ę” i „ń”
there are also two-letter combinations, each of them representing a single sound: ch, cz, dz, dź, dż, rz, sz
Letters: ó =u , h = ch, ż = rz are pronunced the same way
Letters q, v, xcan be found only in the words taken from other languages, e.g., fax, xero
Zmiękczenia/ To soften some of the letters we are adding „i” after the consonant: bi, chi, ci, dzi, fi, gi, hi, ki, mi, ni, pi, si, wi, zi
You will need to practise how to write: ą, ę, ł, Ł
You might find many videos with Polish alphabet, although the 3 videos listed below are my favorite ones as they are focusing on different aspects.
Polski alfabet wymowa/ Polish alphabet pronunciation:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKa1XH09Bzo (published by PrologLanguageSchool ) In this video you can hear veary clearly the pronunciation of each single letter in the Polish alphabet. I would make only one small correction here, when they pronunce “ó” it should sound exactly the same as “u” (ó =u).
Alfabet z przykładami wyrazów/ Alphabet with examples of the words:
published by Lulek.tv
That video is showing how the letters sounds in the words. Also, thanks to the picture we can guess what is the meaning of each word.
3. Alfabet + dwuznaki (ch, cz, dz, dź, dż, rz, sz) + zmiękczenia (bi, chi, ci, dzi, fi, gi, hi, ki, mi, ni, pi, si, wi, zi)/ Alphabet + two-letter combinations + words with “i” after the consonant
published by Erni School Of Polish
First of all, I really like that video because it is made in form of the song. Beside the alphabet letters we can hear how to pronunce two-combination letters (like “cz” or “sz”) and consonants with “i” (like “bi” or “si”). All the words are illustrated with pictures which is kind of helpful as well.
I know that it may seems a bit complicated but trust me it is possible to learn it!
To help you with that, my next post is going to give you some tips how to make your learning Polish alphabet much easier 🙂
MyPolish4U 