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Polish Vocabulary

At least 50 million people worldwide speak Polish, a language that joins with Czech and Slovak to comprise the West-Slavic group of Indo-European languages. In addition to serving as Poland's official means of communication, it is also a commonly spoken second tongue in Belarus, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. Natives of these countries join the large number of people worldwide who understand the shaded nuances of this distinctive vernacular.

The Evolution of the Polish Language

All languages borrow from their neighbors, and Polish is no exception. Many Polish vocabulary words share a commonality with those found in the German, Italian, French and English languages. Although some have compared Polish to Russian, linguists estimate that about 75 percent of Polish words are strikingly similar to those of Slovak, its closest relation.

Polish Nouns and Adjectives

The Polish language designates every noun and adjective as either masculine, feminine or neuter. With the exception of nouns referring to male or female animals, the gender of these words normally has little to do with their specific attributes. An adjective will vary in gender to match that of the noun it modifies.

Word Order

The Polish language places somewhat less importance on the precise order of words within a sentence than it does on the meaning of the words themselves. Nevertheless, the order of Polish words will usually follow a standard sequence of subject, predicate and object. In addition, adjectives will normally precede the nouns they modify.

Dropped Words

In Polish, the practice of dropping words is common. Speakers will nearly always leave out the words "you," "my" and "your." It is also more customary to drop the subject of a sentence than the object. While a Polish declaration will always tell you the recipient of an action, it may leave to your imagination a definitive sense of who or what performed it.

Polish is Easy to Learn

Many people believe that Polish is one of the world's most beautiful languages. These same people will also tell you that it is one of the hardest to learn. The truth is that in any language, the easy aspects frequently outweigh those that are more difficult. Anyone learning Polish will appreciate the fact that it contains only five verb tenses. Another advantage lies in the fact that every word in the Polish vocabulary is 95 percent phonetic. When reading Polish, what you see is what you say.

Those who begin a study of the Polish language will also find that many Polish vocabulary words have Latin roots that make them immediately recognizable. They will also quickly see that there is no need to match the gender of an article to a noun. That's because the Polish language contains no articles whatsoever, relying instead on inflection to clarify the meaning of a sentence.

Learning Polish the Babbel Way: Easier Than You Think

Some call Babbel the best-available way to learn a language on the go. The Polish vocabulary lists and speech recognition capability offered by our affordable interactive lessons make learning Polish words easy and fun. Our ad-free interface reduces distractions, and our wide array of IOS, Android and Win8 Apps makes our method ideal for mobile learning.

Babbel Offers a Simple Interface

Our origins as a social media site lend to Babbel an uncomplicated interface with a strong community component that continues to this day. In this way, we make it simple to chat with others who are also immersing themselves in the Polish language.

Babbel Brings You Back to the Basics

Unlike other learning sites, we believe that an emphasis on writing and grammar skills will help to ground you in Polish vocabulary basics. Our offering of engaging games and multimedia exercises enables you to make quick work of learning Polish words while deepening your skills in listening, speaking and writing.

Affordable rates, up-to-date methods and easy accessibility add up to an excellent means of learning Polish. Find out today why so many rely on Babbel for their language-learning needs.

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