Bits of Polish

We’ll have a look at cardinal numbers today, from 0 to 1000. I guess many of you will find the very look of the numerals intimidating, with all the dz and sz sounds, so there are audio files accompanying every section. You can listen and decide for yourself if they’re really so scary!

Let’s start with the basic numerals. Make sure you have them memorized before you move on:

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

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Moving on beyond ten, you’ll notice a pattern – the numerals follow a pattern that’s, if you ask me, easier than in English. No odd ones like eleven or twelve here! Notice, though, that it’s not fully predictable – in some cases, like czternaście and dziewiętnaście, just sticking –naście to the simple number won’t do, you’ll have to change it a little.

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

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.

Let’s move on to the multiples of ten. Just don’t get discouraged by the consonant clusters – you’re not actually supposed to pronounce pięćdziesiąt and sześćdziesiąt as pięć-dziesiąt and sześć-dziesiąt. You can safely get rid of the ś, which I do in the recording. Some people do meticulously pronounce every sound, and some other people call it hypercorrection and consider it a grave mistake. Well, to each their own.

20 dwadzieścia
30 trzydzieści
40 czterdzieści
50 pięćdziesiąt
60 sześćdziesiąt
70 siedemdziesiąt
80 osiemdziesiąt
90 dziewięćdziesiąt

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It’s not difficult either with whole hundreds. The only one completely new to you is sto. Again, they’re pronounced much easier than it seems!

100 sto
200 dwieście
300 trzysta
400 czterysta
500 pięćset
600 sześćset
700 siedemset
800 osiemset
900 dziewięćset
1000 tysiąc

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Now that you know the numbers, you can also combine them. Here are some examples:

21 – dwadzieścia jeden
68 – sześćdziesiąt osiem
183 – sto osiemdziesiąt trzy
371 – trzysta siedemdziesiąt jeden
999 – dziewięćset dziewięćdziesiąt dziewięć