czesać się
“czesać się” — to comb one's hair in Polish. Verb, level A1, topic — everyday life and routine. From czesać, "to comb". The comb itself is grzebień — literally "a crest". In a live sentence: “Czeszę się przed lustrem” — I comb my hair in front of the mirror. One of 13 words in the set “everyday life and routine” in the Polish course.
In short
| Written in Polish | czesać się |
| Translation | to comb one's hair |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
From czesać, "to comb". The comb itself is grzebień — literally "a crest".
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.
- Czeszę się przed lustremI comb my hair in front of the mirror
Nearby words: everyday life and routine
Work, home, rest, errands. The words the answer to “how are things?” is made of.
- pracaworkOne word for the job and the labor: Szukam pracy — "I am looking for a job" — is the opening line of every ad.
- pracowaćto workFrom praca. The same word answers "what do you do?": Pracuję w banku covers both the position and the business.
- muszęI mustAn infinitive follows: Muszę pracować — "I have to work". The negation nie muszę means "I don't have to" — not the same as nie mogę, "I can't".
- budzić sięto wake upThe particle się — you wake yourself. Without it you wake someone else: budzę dziecko — "I am waking the child".
- wstawaćto get upThe present is wstaję — the stem shifts, the way "rise" and "rosen" do. The perfective wstać could not be shorter.
- myć sięto wash upMyć się is about face and hands; washing dishes is zmywać, another verb. The ó is heard as "oo".
- golić sięto shaveWithout się you shave someone else. The electric razor is golarka, from the same verb.
- ubierać sięto get dressedClothes are ubranie, the same root. Dressing a child drops the się: ubieram dziecko.
- rozbierać sięto undressThe prefix roz- takes off what u- put on — the mirror pair of ubierać się. About things, rozbierać means "to take apart".
- siadaćto sit downThe present is siadam. The perfective usiąść grows from a different root — a fact of the language to be accepted, not argued with.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “everyday life and routine”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to comb one's hair” in Polish?
From czesać, "to comb". The comb itself is grzebień — literally "a crest".
- How do you say “to shave” in Polish?
Without się you shave someone else. The electric razor is golarka, from the same verb.
- How do you say “I must” in Polish?
An infinitive follows: Muszę pracować — "I have to work". The negation nie muszę means "I don't have to" — not the same as nie mogę, "I can't".
- How do you say “to sit down” in Polish?
The present is siadam. The perfective usiąść grows from a different root — a fact of the language to be accepted, not argued with.
- How do you say “to wash up” in Polish?
Myć się is about face and hands; washing dishes is zmywać, another verb. The ó is heard as "oo".
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 comb one's hair” in Polish?
«czesać się». In a live sentence: “Czeszę się przed lustrem” — I comb my hair in front of the mirror. Verb, level A1, from the set “everyday life and routine”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
From czesać, "to comb". The comb itself is grzebień — literally "a crest". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.