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Lesson Transcript

Cześć! Jestem Joanna. Hi! I’m Joanna.
Welcome to PolishPod101.com’s “Polski w 3 minuty”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Polish.
In the last lesson, we learned how to thank people by saying Dziękuję. In this lesson we’ll learn some of the most common greetings used in Poland.
Gotowi? Are you ready? Zaczynamy! Let’s start!
There are a few informal greetings in Polish:
Cześć!
[slowly] Cześć.
Cześć means “hi” or “hello”.
Another informal greeting is
Siema!
[slowly] Siema!
This phrase also means “hi,” but it is only used by young people.
Another very common greeting is:
Hej!
[slowly] Hej!
Hej! is very easy, because it’s exactly same as English “hey”.
All these greetings are very informal, and we should only use them with friends or close relatives.
Now let’s move onto *FORMAL* greetings in Polish. There are only two that you need to know. We'll start with:
Dzień dobry!
[slowly] Dzień dobry!
Literally, Dzień dobry means "good day". We can use Dzień dobry during the whole day - from early morning until evening.
If it's the evening we would say:
Dobry wieczór!
[slowly] Dobry wieczór!
What should you say when you leave? Polish people usually say Do widzenia! when leaving in a formal situation.
[slowly] Do widzenia!
Do widzenia means “good-bye.”
If, however, we are saying good bye to friends or relatives, we can use the informal Pa pa!
[slowly] Pa pa!
or simply Pa!
Now you can greet people and say goodbye in many different ways in Polish! Let’s review them all again.
First, formal greetings:
Dzień dobry - use this phrase the day.
Dobry wieczór - use this phrase in the evening.
The informal greetings are:
Cześć!
Siema!
Hej!
When leaving in a formal situation, we say:
Do widzenia!
And in an informal situation, it’s:
Pa pa! or just Pa!
Easy, isn’t it?
Now it’s time for Joanna’s Insights.
Do you remember Siema? It’s an abbreviation of Jak się masz, which means “how are you”, but we just use it in the same way as “hi”. It’s a very common greeting among young people.
You will find, as you continue to study Polish, that new greetings constantly appear among young people, who often come up new uses for well-known phrases - or their abbreviations.
During the next lesson we’ll learn the meaning of the phrase Czy mówisz po angielsku? Do you already know it? See you in the next “Polski w 3 minuty” lesson!
Pa!

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