Learn how to say, "I don't understand"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Hello and welcome to Polish Survival Phrases brought to you by PolishPod101.com, this course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Poland. You will be surprised at how far a little Polish will go. |
| Now, before we jump in, remember to stop by PolishPod101.com and there, you will find the accompanying PDF and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
Lesson focus |
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| In Polish, "I don't understand" is Nie rozumiem. |
| Let's have a look at the components of this expression. |
| The first word, nie, in this context means "Don't." In our expression, nie is followed by rozumiem, which means "I understand." |
| The form rozumiem comes from the verb rozumieć, ("to understand"). To recap, we have Nie rozumiem ("I don't understand"). |
| We can add the word przepraszam to the phrase above, which in this context means "I'm sorry." So the whole phrase will be "I'm sorry. I don't understand." In Polish, this is Przepraszam, nie rozumiem. |
| Another way to express that you don't understand is asking the question "What does it mean?" This phrase in Polish is Co to znaczy? |
| The first word, co, means "what." This is followed by to, meaning "this." |
| The last word is znaczy, meaning "means." Znaczy comes from the verb znaczyć ("to mean"). |
| Cultural Insights |
| Quick Tip |
| At the beginning, it might be a little difficult to understand what Poles are saying, mainly because they speak very fast. But if you don't understand something, please don't be afraid to use the phrase Przepraszam, nie rozumiem. |
| They will be more than happy to give you an explanation. Or maybe you've understood the general sense of the phrase, but there was a word or two you have never heard before. |
| The expression Co to znaczy? ("What does it mean?") would come in very handy here. |
| If for any reason you forgot how to say, "I don't understand" in Polish, you can always use some body language. For example, you can always shake your head left and right. |
| In this lesson, we introduced the word Nie, which we translated as "Don't." |
| The word Nie also means, "No." What about "Yes" in Polish? "Yes" is Tak. |
Outro |
| Okay, to close out this lesson, we'd like you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for shouting it aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so powodzenia, which means “good luck” in Polish. |
| "I don't understand." - Nie rozumiem. |
| Nie rozumiem. |
| Nie rozumiem. |
| "I'm sorry. I don't understand." - Przepraszam, nie rozumiem. |
| Przepraszam, nie rozumiem. |
| Przepraszam, nie rozumiem. |
| "What does it mean?" - Co to znaczy? |
| Co to znaczy? |
| Co to znaczy? |
| All right, that's going to do it for today. Remember to stop by PolishPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment. |
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