gdzie jest?
“gdzie jest?” — where is? in Polish. Phrase, level A0, topic — asking the way. Gdzie is "where", dokąd is "where to" — and Polish keeps them apart as strictly as English keeps "where" and "whither": gdzie idziesz? is simply wrong. In a live sentence: “Gdzie jest dworzec?” — Where is the station? One of 18 words in the set “asking the way” in the Polish course.
In short
| Written in Polish | gdzie jest? |
| Translation | where is? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
Gdzie is "where", dokąd is "where to" — and Polish keeps them apart as strictly as English keeps "where" and "whither": gdzie idziesz? is simply wrong.
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.
- Gdzie jest dworzec?Where is the station?
Nearby words: asking the way
Right, left, straight on, how far. You ask the way rarely — and always at the moment when there is no time to work it out.
- tutajhereIn speech it shrinks to tu: Tu mieszkam — "this is where I live".
- tamthereThe partner of tutaj. Direction is a separate word: tam idę — "I am going over there". Place and direction get different words.
- w prawoto the rightLiterally "into [the] right". Place and direction are kept strictly apart: po prawej — "on the right", w prawo — "to the right".
- w lewoto the leftThe partner of w prawo: w lewo — to the left, po lewej — on the left. One letter decides half the street signs.
- prostostraight aheadLooks like the word for "simple" and means "straight". The stress sits on the first syllable — the one word in the phrase where it moves.
- bliskocloseSaid the way it looks. The place after it takes the of-form: blisko dworca — "close to the station". Very close is całkiem blisko.
- dalekofarSaid the way it looks. Czy to daleko? is the traveler's first question, and the answer nie, blisko is the best one going.
- jak dojść dohow to get to (on foot)Literally "how to walk up to": on foot it is dojść, and do puts the place into its of-form — do dworca. In a car you would ask about dojechać.
- dotrzećto get toTo reach a destination, usually with effort: dotrzeć do domu, but dotrzeć na lotnisko. In the past: dotarliśmy późno.
- po drugiej stronieon the other sideStrona is "side"; after po both words change their ending, the way they do after w and na: po drugiej stronie ulicy.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “asking the way”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “where is?” in Polish?
Gdzie is "where", dokąd is "where to" — and Polish keeps them apart as strictly as English keeps "where" and "whither": gdzie idziesz? is simply wrong.
- How do you say “far” in Polish?
Said the way it looks. Czy to daleko? is the traveler's first question, and the answer nie, blisko is the best one going.
- How do you say “to the right” in Polish?
Literally "into [the] right". Place and direction are kept strictly apart: po prawej — "on the right", w prawo — "to the right".
- How do you say “on the other side” in Polish?
Strona is "side"; after po both words change their ending, the way they do after w and na: po drugiej stronie ulicy.
- How do you say “close” in Polish?
Said the way it looks. The place after it takes the of-form: blisko dworca — "close to the station". Very close is całkiem blisko.
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 “where is?” in Polish?
«gdzie jest?» In a live sentence: “Gdzie jest dworzec?” — Where is the station? Phrase, level A0, from the set “asking the way”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Gdzie is "where", dokąd is "where to" — and Polish keeps them apart as strictly as English keeps "where" and "whither": gdzie idziesz? is simply wrong. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.