When faced with the prospect of having to communicate with a Pole, many foreigners just fall back on English as there’s a pretty good chance that it will be understood. However, making the effort to speak Polish almost invariably goes down well with the audience, and will often raise a smile and a polite retort.

Despite the fact that, to the uninitiated, Polish can sound rather like waves breaking on a shingle beach, it’s not as hard to pronounce as you might imagine. It is a phonetic language, so every word is pronounced exactly as it’s written, you just have to know what do with all those Ss and Zs. Otherwise remember to keep your vowels short, roll your Rs and make your 'sh’ and 'ch’ sound as harsh as possible (think T when saying Tchaikovsky). Here are a few phrases to get you started. The stress should fall on the underlined section.

Hello/good morning Dzien dobry (pronounced djin dobry)
Good evening Dobry wieczor (dobry v yechor)
Pleased to meet you Milo mi (m eewo mi)
No Nie (nyeh)
Yes Tak
Please Prosze (prosheh)
Thank you Dziekuje (djenkooyeh)
Thank you very much Dziekuje bardzo (djenkooyeh ba rdzo)
No thank you Nie dziekuje (nyeh djenkooyeh)
My name is... Nazywam sie... (nazivam sheh)
I don’t understand Nie rozumiem(nyeh rozoomiem)
How much does it cost? Ile kosztuje? (eeleh k osht oojeh?)
Goodbye Do widzenia (doh veedzenia)
Goodnight Dobranoc (dobranots)