The Polish Language (Is this real?!)

This video is all about the Polish language, including its history and linguistic features!

(Disclosure: If you upgrade to a premium plan, Langfocus receives a small referral fee that helps support this channel).

Special thanks to Sebastian Marcin Siwik for help with the Polish audio recordings for this video.

Andres Resendez Borgia, Anjo Barnes, Auguste Fields, Behnam Esfahbod, Bennett Seacrist, Brandon Gonzalez, Clark Roth, Fiona de Visser, Georgina Toland, Guillermo Jimenez, Jacob Madsen, John Moffat, Marcelo Loureiro, Matthew Etter, Michael Arbagi, Michael Cuomo, Nobbi Lampe-Strang, Patrick W., Paul Boychuk, Rosalind Resnick, Ruben Sanchez Jr, Sebastian Langshaw, ShadowCrossZero, Victoria Goh, Vincent David, Yuko Sunda, [APG]RoboCop[CL], Adam Powell, Adam Vanderpluym, Alberto del Angel, Alex Hanselka, Ali Muhammed Alshehri, Andrew Woods, Angeline Biot, Aous Mansouri, Ashley Dierolf, Atsushi Yoshida, Avital Levant, Bartosz Czarnotta, Brent Warner, Brian Begnoche, Brian Morton, Bruce Schultz, Bruce Stark, Bruno Filippi, Carl saloga, Charis T'Rukh, Chelsea Boudreau, Christian Langreiter, Christopher Lowell, David LeCount, Debbie Levitt, Diane Young, DickyBoa, divad, Divadrax, Don Ross, Donald Tilley, Edward Wilson, Eric Loewenthal, Erin Robinson Swink, Fabio Martini, fatimahl, Grace Wagner, Gus Polly, Hannes Egli, Harry Kek, Henri Saussure, Herr K, Ina Mwanda, Jack Jackson, James and Amanda Soderling, James Lillis, Jay Bernard, Jens Aksel Takle, JESUS FERNANDO MIRANDA BARBOSA, JK Nair, JL Bumgarner, Justin Faist, KEERTHI BANGALORE JAYARAM, Kevin J. Baron, Klaw117, Konrad, Kristian Erickson, Laura Morland, Lee Dedmon, Leo Coyne, Leo Barudi, Lincoln Hutton, Lorraine Inez Lil, Luke Jensen, M.Aqeel Afzal, Maanas Nukala, Mahmoud Hashemi, Margaret Langendorf, Maria Comninou, Mariana Bentancor, Mark, Mark Grigoleit, Mark Kemp, Markzipan, Maurice Chou, Merrick Bobb, Michael Regal, Mike Frysinger, mimichi, Mohammed A. Abahussain, Nicholas Gentry, Nicole Tovar, Oleksandr Ivanov, Oto Kohulák, Panot, Papp Roland, Patrick smith, Patriot Nurse, Paul Shutler, Pauline Pavon, Paulla Fetzek, Peter Andersson, Peter Nikitin, Peter Scollar, Pomax, Raymond Thomas, Renato Paroni de Castro, Robert Sheehan, Robert Williams, Roland Seuhs, Ronald Brady, Ryan Lanham, Saffo Papantonopoulou, Samuel Croes, Scott Irons, Scott Russell, Sergio Pascalin, Shoji AKAO, Sierra Rooney, Simon Blanchet, Spartak Kagramanyan, Steeven Lapointe, Stefan Reichenberger, Steven Severance, Suzanne Jacobs, Theophagous, Thomas Chapel, Tomáš Pauliček, Tryggurhavn, veleum, William MacKenzie, William O Beeman, William Shields, yasmine jaafar, Éric Martin.

Sources include:

Polish in Three Months by Danusia Stok.
Teach Yourself Polish by Nigel Gotteri, Johanna Michalak-Gray.
Polish--an Essential Grammar by Dana Bielec.

Music:

“Clobber” by Silent Partner.
“Time Illusionist” by Asher Fulero.

The following images are used under Creative Commons Sharealike license:

Still images which contain the above images are offered for use under CC Sharealike license.

[Langfocus]

(Full disclosure: if you upgrade to a paid plan, Langfocus receives a small referral fee. But if I didn't like it, I wouldn't recommend it, and the free account is pretty good on its own!)


*** A couple of notes about this video. In the video I said that Polish is the most linguistically homogeneous country in Europe, as it is reported in some sources. But there are other countries including Hungary and Greece that may be more linguistically homogeneous (Hungary at 98.9%, and Greece at 99%). I looked at some documents from the Polish Central Statistics Office and got these stats: 96.2% of people in Poland use only Polish at home. Another 2% use both Polish and another language at home, making it 98.2%. And if we include speakers of Silesian who only speak Silesian at home, it's 98.5%. So it's among the most homogeneous, but it doesn't seem to be #1.


Another thing, in the video I said that Z is the most common letter in Polish, but it's only the most common consonant. There are several vowels that occur more frequently than any consonant.


There's a typo @12:00 - the singular dative of matka is matce, not matke.
@12:14 - the masculine personal plural nominative of "młody" is "młodzi", not "młodi".
And

[AlbiMiftari_Albania]

Ja jako albańczyk chodziłem na studium języka polskiego w łodzi 4 lata temu i tam nauczyłem się polskiego. Jestem bardzo zadowolony że podjąłęm tą decyzje bo teraz pracuję jaką przewodnik i oprowadzam polaków po albanii. Pozdrawiam

[kubek]

As a person from Poland I sometimes think we made our language so hard in order to confuse foreign spies.

[cheburashka]

youtube recommendation: hey wanna learn some polish?
me, a native polish speaker: sure, why not

[nathantancula]

When I began learning Polish in 2008, the grammar was incomprehensible for me since I am an American, native English speaker. Fast-forward to 2023 and there are people from all corners of the world moving here and the methods of teaching Polish as a second language have drastically improved! My advice to anyone living in Poland is to try to speak as much as possible and never get intimidated. Most Poles are happy that you at least try! Krok po kroku idziemy do przodu!

[atenanoktua]

Profesor filologii polskiej na wykładzie:
- Jak Państwo wiecie w językach słowiańskich jest nie tylko pojedyncze zaprzeczenie. Jest też podwójne zaprzeczenie. A nawet podwójne zaprzeczenie jako potwierdzenie. Nie ma natomiast podwójnego potwierdzenia jako zaprzeczenia.
Na to student z ostatniej ławki:
- Dobra, dobra.

[magorzatasz]

Ten dziwny moment, gdy jako Polak oglądasz film o języku polskim w języku angielskim...

[ЭдуардГерасимов-кт]

My native language is Russian, but I really adore Polish, it’s so beautifully expressive. Moje najlepsze życzenia dla wszystkich Polaków!

[spkojnypl]

As native, i need to tell: we dont know how we speak, it's just our "flow" so dont be afraid ;)
PS: when you talk about "czytać" and "przeczytać" i was thinking about 1 super hard thing: we got:
- czytać (read)
- odczytać (read to others on loud for example speach)
- wyczytać (read on loud too but for example list of students)
- wczytać (read with high precission, with special commitment)
- przeczytać (when you gonna read something in the future)
- rozczytać (read something hard to understand, for example ugly letters on paper)
- sczytać (download a file)
- poczytać (read something for fun, without commitment)
- doczytać (read something back what we left before)
And we have maaaany words like this ;)

[bezimxdxd]

po obejrzeniu dziwie się, że potrafię mówić po polsku.

Just as the Indonesian 🇮🇩 and Polish 🇵🇱 flags are opposite to each other, "tak" means no in Indonesian and yes in Polish.

[Greg]

English: two, both
Polish: dwa, dwaj, dwie, dwu, dwóm, dwóch, dwiema, dwoma, dwojga, dwoje, dwójka, dwójki, dwójce, dwójkę, dwójką, dwójek, dwójkom, dwójkami, dwójkach, obydwa, obydwaj, obydwie, obydwu, obydwóm, obydwóch, obydwiema, obydwoma, obydwoje, obydwojga, obydwojgu, obydwojgiem, oboje, obojga, obojgu, obojgiem, oba, obu, obaj, obie, obiema, oboma
I think that's all forms, but I still might have missed something.
Learn Polish! It's easy! 😃

[ivayola]

I'm a Bulgarian Polish speaker, and I can confirm that this has been the hardest Slavic language to learn. Guess the reason is that Poland is geographically the most distant country to Bulgaria from all other Slavic. However, I love the Polish culture, patriotic spirit, and the Polish people! BG♥PL!

[TDMxGalgas]

Polish for dummies:

Lesson 1: Mama (mom), Tata (dad)
Lesson 2: Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz, Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody.
Have fun learning.

[arwahsapi]

🇮🇩 (ID) Tak = No
🇵🇱 (PL) Tak = Yes
Also look at our flags, they oppose each other.

[AdamAdamski]

If I was not a native Polish speaker, my head would explode from just watching this video.

[azarishiba]

I'm Costa Rican. I speak Spanish. She's Polish. Obviously speaks Polish. We met for the first time in Japan since we teach Japanese in our respective countries. We speak in Japanese. I taught her a little bit of Spanish. She enjoyed it. I ask her to teach me Polish. Then she said in Japanese "you don't want to learn Polish, believe me, there is nothing simple I can teach you". Still I was curious. Then, I watched this video. Yep, she was totally right. I can't believe Polish is this complicated. But, if someday I go there, I want to speak a little Polish to make her happy. If she someday comes here, I want to speak a little Polish in case she becomes homesick. So, ¡yo le entro, papá! 望むところにござる！

[XCashfull]

Im a simple hungarian. When I see something about Poland, I press like like there is no tomorrow!

[TigerTzu]

"Hey how do I say this in Polish?"
"Well that depends..."
"On what?"
"On several things; who's saying it, what they're saying it about, what time of day it is, whether you slept well last night, how many planets are currently in retrograde, etc."
"Ah... Thanks"

[elecstorm]

We, the Polish, have a simple rule: we see a video about our country, we flock like moths to a flame.