pięć
“pięć” — five in Polish. Numeral, level A0, topic — numbers and counting. Said "pyentch" — the nasal ę softens the p. In a live sentence: “Pociąg odjeżdża za pięć minut” — The train leaves in five minutes. One of 57 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Polish course.
In short
| Written in Polish | pięć |
| Translation | five |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A0 |
How to pronounce it
said "pyentch" — the nasal ę softens the p
Why it looks that way
The nasal ę softens the p almost to a "py", and the end is heard as a "tch". The ordinal is piąty, "fifth".
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.
- Pociąg odjeżdża za pięć minutThe train leaves in five minutes
Nearby words: numbers and counting
A price, the change, a house number, the time you agreed on, the floor. Numbers are the first thing you have to catch by ear — and the first thing people say fast.
- jedenoneChanges with gender: jeden chleb, jedna kawa, jedno piwo. Counting in Polish has its own grammar.
- dwatwoChanges with gender too: dwa chleby, but dwie kawy for the feminine. About men one says dwóch panów — people are counted in their own special way.
- trzythreeone burst: "tshih" — the three opening consonants are said together
- czteryfourThe cz is one sound, the ch of "church". Consonant clusters in Polish are the norm, not a typo.
- sześćsixsaid "sheshch"
- siedemsevenCloser in shape to "seventh" than to "seven" — which makes it harder to mix up with osiem.
- osiemeightInside hides the make-up: osiem is o plus siem. The ordinal is ósmy with an ó — "eight" and "eighth" are spelled differently.
- dziewięćninesaid "DZYE-vyench" — a nasal ę at the end
- dziesięćtensaid "DZYE-shench"
- jedenaścieelevenFrom jeden na dziesięć, "one on ten", the phrase pulled tight into -naście. Like every number from five up, it puts the next noun into its of-form: jedenaście euro only hides this because euro never changes.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “numbers and counting”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “five” in Polish?
The nasal ę softens the p almost to a "py", and the end is heard as a "tch". The ordinal is piąty, "fifth".
- How do you say “eight” in Polish?
Inside hides the make-up: osiem is o plus siem. The ordinal is ósmy with an ó — "eight" and "eighth" are spelled differently.
- How do you say “three” in Polish?
The opening trz frightens only the eye: it is pronounced in one go. After trzy the noun stands in the plain plural.
- How do you say “eleven” in Polish?
From jeden na dziesięć, "one on ten", the phrase pulled tight into -naście. Like every number from five up, it puts the next noun into its of-form: jedenaście euro only hides this because euro never changes.
- How do you say “seven” in Polish?
Closer in shape to "seventh" than to "seven" — which makes it harder to mix up with osiem.
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 “five” in Polish?
«pięć». Said "pyentch" — the nasal ę softens the p. In a live sentence: “Pociąg odjeżdża za pięć minut” — The train leaves in five minutes. Numeral, level A0, from the set “numbers and counting”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The nasal ę softens the p almost to a "py", and the end is heard as a "tch". The ordinal is piąty, "fifth". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.