When you listen to Polish people speaking Polish in an informal situation, you will hear the word no on many occasions. To your confusion, it has not much to do with the negative word no in English. On the contrary, it's a colloquial expression for tak meaning yes. When Poles agree, they nod their head and say no. Check out this short dialogue:
A: Czy to prawda, że znów chcesz kupić nowy samochód? (Is it true that you want to buy a new car, again?)
B: No! Czas na zmianę. (Yes! It's time for a change)
The same word works when forming questions:
A: Mam pytanie (I have a question) says one person
B:No? (Yes?/Well, what is it?) replies the other person with a rising intonation.
When you're unsure about something, use no:
No, nie jestem pewny/pewna. (Well, I'm not sure [man/woman speaking])
No, nie wiem. (Well, I don't know)
There is no better way to express how much you appreciate your future mother-in-law's cooking than by saying:
No, to jest wyśmienite! (Well, this is absolutely delicious!)
When someone is telling a very interesting story and you simply can't wait for them to get to the end, you can rush them politely:
No, no i co dalej? (Well, come on, what happened next?)
No is also used to emphasise an order:
Chodź no tutaj! (Come here!)
Or to express a warning:
No, ale bez żartów! (Don't you dare play any jokes!)
And finally, it expresses finality:
No to cześć! (Goodbye then!)
No to do następnego tygodnia! (Till next week then!)
No matter how quickly you can pick up a language, the how do you say... question will be the one you're going to need on many occasions, and on all levels of fluency.
Here is how you do it in Polish:
Jak powiedzieć po polsku ...?
Jak się mówi ...?
for example:
Jak powiedzieć po polsku smile? How do you say smile in Polish?
Jak się mówi I like you? How to say I like you?
When something a Polish person has just said is not so clear you can use a phrase I teach my students on the very first Polish lesson:
Co to znaczy? What does it mean?
or
Co to znaczy ... ?
where the three dots ... stand for any word or any phrase you want to know the meaning for. For instance you can say the following:
Co to znaczy kocham cię?
What does kocham cię mean? (which by the way means I love you)
In case you haven't got a clue what someone is saying, try this one:
Nie rozumiem I don't understand.
Przepraszam, nie rozumiem I am sorry, I don't understand
You can ask them to rephrase:
Czy możesz to powiedzieć inaczej? (informally)
Proszę to powiedzieć inaczej. (formally)
You can always excuse your Polish by saying the following:
Dopiero się uczę polskiego.
Literally: I'm only learning Polish
Słabo mówię po polsku.
I speak Polish not so well/(literally: poorly)
Nie znam dobrze polskiego.
I don't speak [literally: know] Polish well
Having said that you will be surely assured of how great your Polish is.
Useful Polish phrases with audio, to express your love.
You've met the one to be and want to tell her or him that you love them. In Polish, of course. I hope you find the following phrases good enough to express your deep feelings (you can use them when speaking to both a man and a woman):
Kocham cię. I love you.
Kocham cię z całego serca. I love you from the bottom of my heart.
Ciągle o tobie myślę. I think about you all the time
Nie mogę przestać o tobie myśleć. I can't stop thinking about you.
Chcę z tobą spędzić resztę życia. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.
Dziękuję za cudowną randkę. Thank you for a lovely date.
Cieszę się, że cię poznałem/poznałam. I'm happy I've met you [speaking to a woman/man].
And a few romantic requests:
Przytul mnie! Give me a hug!
Pocałuj mnie! Kiss me!
Wyjdź za mnie! Marry me!
Women don't usually propose in Polish but if can't resist the temptation, say the following:
Ożeń się ze mną! Marry me!
To practice these phrases download our deck of flash cards with audio from ankiweb.net. Please give us 5 stars!
