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Lesson Transcript

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Top Polish Words and today, we will be doing Top 25 Polish Phrases. My name is Marzena. Let’s start. So the first phrase is,
1. Cześć. Cześć means “Hello” in Polish.
So when you meet your friend, you can say, Cześć which would be like saying, “Hello” but then again, you can use Cześć to say “bye” as well.
For example, when you meet your friend, you can say, Cześć and then when you have to go back home, you can say Cześć again. So this one is pretty useful.
So our next phrase is,
2. Dzień dobry. Dzień dobry means “Good morning” in English but actually what it literally means is, Dzień which is a day and dobry which is good. So actually what you are saying, it's a good day. That’s why we can use it through the whole day, not only in the morning. You can say it in the evening as well or in the afternoon, you can say it to your friends or to your family and to a person you don’t know as well. So feel free to use it anytime you want.
And our next phrase is,
3. Dobry wieczór.
Dobry wieczór means “good evening.” It literally means “good evening.”
For example, through the whole day, you’d say Dzień dobry but at the end of the day, you would say, Dobry wieczór.
Now actually a lot of people you know it’s very difficult to know when can you start saying that, when can you start saying Dobry wieczór instead of Dzień dobry. So the people I know start with like Dzień dobry. They want to say Dzień dobry but they didn’t notice its already evening and they say like, Dzień dobry-wieczór, which is the funny way of saying that. Now, you can try it if you want.
4. Dobranoc means “goodnight.”
So you would usually use it before going to bed, when you want to say bye to your family and then to your friends and just you are sleepy. You will just say Dobranoc.
Dobranoc, it’s actually it’s one word but it actually came from two different words. So like Dobra which means good and noc, night. So it literally means “goodnight” but it’s a one word right now.
5. The next phrase is,
Jak się nazywasz? Which means, “What is your name?”
If you meet a new person, you can use it but remember that this phrase will be better to use with people of the same age or people younger because it literally means, “what is your name?” and not “what is your name sir?” Or “what is your name ma’am?” That’s why it’s not too good to use for, like, older people. It’s better to use it for your friends, for people of the same age or for younger people, for children as well. So once again, Jak się nazywasz?
And the next one is,
6. Nazywam się [name].
So obviously if you ask, Jak się nazywasz? “What is your name?” You have to answer that and that’s Nazywam się, which means, “my name is”
For example - Nazywam się Marzena.
So the next phrase is,
7. Miło mi ciebie poznać. Which means, “It’s nice to meet you.”
So obviously when you meet a new person, you ask - Jak się nazywasz? And you answer - Nazywam się, like Nazywam się Marzena. And then at the end, you usually say like, “It’s nice to meet you” And that would be Miło mi ciebie poznać.
So the next phrase is,
8. Jak się masz? Which means, “How are you?”
Now, the funny thing is that we don’t really ask that a lot in Poland. I mean, we do but not as often as you do it in English. So when you ask somebody Jak się masz? “how are you?” Be careful because this person can actually give you the real answer.
The next phrase for today is,
9. Dobrze, dziękuję. A ty? “I’m fine, thanks. And you?”
As I told you before, this may not be the answer that you would get. Some people will say so but some people would just start talking about their problems, about their life and instead of just getting “I’m fine, thank you. And you?” you will get the whole life story of this person and all the problems and everything related. So be careful when you ask this one. It’s usually good to ask your friends, people who you are closer to with whom you really want to talk a lot and then you will get an answer, longer answer but of course, if you are asked and you don’t want to talk about your life, you can just say, Dobrze, dziękuję. A ty?
10. Proszę. “Please”
Proszę means “please” in English. And you can use it, for example, when you give somebody something. So like Prosze or when you ask somebody to do something like - Proszę, proszę, zrób to dla mnie?
"Please, please, please do it for me?"
So going to the next phrase,
11. Dziękuję
Dziękuję means “thank you” in Polish.
Well, you can use it to basically anybody you want. When somebody passed you something, or saying Proszę; you can say Dziękuję.
When somebody invites you inside, saying - Proszę, Proszę, you can say Dziękuję as well. When somebody offers you tea or coffee, you can say Dziękuję.
If you don’t want it though, you can say - Nie, dziękuję, which means, “no, thank you.”
12. Nie ma za co. "you are welcome"
Nie ma za co means "you are welcome" but what it actually literally means, it’s, “there is nothing to be thankful for.” So we usually say dziękuję, and the other person would say, Nie ma za co.
And the next phrase we have here is,
13. Tak. Tak means just “Yes”
Whenever you want Yes, “Yes” and it’s basically the same as in English.
So for example, when you want to use Tak, if somebody asks you,
Do you want a tea or do you want something to drink and you can say, Tak or you can say actually adding please, Tak Proszę. And when this person passes it to you, you can add dziękuję.
The next phrase is,
14. Nie means “No.”
For example, if somebody offers you something to drink, if you want it, you can say, “yes, please” which would be Tak Proszę; but if you don’t want it, you can say Nie or you can say - Nie, dziękuję, adding thanks to that.
So, “do you want something to drink?” Nie, Dziękuję.
And the next phrase is,
15. Dobrze means “Okay”
So for example, when your friends ask you to go somewhere or like do you want to go grab something to eat together, and you can say, Tak or you can say Dobrze, let’s go. “Yeah sure okay, let’s go.” Or if they ask you if you want to go together for a trip, you can say, “yeah sure, dobrze”, “yeah, I want to go.”
The next phrase is,
16. Przepraszam.
Przepraszam has many different meanings. So it can mean “excuse me” but it also can mean “I am sorry”. So you would see a lot of Polish people mixing excuse me and I am sorry in English because it’s actually one word in Polish.
So for example, when you stepped on somebody’s leg, you can say Przepraszam. When you did something wrong, you can say Przepraszam. When you want to pass through like crowd of people, you can say, Przepraszam, Przepraszam and find your way out. If you did something wrong, you can say, Przepraszam as well.
So it’s actually a pretty useful one. So it means “Excuse me” but it means, “I am sorry” in the same time.
17. Przepraszam.
Przepraszam means “I am sorry.”
So the next phrase is,
18. Która jest godzina? Means “What time is it?”
If you want to ask somebody, “excuse me, what time is it now?” You can say, przepraszam, która jest godzina?
So let’s go to the next one. Another very useful phrase.
19. Gdzie jest toaleta? Which means, “Where’s the toilet?”
So gdzie means actually where. Jest means be or to be and toaleta is toilet. So gdzie jest toaleta means “where’s the toilet?”
So if you are in the shopping mall or in a restaurant, and you want to ask, “Excuse me, where’s the toilet?” You will say - Przepraszam. Gdzie jest toaleta?
The next phrase is,
20. Poczekaj chwilkę.
Poczekaj means “to wait” and chwilkę means “a moment” and together it means, “wait a moment please.”
When you see your friend going somewhere but you still want to talk to him or her and you can just you know call them and then say, Poczekaj chwilkę.
21. Ile to kosztuje?
Ile to kosztuje? means “how much is this?”
When you go to a shop, you will say,
Przepraszam. Ile to kosztuje? So "excuse me, how much is this?”
Przepraszam. Ile to kosztuje?
22. Czy mogę prosić o rachunek? “Can I get the check, please?”
So imagine you are sitting in a very nice Polish restaurant eating pierogi or any other wonderful Polish dish and you just finished and you just want to get your bill. So you would just call the waiter saying - Przepraszam, and then you will add - Czy mogę prosić o rachunek?
And the next one for today is,
23. Pomocy! This means “help”
And I hope you will not have to use this one any time soon but if you are ever in danger, if you are ever in a very dangerous situation which I hope you will not be in Poland, you can use this one saying Pomocy!
24. Do zobaczenia “see you later.”
You can use it when you speak with your friends and with your family or with anyone basically because it’s not super formal but it’s not only reserved to your closest friends.
So like for example, we started this one with Cześć which was hello but it was bye as well and this one you would use when you speak with your friends, you will say Cześć but then for everybody else, your friends included, you can say Do zobaczenia, which means, “until we see each other again.”
25. Nie potrafię dobrze mówić po polsku. “I can’t speak Polish very well.”
Nie potrafię means “I can’t”, mówić means “to speak” and then po polsku means “in Polish.”
So Nie potrafię mówić po polsku. It literally means, “I can’t speak Polish very well.” Or “I can’t speak in Polish very well.” If you wanted a very literal translation.
When you start learning the language and you are still not so good and you meet like people and you want to tell them that your Polish, it’s not so good or it’s not super good yet, you can use this phrase.
Nie potrafię dobrze mówić po polsku.
Thank you guys for watching. This was Top 25 Polish phrases and if you like this video, remember to give it a thumbs up and leave some comments below if you have any questions.

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