Learn all you need to know about greetings in Polish
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Intro |
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| Michael: Which greetings depend on the time of day in Polish? |
| Igor: And can they be replaced with time-neutral greetings? |
| Michael: At PolishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Ben Lee is greeting his friend, Mariusz Michalski, but he hasn't noticed how late it has become. Ben says, |
| "Good morning." |
| Ben Lee: Dzień dobry! |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Dzień dobry! |
| Mariusz Michalski: Jest już 9 wieczorem. Dobry wieczór! |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Dzień dobry! |
| Michael: "Good morning." |
| Mariusz Michalski: Jest już 9 wieczorem. Dobry wieczór! |
| Michael: "It's already 9:00 PM. Good evening." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will talk about time-sensitive Polish greetings. Polish, similar to English, has some greetings that are used depending on the time of the day or |
| Igor: pora dnia |
| Michael: Polish people mostly use the following two greetings: |
| Igor: Dzień dobry |
| Michael: meaning "Good morning." The literal translation is actually "Good day," but this phrase is used throughout most of the day, from the morning to the late afternoon. |
| The second greeting is |
| Igor: Dobry wieczór |
| Michael: meaning "good evening." This greeting is used from about 6:00 PM, or after sunset, going into the evening. As you can hear, there are some similarities between English and Polish when it comes to time-sensitive greetings. What makes Polish different, though, is the lack of a specific greeting for the middle of the day, such as the English "Good afternoon." |
| Another thing that makes Polish a little different from English is that "Good morning" and "Good evening" are generally considered quite formal, so you will probably not hear them too often among friends. However, these time-sensitive greetings are ideal for situations when you need to be polite or respectful. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Ben Lee says "Good morning"? |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Igor: Dzień dobry! |
| Michael: As we learned before, "Good morning" is used in the early morning hours, but it can also be used throughout the day. However, there are other ways that Ben could have greeted his friend. In Poland, it is more common to hear this casual, friendly greeting |
| Igor: Cześć! |
| (pause 3 seconds) |
| Michael: This means "Hello" and is typically used to greet family and friends, or anybody else you are very familiar with. For instance, you could greet your work colleagues this way but not a clerk in a shop. You should definitely avoid using it in business meetings or with older people you don't know very well. When in doubt, it's always safe to use the more formal |
| Igor: Dzień dobry! |
| Another common phrase is |
| Igor: Hej! |
| Michael: Does it sound familiar? It's exactly like the English "Hey!" It is as popular as the previous casual greeting and the two are often used interchangeably. |
| Now, if you have not seen someone for a while, you can greet them in this way |
| Igor: Co u ciebie? |
| Michael: meaning "How have you been?" It's a great way to ask about someone's well-being while saying "Hello." There is another similar phrase to this one |
| Igor: Dawno się nie widzieliśmy. |
| Michael: meaning "Long time no see." Yes—even Poles say that, just like the English phrase! And then, another rather relaxed greeting you can use is |
| Igor: Jak tam? |
| Michael: It means "What's up?" and is very similar to this one |
| Igor: Jak leci? |
| Michael: meaning "How's it going?" Try to remember that, as in English, you should keep this casual manner for your conversation with friends! Finally, here is a polite and friendly way to greet somebody new: |
| Igor: Miło cię poznać. |
| Michael: meaning "It's nice to meet you." |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now let us take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Mariusz says "It's already 9:00 PM. Good evening?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Igor: Jest już 9 wieczorem. Dobry wieczór! |
| Michael: By now, I am sure you can understand why Mariusz corrected Ben! He used a morning greeting when it was already rather late in the evening. The correct greeting for evening time, as we have already learned, is |
| Igor: Dobry wieczór |
| Michael: This is a time-sensitive evening greeting for when you meet up with people. But how would you say "Good night" when it is time to go home? |
| Igor: Dobranoc |
| Michael: This means "Good night" and, as in English, you can use it after dark. However, use this only for people you know rather well and avoid using it in formal situations. |
| For a more casual way to say "Goodbye," you can say |
| Igor: Pa pa! |
| Michael: This is a very easy-going ‘bye-bye," and it can be used at any time of the day when you are leaving friends. |
| Another way to say "Goodbye" to your friends is saying |
| Igor: na razie |
| Michael: meaning "see you!" |
| Another way to say "see you!" is |
| Igor: do zobaczenia! |
| Michael: which literally means "until the next time we see each other." |
| If the situation is formal, however, you should say |
| Igor: Do widzenia! |
| Michael: instead, which means "until the next time we see each other!" and is a polite parting phrase. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In today's lesson, we learned that Polish has two formal time-sensitive greetings, which are |
| Igor: Dzień dobry |
| Michael: which you can use throughout the day and |
| Igor: Dobry wieczór |
| Michael: for the evening, starting at around 6:00 PM. You also learned a few informal greetings that you can use to say hello or goodbye at any time of day. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michel: Polish is a very creative language, which can be seen when it comes to Polish greetings. We have talked before about more formal or less formal greetings, although Polish has dozens of "slang greetings," which originated with the speech of young people but are acknowledged and used throughout all generations. One such greeting is |
| Igor: Siema! |
| Michael: The English equivalent is "What's up!" and just as in English it is used to say "Hi." Something interesting about this word is that it's a shortened version of the phrase |
| Igor: Jak się masz? |
| Michael: meaning "How are you?" Before it became a part of the Polish language, this phrase, although slightly different, |
| Igor: siemasz |
| Michael: was associated with |
| Igor: Jurek Owsiak |
| Michael: the founder of |
| Igor: Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy |
| Michael: meaning "the great orchestra of Christmas aid" or |
| Igor: WOŚP |
| Michael: which is a non-profit NGO that collects money to mainly support children's hospitals in Poland, buying necessary medical equipment. After he started to use the phrase, it slowly made its way into the everyday vocabulary of Polish people. |
| Today, except for the two previously mentioned forms, Poles also use |
| Igor: siemka, siemanko, or ema |
| Michael: which are all forms of |
| Igor: siemasz |
| Michael: Another greeting popular among young people is |
| Igor: elo |
| Michael: This greeting became popular in the 1990s, especially among teenagers who listened to Polish rap music. It's an abbreviation of the English word "hello," and while used back then by a very small group of people, today it's very well known by many people in Poland. |
| Another slang greeting is |
| Igor: cze |
| Michael: which is a short form of the word |
| Igor: Cześć |
| Michael: simply meaning "hi." This actually isn't used that often anymore, although you might still find people greeting you this way. |
| Now, let's have a look at some Polish parting phrases. The first one is |
| Igor: nara |
| Michael: meaning "see ya." This is an abbreviation of the previously mentioned phrase |
| Igor: na razie |
| Michael: meaning "see you later." This parting phrase also has many other forms that refer back to its usual form, such as |
| Igor: narka |
| Michael: Another word you might hear often when leaving your friends is |
| Igor: pozdro |
| Michael: which is the short form of the word |
| Igor: pozdrowienia |
| Michael: meaning "greetings." This is usually used by younger people. |
| The next phrase is |
| Igor: trzymaj się |
| Michael: literally meaning "hold yourself," but the meaning is more like "take care." |
| This can be also shortened to |
| Igor: trzymsię. |
| Michael: Lastly, you can also hear a lot of people saying goodbye using the phrase, |
| Igor: do zoba |
| Michael: which means "see ya," and is the shortened form of the phrase |
| Igor: do zobaczenia. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: In Poland, it's very common to shake hands while saying one of the previously mentioned greetings. However, in informal situations, people also tend to give each other high fives for saying "hi" or "bye," but in Poland instead of "high five" you should say |
| Igor: piątka |
| Michael: simply meaning "five." Another way to greet someone is using the fist bump, often accompanied by one of the slang greetings. This is called |
| Igor: żółwik |
| Michael: in Polish, literally "small turtle," because, for Polish people, the fist looks like a small turtle. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Igor: Do zobaczenia! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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