Counting to ten in Polish
One to ten, for prices, platforms, rooms and how many beers. Play the ten Polish words against the clock, with a note on how locals really use each one after every answer. All ten are written out below.
All 10 Polish phrases in this lesson
- JedenYEH-den
- One
- Dwadvah
- Two
- Trzytshih
- Three
- CzteryCHTEH-rih
- Four
- Pięćpyench
- Five
- Sześćsheshch
- Six
- SiedemSHEH-dem
- Seven
- OsiemOH-shem
- Eight
- DziewięćJEH-vyench
- Nine
- Dziesięćjyeh-SHENCH
- Ten
Polish numbers change form based on gender. "Jeden" is for masculine nouns, "jedna" for feminine, and "jedno" for neuter. When in doubt, "jeden" covers most common uses.
"Dwa" is for masculine and neuter nouns. For feminine use "dwie" (dvyeh). Numbers above two also affect the case of the noun that follows, making Polish numbers tricky.
The "rz" combination in Polish makes a sound similar to the French "j" or English "zh." Practice "trzy" and you have also cracked one of Polish's trickiest letter pairs.
"Cz" sounds like English "ch." Numbers three through twenty-one in Polish use the genitive plural for the noun that follows, so quantities shift the word endings around them.
The nasal "ę" gives this a slightly nasalized sound before the final "ć." Polish has two nasal vowels, ą and ę, which are a distinctive feature of the language.
A good benchmark number to know. Combine with smaller numbers to form eleven through nineteen by adding "naście" (NAHS-cheh) as a suffix.