Polish language

**Polish** () is the official language of Poland. It is the most common Western Slavic language and the second Slavic language, after Russian.

Polish has been an important language in Central and Eastern Europe. Polish is now spoken by over 43.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a Second language in western parts of Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine. Because of emigration during different times, millions of Polish-speakers can be found in Australia, Ireland, Brazil, Canada, United Kingdom, United States and elsewhere. There are over 50 million speakers around the world.

## Letters

There are 9 letters in Polish that English does not have. They look like English letters with marks above or below them.

In lower case, the 9 letters are: ą ć ę ł ń ś ó ź ż

In upper case, the 9 letters are: Ą Ć Ę Ł Ń Ś Ó Ź Ż

There are 3 English letters not used in Polish: q, v, x.

There are 7 combinations of 2 letters that are like a single letter sound (similar to "th" or "qu" in English). These include "ch", "cz", "dz", "dź", "dż", "rz", "sz".

## Sounds

Many letters have the same sound in Polish and English, such as "f" "m", and others, but other letters sound different: Polish "w" sounds like an English "v", and Polish "ł" sounds like an English "w". There are also some Polish sounds that do not exist in English and some English sounds that do not exist in Polish.

The vowels "ą" and "ę" are nasal and so they are pronounced by blowing air partly out of both the nose and the mouth.

Most words are pronounced with an accent on the second-last syllable: "student" (which means the same as the English word) is pronounced with the accent on "stu" ("STU-dent"), and "studenci" (the plural form of "student") is pronounced with the accent on "den" (stu-DEN-ci).

## Dialects

The Polish language has several dialects but they are more similar to one another than most other European languages. There are small differences, but all speakers can understand one another, and non-native speakers often cannot notice the differences.

## Grammar

Grammar is complex, and has features that are unlike English.

Like many other languages, Polish has grammatical gender. A table (_stół_) is masculine, a book (_książka_) is feminine, and a window (_okno_) is neuter.

Nouns and adjectives and verbs have many endings, depending on their role in a sentence. There are 7 cases that show the role of a noun in a Polish sentence. Each has its own ending, which also depends on the gender of the noun.

Word order is freer than in English, partly because the case and gender endings help to understand the role of the noun. In English, "The boy bites the dog" is quite different from "The dog bites the boy", but in Polish, both orders can be used without confusion.

## Sample Phrases

**Dzień dobry** - _Good morning_ or _Good afternoon_

**Dobry wieczór** - _Good evening'

**Do widzenia** - _Good bye_

**Cześć!**  - _Hi_, _Hello!_ or _Bye_

**Tak** - _Yes_ (in Polish, long-short answers like _Yes, I did_ are not needed, and **Tak** is enough)

**Nie** - _No_ or _Not_ (in Polish, long-short answers like _No, I won't_ are not needed, and **Nie** is enough)

**Jak się masz?** - _How do you do?_

**Co robisz?** - _What you doing?_

**Jak się nazywasz?** or **Jak masz na imię?** - _What's your name?_

**Nazywam się** - _My (name and) surname is..._

**Mam na imię** - _My (given) name is..._

**Nie mówię po Polsku** - _I do not speak Polish_

**Lubię Cię** - _I like you_

**Kocham Cię** - _I love you_

**Nie mówię po Angielsku** - _I do not speak English_

**Jak dojechać na lotnisko/dworzec** - _How do you get the airport/rail station?_
(where **dworzec** - _station_ means _rail station'' by default)

**Jeden** - One

**Dwa** - Two

**Trzy** - Three

## Other websites

- Wikibooks:Basic Polish language course

## Infobox (language)

- **name**: Polish
- **nativename**: język polski
- **states**: Poland
- **speakers**: 45 million L2 speakers:~5million
- **date**: December 2021
- **familycolor**: Indo-European
- **fam2**: Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic
- **fam3**: Slavic languages, Slavic
- **fam4**: West Slavic languages, West Slavic
- **fam5**: Lechitic languages, Lechitic
- **ancestor**: Old Polish
- **ancestor2**: Middle Polish
- **script**: Latin (Polish alphabet)
Cyrillic alphabet, Cyrillic (Cyrillization of Polish)
Polish Braille
- **nation**:

---
- **agency**: Polish Language Council
- **iso1**: pl
- **iso2**: pol
- **iso3**: pol
- **lingua**: 53-AAA-cc < West Slavic languages, 53-AAA-b...-d
(varieties: 53-AAA-cca to 53-AAA-ccu)
- **notice**: IPA
- **minority**:

- **ethnicity**: Poles
- **region**: Mainly in Poland, but there are minorities in Ukraine, Belarus, Czechia, Slovakia, Germany and Lithuania
- **dia1**: Kashubian , though it is often called a separate language
- **dia2**: Silesian
- **dia3**: Greater Polish
- **dia4**: Lesser Polish
- **dia5**: Masovian