Every now and then I’ll try to teach you some useful Polish words, phrases, expressions, etc. One day they’ll come useful, you’ll see!
What word shall we start with? Why not ‘Cześć’. No, no – don’t roll your eyes! I know it’s got only one vowel and two weird-looking characters, but all will be explained.
‘Cześć’ is the equivalent of ‘hi’ in English and, well, performs exactly the same function. Here’s how to pronounce it:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Easy, eh? Just don’t get carried away. Polish people are a bit more formal and while it’s ok to say ‘Hi!’ while speaking to someone in a British shop, your GP surgery or a bus driver, in Poland ‘cześć’ is mostly reserved for friends or to greet someone you know well.
The two funny characters ś and ć are quite frequent in Polish and they simply make the letters ’s’ and ‘c’ softer. But let’s leave that for another occasion. I don’t want to put you off too soon 
Loading ...
