korek
“korek” — traffic jam in Polish. Noun, level A2, topic — the city and its places. The same word as the bottle cork and the fuse: a jam is a "cork" stuck in the road. Several languages built the image the same way. In a live sentence: “W mieście duży korek” — There is a big traffic jam in the city. One of 81 words in the set “the city and its places” in the Polish course.
In short
| Written in Polish | korek |
| Translation | traffic jam |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
The same word as the bottle cork and the fuse: a jam is a "cork" stuck in the road. Several languages built the image the same way.
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.
- W mieście duży korekThere is a big traffic jam in the city
Nearby words: the city and its places
Street, square, pharmacy, bank. An address is built out of these, and an address is something you have to both say and understand.
- miastocityA false friend: not "place". The place is miejsce, one suffix away — the two are a standing trap.
- ulicastreetSaid much the way it is spelled. In an address the street comes first — ulica Marszałkowska 5 — and signs shorten it to ul.
- placsquareSaid with the same "ts" sound as its military cousin in several languages. Kraków's main square goes by the name Rynek — and it is a plac too.
- aptekapharmacyThe same Greek word several languages borrowed. The night one is apteka nocna, and you find it by search, not by the green cross.
- bankbankMatches sound and meaning at once. No false caution needed: bank really is a bank — the glass jar is słoik.
- tłumcrowdA short word, and the ł is a w: "twu". Stress on the first syllable. At the market on Saturday it is exactly this: a crowd, crowds of people.
- sygnalizacja świetlnatraffic lightsThe full road-rules word, long and clerical. In speech people just say światła — "the lights": na czerwonym świetle — at the red.
- rowerbicycleThe word arrived from a bicycle brand name — and stuck. The Latin-built word of other languages is the learned one; this one is brand-born and long naturalized.
- przystanek autobusowybus stopFrom przystawać, "to pull in at the edge": the stop is where the transport "pulls in". The plain przystanek serves the tram too.
- bilet okresowytravel passOkres is "a period": a ticket for a term, not one ride. The monthly one is miesięczny — and it is stuck onto the card.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “the city and its places”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “traffic jam” in Polish?
The same word as the bottle cork and the fuse: a jam is a "cork" stuck in the road. Several languages built the image the same way.
- How do you say “traffic lights” in Polish?
The full road-rules word, long and clerical. In speech people just say światła — "the lights": na czerwonym świetle — at the red.
- How do you say “square” in Polish?
Said with the same "ts" sound as its military cousin in several languages. Kraków's main square goes by the name Rynek — and it is a plac too.
- How do you say “travel pass” in Polish?
Okres is "a period": a ticket for a term, not one ride. The monthly one is miesięczny — and it is stuck onto the card.
- How do you say “crowd” in Polish?
A short word, and the ł is a w: "twu". Stress on the first syllable. At the market on Saturday it is exactly this: a crowd, crowds of people.
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 “traffic jam” in Polish?
«korek». In a live sentence: “W mieście duży korek” — There is a big traffic jam in the city. Noun, level A2, from the set “the city and its places”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The same word as the bottle cork and the fuse: a jam is a "cork" stuck in the road. Several languages built the image the same way. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.