500 most useful Polish phrases

In Poland the hard part of a first month is the questions people ask you, so this list prints them. A cashier's Reklamówkę?, a waiter's Razem czy osobno? and a ticket clerk's Normalny czy ulgowy? each get a row beside what you will say yourself: the 500 Polish phrases of The Vocabcord 500, written and reviewed by us, split into three lanes (survive, travel, work) and grouped by the situations of a day. Pan and pani are the polite default with strangers; informal ty forms appear in workplace exchanges and notes. Grammar is the one thing the page leaves alone. You will say Poproszę bilet do Warszawy correctly long before you can explain why Warszawa changed its ending, and nobody at the window will care.

How to read and use this list

Each table has three columns: the Polish, the English and a note. 145 of the 500 rows carry one, put there because the English alone would mislead; read it first. Pan is to a man and pani to a woman, the register for anyone who has not offered you ty; where colleagues would say it on ty, the note gives that form. Past tenses and adjectives change with the speaker's gender, so the row prints one form and the note the other: Zgubiłem się in the table, Zgubiłam się in the note, and the same for every Chciałbym. The email greeting Szanowni Państwo, ends with a comma. The sign-offs Z poważaniem and Pozdrawiam do not; the University of Warsaw language advice service explains the distinction. All 500 also ship in Vocabcord as a downloadable pack, with text-to-speech pronunciation for every row. Get the app, choose Polish and open Vocabcord 500. It plays one phrase each time the phone goes on the charger: Polish, a pause, English, a pause, Polish again. One word per charge explains why it is one. You can also print this page or save it as a PDF.

Off the screen it travels as a printable PDF or a CSV. Quote a row and link here; we are preparing a licence for anyone who wants the full 500.

First contact: greeting, thanking, apologising

Dzień dobry covers a newcomer's whole day, until early evening. Cześć is marked informal because saying it to a shop assistant sounds like you learned Polish from a flatmate. Learn Przepraszam and Proszę before any greeting: przepraszam is sorry and excuse me at once and opens every question to a stranger; proszę is please, here you go and you're welcome, said whenever anything changes hands. The table includes Jak się pan ma?, but you do not need it as an automatic greeting at a shop counter; Dzień dobry is enough. Smacznego is a useful wish when someone is about to eat.

Making yourself understood

Say Uczę się polskiego before anything else. It explains that you are learning. Czy mówi pan po angielsku? is useful too, when you need to switch to English. Proszę powtórzyć carries the first aspect trap on the page. Powtórzyć asks for one repeat; the powtarzać a course teaches first would ask them to keep going. Słucham? is the pardon Poles actually use, and the same word answers the phone. Chwila, przetłumaczę w telefonie is in because that is how a real exchange gets rescued now, when a translation app can help.

Getting around: tickets, buses, trains, taxis

Poproszę is the word this table runs on, the polite way to ask for anything, in Poproszę bilet do Warszawy and Na dworzec, poproszę alike. The clerk's questions, W jedną stronę czy w obie? and Normalny czy ulgowy?, are here with their one-word answers. Czy muszę skasować bilet? asks about validation. Requirements differ by city and ticket: paper tickets may need stamping, mobile tickets may need activation, and some are already valid when issued. Check the fare's reduced-price eligibility separately. Jak dojść do rynku? and Jak dojechać na lotnisko? are kept apart, on foot from by transport, because asking how to walk to the airport gets an odd look.

Hotel and the first night in a flat

Hotels and shops both ask Paragon czy faktura? A paragon is a receipt and a faktura an invoice. If you need a company invoice, have the company details and NIP ready; private customers can also request an invoice. Poproszę fakturę makes that request. Room numbers are said as one number, which is why the key row reads Poproszę klucz do pokoju dwieście czternaście. The second half is for the first night in a rented flat, when the questions turn to Nie ma ciepłej wody and Gdzie wyrzuca się śmieci?, and the note on the five bins is week-one housekeeping. Small talk with reception is left out; nobody expects it.

Eating out: ordering, paying, allergies

Zestaw dnia, poproszę asks for the set lunch where one is offered. Check the menu for the price and whether it includes soup, a main or anything else. Poproszę wodę niegazowaną asks for still water; gazowana means sparkling. Ask for wodę z kranu if you want tap water. Two requests mark a foreigner faster than an accent does: tea with milk, when Poproszę herbatę z cytryną is the Polish tea, and a pint, when Poproszę duże piwo already means half a litre. The last row, Na osiemnastą, dla czterech osób, is the 24-hour clock; a booking for szósta is, on paper, six in the morning.

Shopping and money: the four questions every till asks

Four rows in this table are questions you will be asked rather than ask, and they are the most useful four on the page. Reklamówkę? is the cashier's one word for do you want a bag, and it comes so fast that most newcomers hear it as a price; Paragon czy faktura?, Ma pan aplikację? and Czy ma pan drobne? follow at many tills. Answer Paragon or Faktura to the receipt-or-invoice question. Nie mam works if you do not have the shop's app or any small change. Odbiorę w paczkomacie is in because parcel lockers are how the country receives its post, and the word is on every checkout page.

Health: pharmacy, doctor, symptoms

The frame to learn is Boli mnie plus the part that hurts: Boli mnie głowa, Boli mnie gardło, Boli mnie tutaj with a finger. The doctor's own question, Od kiedy to trwa?, has a ready answer under it. Mam receptę w telefonie is the one that catches people out: you can use a four-digit e-prescription code together with your PESEL, or show the prescription's scannable code. With the QR code in mojeIKP, you do not need to say your PESEL. The patient service explains the options. Płacę prywatnie is how a newcomer without public cover sees a doctor this week. The table is thick with gendered rows, przeziębiony and przeziębiona, uczulony and uczulona, because how you feel is an adjective and adjectives agree with you.

Emergencies: 20 lines you can say without thinking

We kept this table to 20 rows on purpose; in an emergency you want lines that come out on their own. Proszę wezwać pogotowie is the one to have ready, and the note gives the numbers to dial. The row people forget is Nic mi nie jest: it tells someone you feel okay or are not hurt. Use it when that accurately describes your condition; the phrase itself does not establish that help is unnecessary. The second half is theft, the emergency a visitor actually has; Muszę zablokować kartę is for the bank's phone line. Proszę mnie zostawić closes the table, firm but polite.

Phone, data and the internet

Poproszę starter asks for a prepaid SIM pack. Registration is required; check which identity documents and methods the provider accepts. The longest row on the page, Mój numer to sześćset jeden, dwieście trzydzieści cztery, pięćset sześćdziesiąt siedem, is here because Polish numbers are read in threes, each group as one number, and reading yours digit by digit makes people ask you to start again. Rozładował mi się telefon is the line here we hope you need least, since a phone on its charger is where the rest of the list gets heard.

Forms, offices and the landlord

A tourist can skip this table; anyone who moves here cannot. Two nouns carry the first half. PESEL is a personal identification number used on many forms, and meldunek means address registration. Chcę się zameldować starts that conversation. Whether you need a PESEL depends on the procedure; gov.pl explains how foreign residents can obtain one. Some offices use numbered queue tickets. Proszę pobrać numerek means take a number; check whether your office uses that system or booked appointments. In the flat-hunting half, ask Czy media są wliczone? before you ask the rent: adverts quote rent, then czynsz administracyjny, then media, and the number you saw is only the first.

First day at work

The trap on day one is the switch to ty. In a formal workplace, the senior person may offer it with Możemy przejść na ty?; other teams use ty from the outset. The table gives an answer, Jasne, jestem Tomek. Jestem umówiony z panem Nowakiem tells someone else whom you have an appointment with. It is not a model for addressing Mr Nowak directly. Kiedy jest szkolenie BHP? looks odd until your first morning, when the safety briefing the law requires arrives with a sheet to sign. The last rows, from Jak minął weekend? to Miłego weekendu!, are the ty lines that hold a working week together.

Meetings and calls

If you learn one line from this table make it Nie do końca się zgadzam. It expresses partial disagreement. Nie zgadzam się is more direct and also perfectly ordinary; choose the one that matches what you mean. On the phone, Dzień dobry, z tej strony Anna z firmy Nowak is the fixed introduction, and z tej strony is the part English gives you no way to guess. Pasuje on its own is a complete answer to a proposed time, and it is the quickest way to sound like you belong on the call.

Email and messages

Polish email opens in one of two registers and the table gives both. Szanowni Państwo, is the formal opener when you have no name; Dzień dobry, panie Tomaszu is the everyday one, and it is the row English speakers misread. Pan with a first name in the vocative is formal and familiar at once, how you greet a boss in the corridor, and turning it into Mr Tomasz in your head is the mistake. Sign off with Pozdrawiam for everyday work and Z poważaniem for more formal correspondence. Neither sign-off takes a comma.

Asking for help, deadlines, problems

Zrobię to do piątku is where Polish aspect stops being a grammar chapter and becomes a promise. Zrobię, the perfective, says the thing will be finished by Friday; Będę robić, which looks like the English will be doing, says you will still be working on it, and a manager hears the difference. Its partner is Nie zdążę, a verb with no clean English that means I will not make it in time, and it is the honest sentence to send on Thursday. Mogę zadać głupie pytanie? is in because it works, and Gotowe, one word, is how you report back.

Pay, contracts, sick leave, holidays

Ask Czy to umowa o pracę? before you ask about money, because it decides more than the salary. An umowa o pracę is governed by employment law; umowa zlecenie and B2B arrangements have different terms and protections. Costs depend on the arrangement, and Wystawię fakturę na koniec miesiąca exists for B2B. Brutto czy netto? is the second question, since job adverts quote gross. L4 is the everyday word for a sick note; the doctor files it online and Mam L4 do piątku is all you tell your employer. Chciałbym porozmawiać o podwyżce comes with a warning: it is a sentence for a booked meeting, so both people have time to discuss it.

Sightseeing and small talk with strangers

Polish small talk with a stranger is short, and the table is sized to match. Ale leje! and Ale zimno! show the frame behind most Polish exclamation: ale plus the thing. Czy mogę się dosiąść? is the row worth learning by heart, because shared tables are normal in a milk bar and the answer, Proszę bardzo, comes with a chair. Flattery about the country is missing; Podoba mi się Kraków is the one compliment in the table, and it lands better than a speech.

Feelings and opinions

Przykro mi expresses regret or sympathy, including when someone shares bad news. Przepraszam is the direct apology and also means excuse me. Dam radę, I'll manage, can reassure someone about a task or a difficult situation, including in response to Proszę się nie martwić. The collection ends with Dobrze się tu czuję: a way to say you feel comfortable here.

What did not make the list

Four kinds of phrase were cut. Proverbs went first; a newcomer needs none, and a proverb said with an accent sounds like a costume. Next came textbook sentences, the kind written to show off a case ending and never said aloud. Slang dates, so it is out. So is anything a course teaches for grammar: number tables, the days of the week as a list, the conjugation of być. Numbers appear where a day produces them, Dwanaście pięćdziesiąt at a till, and days inside sentences like Pracuję zdalnie w piątki. We also left out the word no. In speech it means yeah, and it is a habit to catch by ear, so it is absent from the tables and present in every conversation. Add what your own case needs: the words of your trade, the names of your medicines, the stop before your flat. The part we are least sure of is the work lane. It assumes an office; a warehouse or a kitchen moves to ty in the first hour and runs on nouns this list does not have.

How 500 phrases stick without a study plan

A page is easy to read and easy to forget. Phrases stay when you meet them again on a schedule, and keeping the schedule is what people drop. Vocabcord plays one phrase every time your phone goes on the charger: on iOS that is one personal automation in the Shortcuts app, and Android detects the charger directly, subject to the required background and battery settings. Playback on either platform remains subject to its restrictions. A weighted decay sampler picks the phrase. Its weight grows with the days since you last heard it, on a five-day scale, and a row you have never heard counts as about twenty days overdue, so the app favours entries you have not heard recently. There is no streak to keep. At three or four plug-ins a day, a 30-day month gives you 90 to 120 playbacks, including repeats. That is not a count of new phrases learned. The full collection is available as a downloadable pack in the app, alongside the graded corpus of 4,708 Polish entries from A1 to C2, counted on the Polish corpus statistics page.

Common questions

How many Polish phrases do you need to get by in Poland?

Fewer than 500 for a week and about 500 for a first month. The first two tables, 62 phrases of greeting, thanking and repair, get a visitor through a day of pointing and Przepraszam. The survive lane, 204 phrases across seven tables, is the first weeks of living here; the travel and work lanes, 154 and 142 phrases, are for the visitor and the new hire.

Should I learn pan and pani or ty first?

Pan and pani are a useful polite default with adult strangers. At work, follow the team's convention. Możemy przejść na ty? offers a switch to ty, and Jasne, jestem Tomek accepts it. Once agreed, ty is normally what you continue using.

Is this the Polish spoken everywhere in Poland?

Yes: standard Polish as spoken across the country, which varies less from city to city than a learner fears. Where the everyday thing changes the note says so; Gdzie jest najbliższa stacja metra? only makes sense in Warsaw, and elsewhere you ask for the tramwaj.

What is the difference between Przepraszam and Przykro mi?

Przepraszam is a direct apology and also means excuse me. Przykro mi expresses regret or sympathy, including in response to bad news. They overlap in some situations; for a simple apology after bumping into someone, Przepraszam is the straightforward choice.

What is the fastest way to memorise them?

Start with phrases you can use soon: the first two tables and the cashier's questions are useful choices. Say them aloud and revisit them after using them. These 500 are currently on the website; the app already provides charger-triggered practice with its existing Polish vocabulary packs.