Learn how to use the phrase "Do you speak English?"
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| Cześć! Jestem Joanna. Hi! I’m Joanna. |
| Welcome to PolishPod101.com’s “Polski w 3 minuty”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Polish. |
| In the last lesson, we learned the most common forms of greetings in Poland. Do you remember them? |
| In this lesson we’re going to learn a very useful phrase: “Do you speak English?” |
| If you find yourself in a situation where you need assistance in English, this phrase can be a lifesaver. And because you’re asking it in Polish, you can be sure that everyone will understand what you’re saying, even if their answer is no. |
| Here's an informal way to say it. |
| Czy mówisz po angielsku? |
| [slowly] Czy mówisz po angielsku? |
| Czy is a particle which has no meaning. It’s similar to the English “do”. |
| In Polish, verbs change depending on the pronoun that is used. Since you can understand what the pronoun is by looking at the verb conjugation, we usually skip the pronoun itself. That’s why there’s no pronoun after czy. Next, we’ve got verb mówisz, which means “speak”. |
| Then there’s po which we always have to put right before a language name. |
| And finally, angielsku, which means English. |
| We’re now going to make this sentence formal. |
| First of all we have to change mówisz into mówi, because the pronoun is changed from “you”, into a respectful pronoun meaning “sir” or “ma’am.” Then, we add Pan, which means “sir”, or Pani, which means “ma’am”. Everything else stays the same: |
| Czy mówi Pan / Pani po angielsku? |
| [slowly] Czy mówi Pan / Pani po angielsku? |
| Adding Przepraszam , "excuse me", makes the sentence more polite: |
| Przepraszam, czy mówi Pan / Pani po angielsku? |
| [slowly] Przepraszam, czy mówi Pan / Pani po angielsku? |
| The response you will receive could be one of these four: |
| Tak. "Yes." |
| [slowly] Tak. |
| Trochę. "A little." |
| [slowly] Trochę. |
| Nie. “No” |
| [slowly] Nie. |
| Nie, nie mówię po angielsku. "No, I don’t speak English." |
| [slowly] Nie, nie mówię po angielsku |
| Since the last one is a negative statement, we need to say nie before the verb, mówię. Notice also that the verb is slightly different than before.. Remember, the verb changes depending on the pronoun used. We are now addressing ourselves, so the sentence is: |
| Nie mówię po angielsku. |
| Now it’s time for Joanna’s Insights. |
| For those of you who are not only English speakers, you can obviously use this question with any language you need. Polish people study other European languages at school, so maybe you will get lucky! Just substitute angielsku with… |
| niemiecku for German |
| rosyjsku for Russian |
| włosku for Italian |
| hiszpańsku for Spanish |
| francusku for French |
| Today we mentioned the expression Przepraszam. But did you know that this could also be used as an apology? In the next lesson we will learn this and other ways to apologize in Polish. It’s never too late to show your good manners with Polish people! |
| I'll see you in our next Polski w 3 minuty lesson. |
| Do zobaczyska! |
Comments
HideOkay.
Cześć suffitas,
Bardzo się cieszymy, że podoba Ci się ta lekcja.
Powodzenia w nauce polskiego! 😄
Kind regards,
Hanna
Team PolishPod101.com
Tak, trochę mówię po angielsku. A również trochę mówię po polsku. I trochę piszę. I jestem bardzo wdzięczny pani Joanno za piękną lekcję.
Witaj Anirudh,
You made some mistakes.
First, if you use "ona" you cannot use masculine form of verb.
Hence, the correct form form for "ona" is "biegła".
"Jesteśmy", "Jesteście",and "On/one" need "biegli" or "biegłe", depending if we are talking about women or men
I hope it helps!
Hanna
Team PolishPod101.com
Witam ,
Jestem Ani ?
Czy te zdania brzmią dobrze ?
" Chcę być biegły w polskim ".
" On jest biegły w niemieckim ".
" Ona nie jest biegły w francuskim ".
" Jesteśmy biegły w hiszpańskim "
" Jesteście biegły w angielskim ".
" Oni/one są biegły w włoskim , arabskim i rosyjskim"
" Mówię o książkach i ludziach" (I talk about books and people)
Dziękuję
Cześć Dave!
Thanks for your comment.
Both word orders in this phrase are correct.
You can ask:
"Czy mówi pan / pani po angielsku?"
or:
"Czy pan / pani mówi po angielsku?"
This kind of word order in Polish often does not make a bigger difference. You will discover it while studying Polish and I am sure you will get accustomed to it.
Keep learning!
Hanna
Team PolishPod101.com
Does the word order of this phrase matter?
Czy mowi pan / pani po angielsku?
It is just that in another language course I heard it spoken like:
Czy pan / pani mówi po polsku? Do you speak Polish Sir / Madam?
Hi Hlaing,
Thank you for your positive feedback!
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Cristiane
Team PolishPod101.com
its great and I can learn very well with polish 101,and I would like to suggest is youtube fro polish 101 is so nice and I can learn from there and even when I learn from polish 101, I feel my self confidence.
thank u
haling wai phyo
Cześć Dave!
Thank you for posting!
Well spotted! Both 'Do zobaczenia' and 'Do zobaczyska" mean the same: 'See you later!', 'See you!'. The first form ('Do zobaczenia') is more formal, you can use it with friends and at work, where 'Do zobaczyska' is more of a casual way of saying 'See you'. I would recommend using it with friends and in less official situations.
I hope that helps, but if not, please just let me know!
Cheers:sunglasses:
Basia
Team PolishPod101.com
In my last message I should have translated the Polish I used to benefit others:
Dziękuje za wszytko - Thank you for everything.
Pozdrwiam - Regards
na razie - So long
Dave
Cześć,
Why when you ended lesson 2 did you say at the end: Do zobaczenia, but at the end of lesson 4, it changed to: Do zobaczyska?
Do they both mean: See you / See you later
Dziękuje za wszytko.
Pozdrawiam.
Dave
Hi Joel,
Thank you for posting!
We are glad to hear that you are planing to visit our country soon :laughing:
Don't forget to practice.
Cheers!
Laura
Team PolishPod101.com
I am learning much from this course, -one of the easiest fastest and most engaging courses I have found for learning Polish. I need basic skills quick for we are vacationing Poland, esp. in & around Warsaw, this August.