być
“być” — to be in Polish. Verb, level A1, topic — verbs. You have seen this verb's forms in every phrase — jestem, jesteś, jest; now być itself has a card. With a predicate noun the instrumental is obligatory: Jestem studentem, not "jestem student". In a live sentence: “Jestem studentem” — I am a student. One of 110 words in the set “verbs” in the Polish course.
In short
| Written in Polish | być |
| Translation | to be |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
You have seen this verb's forms in every phrase — jestem, jesteś, jest; now być itself has a card. With a predicate noun the instrumental is obligatory: Jestem studentem, not "jestem student".
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Jestem studentemI am a student
Nearby words: verbs
I want, I can, I am going, I know. The verb holds a sentence together: a few of the most frequent ones cover more everyday talk than a long list of nouns.
- chcęI wantthe opening chc is no typo — it is pronounced: "khtsen"
- lubięI likeFor fondness and tastes: Lubię kawę. Strong feeling is kochać — Kocham cię is not said about coffee.
- iśćto go (on foot)said "eeshtch"
- jeśćto eatsaid "yeshch"
- pićto drinkThe present shifts its stem: piję, pijesz, pije. The drink itself is napój — a different root.
- czytaćto readThe spelling misleads: czy starts with a "ch" sound, not the vowel it suggests. Czytam książki — "I read books" — is the best evening habit a language can ask of you.
- mówićto speakSaid "MOO-veech": the w is a v. A language is spoken adverbially, not by name: Mówię po polsku, never "mówię polski".
- pracowaćto workFrom praca. The same word answers "what do you do?": Pracuję w banku covers both the position and the business.
- mieszkaćto live (reside)To live somewhere: Mieszkam w Krakowie — "I live in Kraków". The flat shares the root: mieszkanie is literally "the residing place".
- miećto havesaid "myench"
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “verbs”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to be” in Polish?
You have seen this verb's forms in every phrase — jestem, jesteś, jest; now być itself has a card. With a predicate noun the instrumental is obligatory: Jestem studentem, not "jestem student".
- How do you say “to speak” in Polish?
Said "MOO-veech": the w is a v. A language is spoken adverbially, not by name: Mówię po polsku, never "mówię polski".
- How do you say “to go (on foot)” in Polish?
Walking. Riding is jechać, a different verb: Idę do domu, but Jadę do Warszawy. The present tense grows from another root: idę, idziesz, idzie.
- How do you say “to have” in Polish?
"I have" is the Polish way of saying "I've got": literally "I hold". The forms are short: mam, masz, ma.
- How do you say “to read” in Polish?
The spelling misleads: czy starts with a "ch" sound, not the vowel it suggests. Czytam książki — "I read books" — is the best evening habit a language can ask of you.
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “to be” in Polish?
«być». In a live sentence: “Jestem studentem” — I am a student. Verb, level A1, from the set “verbs”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
You have seen this verb's forms in every phrase — jestem, jesteś, jest; now być itself has a card. With a predicate noun the instrumental is obligatory: Jestem studentem, not "jestem student". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.