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 byeCześć!  - Hi, Hello! or ByeTak - 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 PolishLubię Cię - I like youKocham Cię - I love youNie mówię po Angielsku - I do not speak EnglishJak 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

References

 Other websites 

 Wikibooks:Basic Polish language course

Category:West Slavic languages
Category:Languages of Poland