Polish

The Polish language is a member of the Western Slavic group of the Indo-European family of languages. It is easiest to learn if one already knows some other related language.

Flag of Poland

III	This is a Category III Language.

The most closely related are other Western Slavic languages: Czech, Slovak, Silesian, Kashubian and Sorbian. More distant are the Southern and Eastern Slavic languages like Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian and Russian, Ukrainian, Belorusian, respectively.

Polish is spoken by a total of approximately 40 million people, making it the second most widely spoken Slavic language in the world, after Russian. Speakers of related languages can pick it up without much effort.

Someone who doesn't speak any Slavic language, but speaks some other Indo-European language, may still find many similarities between Polish grammar and the grammar of that language, as well as many similar words.

This Wikibook is designed for anyone who wants to learn the basics of the Polish language. It is suitable for beginners and those who have been learning the language for a few years.

Table of contents

Market square of Kraków

Lesson 1

1. Polish pronunciation
2. Basic grammar
   • Exercises - Introductory conjugation
   • Exercises - Introductory declension
3. Some useful expressions
   • Exercises - Useful expressions
4. Introductions
   • Exercises - Introducing yourself, simple questions
5. List of words (Lista słów)

Lesson 2

1. More on nouns - genders
2. Order of words in a sentence
3. Plural
4. Noun cases (declensions)
   • Hard and soft consonants
   • Feminine noun declension
   • Masculine noun declension
   • Neuter noun declension
   • Prepositions as hints to declensions
5. Cześć! Jak się masz?

Lesson 3

1. Conjugations of common verbs
   • Exercises - Conjugations of common verbs
2. Adjectives
   • More on adjectives
   • Comparative and Superlative
   • Possessive Adjectives

Lesson 4

1. Grouping expressions
2. Questions
3. Verbs
   • Usage of the infinitive
4. Na kursie

Lesson 5

1. Conversation in Polish
2. Vocabulary

Lesson 6

1. Declension
   • Nominative case (mianownik)
   • Genitive case (dopełniacz)
   • Dative case (celownik)
   • Accusative case (biernik)
   • Instrumental case (narzędnik)
   • Locative case (miejscownik)
   • Vocative case (wołacz)

Grammar

1. Present tense (czas teraźniejszy)
2. Past tense (czas przeszły)
3. Future tense (czas przyszły)
4. Conditional mood (tryb przypuszczający)
5. Imperative mood (tryb rozkazujący)

Grammar 2

1. Nouns - Gender (Rzeczowniki - Rodzaj)
2. Nouns - Number (Rzeczowniki - Liczba)
3. Pronouns (Zaimki)
4. Possessive pronouns (Zaimki dzierżawcze)
5. Nouns - Gender II (Rzeczowniki - Rodzaj II)
6. Adjectives (Przymiotniki)
7. Nouns - Number II (Rzeczowniki - Liczba II)
8. Verbs (Czasowniki)

Copyright

This document was originally copyright 2002 Tomasz Węgrzanowski & Anna (grammar) <taw@users.sf.net>

It may be distributed under terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Since its original writing, it has been edited and redistributed on Wiktionary and, currently, Wikibooks.

See also

• Wikijunior:Languages/Polish — version for children.
• Polish language in English Wiktionary and Polish Wiktionary
• Polish phrasebook (WikiVoyage)
• Wikipedia: Polish language
• Polish Wikipedia
• Polish pronunciation records on Wikimedia Commons
• False Friends of the Slavist

External links

• Course for A1-A2 levels with grammar, dictionary, and forum

Further reading

• Sadowska, Iwona (2012). Polish: A Comprehensive Grammar. Oxford; New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-47541-9.