Texts in Polish
Short texts in Polish with a translation alongside and comprehension questions, levels A1–B1. The first ones need two or three hundred everyday words; the B1 texts need about three thousand. The translation stands next to it whole, not word by word: stopping at every other word tears the sentence apart.
All texts
- 📖An ordinary dayA1 · Hello. My name is Anya, and I live in Kraków. In the morning I drink coffee and eat bread…
- 📖At the marketA2 · On Saturday my husband and I go to the market. The market is close to home, ten minutes…
- 📖ShoppingA2 · On Saturday morning my friend and I go to the market. Vegetables and fruit are cheaper…
- 📖A new homeA2 · Last month I moved into a new flat on the third floor. The lift in the building does not…
- 📖A week at the doctor'sA2 · On Monday my throat started to hurt. On Tuesday a fever and a cough appeared too, so I…
- 📖Kraków and the weatherA2 · In Kraków it is hot in summer, and in winter it is cold and snows. In spring it is warm…
- 📖My jobA2 · By profession I am an engineer and I work in a small office close to the station. The…
- 📖A trip by trainA2 · On Saturday I am taking the train to Gdańsk, to the sea. I have had a return ticket since…
- 📖A day on the BalticA2 · On Sunday my friend and I were at the beach in Sopot. The water was cold, so only my…
- 📖A new jacketA2 · The old jacket was small and short. On Saturday I was at a clothes shop. I tried on a…
- 📖A quarrel over a trifleA2 · My friend and I quarrelled over a silly thing. He waited for me for an hour, and I forgot…
- 📖A Saturday dinnerA2 · On Saturday we are going with the family to a restaurant near home. I have had the…
- 📖Seven missed callsA2 · In the morning I received seven calls. The phone lay in the backpack, so I heard nothing.…
- 📖Half an hour at the hairdresser'sA2 · On Wednesday I was at a hairdresser's close to home. My hair was already very long. The…
- 📖A concert in the parkA2 · In July my friend and I were at a concert in the park. We had had the tickets since…
- 📖Sunday at grandma'sA2 · Grandma lives far from the city, close to the forest. On Sunday the bell rings very…
- 📖A house with a yardA2 · We have a new house outside the city, with a yard and gates. The roof is good, but the…
- 📖The first semesterA2 · Olya is starting her studies at the history faculty. She lives in a dormitory close to…
- 📖The family budgetB1 · On the first of the month mum and dad sit down at the table and count the money. First…
- 📖A week in the hospitalB1 · When uncle fell off his bicycle, the neighbours called an ambulance. At the hospital the…
- 📖A successful interviewB1 · Eva looked for work for three months. At last she received an invitation to an interview.…
- 📖Furniture for the new flatA2 · Anya's new flat is big, but without furniture. From grandma she received an old but good…
- 📖A weekend behind the wheelA2 · For the weekend we drove to the sea by car. First we checked whether the tank was full…
- 📖What is written onlineB1 · My sister has more than ten thousand followers on social media. She posts every photo in…
- 📖A statement at the police stationB1 · On Saturday evening someone stole my bicycle in front of the shop. I went to the police…
- 📖Weighing a decisionB1 · For three weeks now I have been thinking about a job in another city and do not know what…
- 📖One thing after anotherA2 · My buddy told me his story in order. First he submitted the documents, then he waited two…
- 📖The neighbour from the first floorA2 · In our building lives Mr Henryk, a grey-haired man of medium height. He has deep wrinkles…
- 📖An old friendB1 · Magda is my oldest friend; we have known each other since school. Three years ago…
- 📖A Sunday dinnerA2 · On Sunday my brother and I cook dinner for the whole family. First we wash the…
- 📖Saturday at the shopping centreB1 · On Saturday my brother and I went to the shopping centre for a new jacket. A beautiful…
- 📖The washing machine is noisyB1 · Our washing machine began to make noise at every spin. First I checked the wires and the…
- 📖A storm over the valleyA2 · In the morning it was sunny and very stuffy. After midday the sky darkened and dark…
- 📖The first week with the carB1 · I bought a second-hand car on Monday, and on Tuesday the vehicle inspection was already…
- 📖A year of PolishB1 · A year ago I enrolled on a Polish course as a complete beginner. For the first month I…
- 📖Grandma's childhoodA2 · Grandma was born in a small village where there was one shop. In childhood she helped in…
- 📖A talk in the corridorB1 · A colleague stopped me in the corridor and asked whether I had a minute. He said he was…
- 📖The first year of one's own businessB1 · Two years ago I left my office job and became an entrepreneur. I got my first clients…
- 📖An order with someone else's nameA2 · In the online shop I ordered boots and chose payment on delivery. The delivery cost is…
- 📖How we renewed our yardA2 · About five hundred residents live in our building, among them many pensioners. Last year…
- 📖An evening at the old theatreB1 · For my birthday I received a subscription to five performances at the theatre in the…
- 📖From the warm-up to the finish lineB1 · A year ago I hardly did any sport, and after three minutes of running it was hard for me…
- 📖The wardrobe in the bedroomA2 · Before buying a wardrobe we measured the wall in the bedroom. The length of the wall is…
- 📖A week without cigarettesB1 · I smoked for fifteen years and every day began with coffee and a cigarette. After the…
- 📖A wedding at grandma'sA2 · The sister's wedding was in the village where our grandpa and grandma live. In the…
- 📖An argument about the old windowsB1 · At the residents' meeting the manager proposed replacing the old windows. In his words…
- 📖A licence at the first attemptB1 · I took the driving exam at twenty-nine, much later than my friends. I was advised to…
- 📖Grandma's chest of drawersA2 · In grandma's basement stands an old chest of drawers. The surface is rough to the touch…
- 📖Across the meadow straightB1 · With my brother we went to the mountains by the old road through the forest. At the fork…
- 📖How much water is usedB1 · At school for a week we took a measurement of the water in our homes. The total number of…
- 📖The renovation that dragged onB1 · We planned the bathroom renovation for two weeks, but it dragged on for two months. First…
- 📖An experiment at schoolA2 · At school we did an experiment with water from three different sources. Each group took…
- 📖The village over half a centuryB1 · My grandma was born in a village which had lived off the land from time immemorial. In…
- 📖The river comes backB1 · For ten years the waste water from the factory flowed straight into the river below the…
- 📖The first shiftA2 · Two shifts work in our shop floor, and I went into the morning one for the first time.…
- 📖Forty minutes at the stationB1 · Once I was waiting at the station for a train that was forty minutes late. Just then an…
- 📖The quiet neighbourB1 · Our neighbour is withdrawn and does not talk with anyone for too long. At first we…
How to read a text in a language you barely know
First pass — all the way through, without peeking at the translation. The goal is not to understand but to catch familiar words: there will be more of them than you expect, and that feeling matters more than any rule.
Second pass — with the translation beside you. Now it becomes clear what exactly was in the way: an unknown word, a construction you did not get, or just reading speed.
Third pass — all the way through again. The second pass brings noticeably more, and this step is what makes reading useful: it turns analysis into recognition.
Frequently asked
What level do you need to read texts in Polish?
A1–B1. For the first texts the letters and two or three hundred everyday words are enough; the B1 texts need about three thousand. The translation sits next to it, so an unknown word does not stop the reading.
How many times should you reread the text?
Three times: without the translation, with it, and without it again. The third pass is what all of this is for — the second time you recognize noticeably more.