powstrzymać się
“powstrzymać się” — to refrain, to hold oneself back in Polish. Verb, level B1, topic — people and family. The holding-back verb with the perfective prefix: to hold oneself. He barely refrained from laughing. Careful: holding someone back is about the other person. In a live sentence: “Ledwo się powstrzymał od śmiechu” — He barely refrained from laughing. One of 138 words in the set “people and family” in the Polish course.
In short
| Written in Polish | powstrzymać się |
| Translation | to refrain, to hold oneself back |
| Part of speech | verb |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
The holding-back verb with the perfective prefix: to hold oneself. He barely refrained from laughing. Careful: holding someone back is about the other person.
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.
- Ledwo się powstrzymał od śmiechuHe barely refrained from laughing
Nearby words: people and family
Mum, friend, child, neighbour. The first thing people ask you about, and the first thing you tell about yourself.
- przyjacielclose friendThe word borrowed by several languages for a casual buddy means real friendship here. A mere acquaintance is znajomy — the difference is heard.
- rodzinafamilyOne root with the words for "kin and birth": family is the people you were born with. Not to be confused with the word for a war band it happens to resemble.
- mamamumIn address, this is exactly what people say: mama. The official word, the one documents use, is matka.
- tatadadEveryday is tata, affectionate tatuś. The official ojciec sounds ceremonial, the way "father" does.
- dzieckochildNeuter: to dziecko. Two children are dwoje dzieci — Polish counting treats children in its own special way.
- sprzedawcashop assistantFrom sprzedać, "to sell" — the root says itself. A woman is sprzedawczyni, and at the market counter it is more often her.
- klientcustomerThe same Latin root as the English word, and the same wide job: the customer of a shop, a bank, a hairdresser. The bookish kupiec, "merchant", is not heard at the market.
- człowiekhuman, personThe plural ignores the rule: not człowieki but ludzie, "people". At the start you hear "chwo-VYEK" — and the word is a close cousin of its counterparts across the region.
- mężczyznamanA spelling trap: at the ę you hear a plain e, and the cz is softer than it looks. A noun ending in -a that is nonetheless masculine: ten mężczyzna. The door of the gents' room carries exactly this word.
- kobietawomanSaid "koh-BYEN-tah" — the ie softens the b. A wife is żona, and the difference is a whole life: kobieta is a woman, żona is a wife — mixing them up offends both.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “people and family”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “to refrain, to hold oneself back” in Polish?
The holding-back verb with the perfective prefix: to hold oneself. He barely refrained from laughing. Careful: holding someone back is about the other person.
- How do you say “customer” in Polish?
The same Latin root as the English word, and the same wide job: the customer of a shop, a bank, a hairdresser. The bookish kupiec, "merchant", is not heard at the market.
- How do you say “mum” in Polish?
In address, this is exactly what people say: mama. The official word, the one documents use, is matka.
- How do you say “woman” in Polish?
Said "koh-BYEN-tah" — the ie softens the b. A wife is żona, and the difference is a whole life: kobieta is a woman, żona is a wife — mixing them up offends both.
- How do you say “shop assistant” in Polish?
From sprzedać, "to sell" — the root says itself. A woman is sprzedawczyni, and at the market counter it is more often her.
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 refrain, to hold oneself back” in Polish?
«powstrzymać się». In a live sentence: “Ledwo się powstrzymał od śmiechu” — He barely refrained from laughing. Verb, level B1, from the set “people and family”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The holding-back verb with the perfective prefix: to hold oneself. He barely refrained from laughing. Careful: holding someone back is about the other person. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.