So here they are – Polish numbers from 0 to 100:

• 0 – zero
• 1 – jeden
• 2 – dwa
• 3 – trzy
• 4 – cztery
• 5 – pięć
• 6 – sześć
• 7 – siedem
• 8 – osiem
• 9 – dziewięć
• 10 – dziesięć

• 11 – jedenaście
• 12 – dwanaście
• 13 – trzynaście
• 14 – czternaście
• 15 – piętnaście
• 16 – szesnaście
• 17 – siedemnaście
• 18 – osiemnaście
• 19 – dziewiętnaście
• 20 – dwadzieścia

• 30 – trzydzieści
• 40 – czterdzieści
• 50 – pięćdziesiąt
• 60 – sześćdziesiąt
• 70 – siedemdziesiąt
• 80 – osiemdziesiąt
• 90 – dziewięćdziesiąt

• 100 – sto

Happy counting!!!

a

Tweet This Post

From 100 to 999, it’s pretty much straightforward. You already know the numbers from 1 to 99. And if you’ve ever sang “Sto lat” at a Polish birthday party, you also know how to say 100, even if you don’t realize it.

Yes, “sto” is 100. And “Sto lat” means “Hundred years.” After “sto” it gets a little more difficult:

• 100 – sto
• 200 – dwieście (which is actually a version of “dwa” and “sto” put together, but I know it can be hard to see it that way)
• 300 – trzysta (again, trzy + a version of sto)
• 400 – czterysta (cztery + a version of sto)
• 500 – pięćset (pięć + a version of sto)
• 600 – sześćset (sześć + a version of sto)
• 700 – siedemset (siedem + a version of sto)
• 800 – osiemset (osiem + a version of sto)
• 900 – dziewięćset (dziewięć + a version of sto)

OK, so far so good.
Now we get to thousands:

• 1000 – tysiąc
• 2000 – dwa tysiące (which is “dwa” + plural of “tysiąc”)
• 3000 – trzy tysiące
• 4000 – cztery tysiące
• 5000 – pięć tysięcy (pięć + a “declined” plural of “tysiąc”)
• 6000 – sześć tysięcy
• 7000 – siedem tysięcy
• 8000 – osiem tysięcy
• 9000 – dziewięć tysięcy

That’s easy, right? Well, kind of easy, considering all the other stuff we have to put up with in Polish.

Where it gets really nasty with all those thousands and hundreds is how we read years in Polish. No easy 19-71 here. We do it the hard way:

• Tysiąc dziewięćset siedemdziesiąt jeden.

Or, if I want to say that I was born in 1971 (and no jokes about my age here, please! OK?):

• W tysiąc dziewięćset siedemdziesiątym pierwszym roku.

Ouch! Yes, I know, I know… But that’s not all.

There’s a million for you:

• 1 000 000 – milion (yes, with only one “L” in Polish)

Let’s assume you’ll need to deal with really big numbers, as in “1 followed by 9 zeros”.
In English – that’s a billion – 1 000 000 000.
But in Polish, it’s a miliard (tysiąc milionów).
And what about a Polish bilion? That’s “1 followed by 12 zeros” – 1 000 000 000 000.

Didn’t I tell you it was going to get all goofy? Luckily, I (and I assume most people) don’t normally deal with those kinds of numbers in my (their) daily life…

Post from: Polish Blog

Let’s start with today’s date: January 12, 2010.
In Polish: dwunastego stycznia, dwa tysiące dziesiątego roku.

Yeah, it’s a mouthful, I know… But unfortunately, in order to express yourself in Polish, you need to know those big numbers.

It seems that most foreign expats in Poland can manage easily enough from zero up to ten. Or even up to twenty. Above that, it gets much more difficult for most people. Why? The words are hard to say and even harder to spell. Even for a native Pole. Yes, that’s right. It’s difficult to pronounce the words correctly, so most people don’t (I don’t either) and if you ask a bunch of random Poles to spell “650”, for example, my field tests show that about 50% of the respondents will make a mistake.

But, first things first. Do you remember how to say “10”? Dziesięć.

Even if that’s all you remember, that’s OK actually. If you know how to say “dziesięć”, you should be able to see the pattern in numbers from 10 to 90.
Take a look:

• 10 – dziesięć
• 20 – dwadzieścia (dwa + dzieścia)
• 30 – trzydzieści (trzy + dzieści)
• 40 – czterdzieści (czter + dzieści)
• 50 – pięćdziesiąt (pięć + dziesiąt)
• 60 – sześćdziesiąt (sześć + dziesiąt)
• 70 – siedemdziesiąt (siedem + dziesiąt)
• 80 – osiemdziesiąt (osiem + dziesiąt)
• 90 – dziewięćdziesiąt (dziewięć + dziesiąt)

See anything interesting?

Yes, you are absolutely right. That second compound is a variation on “dziesięć”. The first (with the exception of “czter”, because it’s missing the ending – “y” /cztery/) is just the regular number from 2 to 9.

So basically, if you take the words apart and look at them carefully, you can see that in Polish we say “two tens” for 20, “three tens” for 30 and so on. Which means that if you already know the numbers from 1 to 10, you know them all the way up to 99.

“Oh wait,” I hear you say, “but what about the teens?”

No worries, they may look difficult, but are, in fact, quite easy.

Take a look:

• 11 – jedenaście (jeden + naście)
• 12 – dwanaście (dwa + naście)
• 13 – trzynaście (trzy + naście)
• 14 – czternaście (czter + naście) – here that final “y” in “cztery” is missing again.
• 15 – piętnaście (pięt + naście) – yes, this one is a bit goofy, instead of “pięć” you have “pięt”
• 16 – szesnaście (szes + naście) – this one is slightly irregular too, instead of “sześć” you have “szes”
• 17 – siedemnaście (siedem + naście)
• 18 – osiemnaście (osiem + naście)
• 19 – dziewiętnaście (dziewięt + naście) – another slightly irregular one, instead of “dziewięć” you have “dziewięt”.

So again, all you need to remember is the “naście” ending, and even if you mess up the first part (or forget that some are irregular), everybody will be able to understand you anyway.

The real problem is not the numbers themselves, but the fact that they decline every which way possible. Unfortunately, that’s Polish for you!

We’ll tackle the really big numbers next time!

Post from: Polish Blog

So… how does it feel to live in 2010? I see there’s a debate going on in the media (at least in the US) on what to call this year in English: twenty-ten or two thousand ten. I’m in the 20-10 camp myself.
Luckily, there’s no such problem in Polish. It’s rok dwa tysiące dziesiąty (year two thousand ten) whether you like it or not. And yeah, it’s a mouthful, that’s for sure. But that’s how we say it in Polish. And just wait till the next century rolls around! Ha! Then it will get even more complicated. But fortunately, we don’t have to worry about it for następne dziewięćdziesiąt lat (another 90 years).

We should definitely learn how to say those big numbers in Polish, but let’s do it another time.

For now, let’s take a quick look at the last decade. And boy oh boy, was it a busy decade for Poland, or what!

First, we got to finally join the European Union. That was back in 2004 and seems like so long ago now, but in fact it was just a little over 5 years ago. Then we got to join the Schengen zone, and the rest is history. And oh yeah, let’s not forget Canada which very kindly allowed us to visit our friends and relatives in Toronto and Vancouver  bez wiz (without visas). How awesome is that?

Poles can travel freely now, move to and work in other EU countries and basically do what they want where they want.

What a difference a decade can make! Ten years ago who would have thought that people from Canada and Australia would actually desire a Polish passport (polski paszport)! And jump through a multitude of legal hoops to get it!

Yes, it was a very interesting decade indeed!

I am not sure what the next ten years will bring for Poland. Because with Poland, you just never know.

One of my friends wishes for visa-free travel to the US. Personally, I don’t think it will happen before 2156, or so. But if it by some chance does happen earlier, be sure to remind me and I’ll eat my words, OK?

So, what do you think this new decade will mean for Poland? Will things change or will it be just more of the same?

Useful words:

• dekada (noun, feminine, plural: dekady) – decade
• wiek or stulecie (noun, wiek-masc., stulecie-neuter, plural: wieki, stulecia) – century
• rok (noun, masc., plural: lata) – year

PS. And what about your postanowienia noworoczne (new year’s resolutions)? Would you like to share?

Post from: Polish Blog

So here I am, at your service.

What the reader wanted was this: please tell me how to count (in Polish, of course) the following nouns: dziecko (child, neuter), nauczycielka (teacher, female), pisarz (writer, masculine), jesień (autumn, feminine), mysz (mouse, feminine), and słoń (elephant, masculine). Though I am not entirely sure if the reader wanted słoń (elephant) or słońce (sun), so just in case I think I’ll do both.

Initially, I wrote back and told him to look up my previous posts on this subject, but he responded that this is the time when grammar explanations are not enough, he needs to see how it’s actually done in practice. OK, fine by me. And actually, I just wanted to throw those words at you (all my readers in general) and see what you could come up with in terms of counting them from one to five. But since the email had the “the world is going to end on Thursday at 3PM if you don’t help me” tone, I thought I’d just get up and do it myself.

But why do I have this strange feeling that I’m doing somebody’s homework here, huh?

Ok, but here we go.

• dziecko (child) from one to five:
• jedno dziecko, dwoje dzieci, troje dzieci, czworo dzieci, pięcioro dzieci

• nauczycielka (female teacher) from one to five:
• jedna nauczycielka, dwie nauczycielki, trzy nauczycielki, cztery nauczycielki, pięć nauczycielek

• pisarz (writer, male) from one to five:
• jeden pisarz, dwóch pisarzy, trzech pisarzy, czterech pisarzy, pięciu pisarzy

• jesień (fall/autumn, feminine) from one to five:
• jedna jesień, dwie jesienie, trzy jesienie, cztery jesienie, pięć jesieni

• mysz (mouse, feminine) from one to five (this is a tricky one and I hope I got it right):
• jedna mysz, dwie myszy, trzy myszy, cztery myszy, pięć myszy

• słoń (elephant, masculine) from one to five:
• jeden słoń, dwa słonie, trzy słonie, cztery słonie, pięć słoni (and we have a whole circus!)

• słońce (sun, neuter) from one to five:
• jedno słońce, dwa słońca, trzy słońca, cztery słońca, pięć słońc

OK, dear reader, I hope this is what you had in mind. And I hope I managed before your doomsday deadline.

Post from: Polish Blog