Bits of Polish

I remember that when I started learning English, I had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that two Polish words that I perceived as quite different, i and a, had just one English equivalent: “and.” I guess if you’re doing it the other way round, looking up “and” in an English-Polish dictionary, you might get a bit confused, as the two words are used in different situations. What are the main differences?

i

The very basic word for “and.” You stick it between two words that go together:

Mama i tata siedzą w ogrodzie.
Mom and dad are sitting in the garden.

Tekst jest długi i nudny.
The text is long and boring.

Lubię gramatykę i ortografię.
I like grammar and orthography.

A fancy trick: if you modify this sentence by sticking i’s in front of both nouns, you’ll achieve an effect more or less equivalent to the English “both”. The wonderful thing with Polish is that this construction doesn’t limit the number of objects to two:

Lubię i gramatykę, i ortografię.
I like both grammar and orthography.

Pisał i powieści, i opowiadania, i wiersze, i artykuły.
He wrote both novels and short stories and poems and articles.

The above sentences can, of course, be rendered with only one i, but it would result in a subtle shift in meaning. While the sentence Lubię gramatykę i ortografię is a simple declaration, saying Lubię i gramatykę, i ortografię conveys some extra emphasis: I do, in fact, like both of them, even though it might come off as unexpected.

You also put i between clauses to connect two events taking place one after the other:

Otworzyła książkę i zaczęła czytać.
She opened the book and started reading.

a

Even though also translated as “and”, a has quite a different meaning from i: it doesn’t really connect two things, but rather contrasts them. In the following sentences, you have to use a, not i:

Ja studiuję historię, a ty chemię.
I study history and you chemistry.

Wczoraj świeciło słońce, a dziś pada deszcz.
Yesterday the sun was shining and today it’s raining.

Chłopcy grali w piłkę, a dziewczynki bawiły się lalkami.
The boys were playing football and the girls were playing with dolls.