the POLSKI blog

27 May, 2009

Polish travel phrases – polish your Polish, part 14

Posted by: Michał In: polish your Polish| travel

I’ve been asked by a few people to post something on basic questions regarding directions and asking for help in Polish. And as the summer holiday season is upon us, here are some basic phrases you may need while travelling in Poland.

Let’s start by buying a ticket. Any ticket.

Bilet

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Ticket. The plural is:

Bilety.

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If you want a normal one, you need

Bilet normalny.

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However if you need a discounted fare, you will ask for

Bilet ulgowy.

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Usually if you are at a station you’ll get your ticket from

Kasa (biletowa)

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A ticket desk. And if they speak English there, then you’re in luck. Otherwise, try asking for a ticket by saying:

Poproszę bilet do Krakowa

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“Can I have a ticket to Krakow, please?”

Poproszę bilet

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will do the trick if the ticket desk sells only one kind of tickets, for example tram or bus tickets. Now, you might already have your ticket, but you cannot find the station. Ask for directions:

Przepraszam, gdzie jest stacja (kolejowa)?

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which translates as “Excuse me, where is the (train) station?” As everywhere, it pays to be polite to the locals, hence the word ‘przepraszam’ at the beginning. You can also try a similar pharse:

Przepraszam, jak dojść do stacji?

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“Excuse me, how do I get to the station?” Which is probably more useful as it’s not train station specific and can be used for all sorts of stations. Obviously.

Right, that will do for now. I’m exhausted just writing this stuff, you must be exhausting trying to put all the consonants together. Most travel phrases next time!

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The POLSKI blog is written by Michał, a Polish journalist, writer, one-time language teacher and linguist, living and working in London.

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