praca
“praca” — work in Polish. Noun, level A1, topic — everyday life and routine. One word for the job and the labor: Szukam pracy — "I am looking for a job" — is the opening line of every ad. In a live sentence: “Do pracy jeżdżę rowerem” — I bike to work. One of 13 words in the set “everyday life and routine” in the Polish course.
In short
| Written in Polish | praca |
| Translation | work |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
One word for the job and the labor: Szukam pracy — "I am looking for a job" — is the opening line of every ad.
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.
- Do pracy jeżdżę roweremI bike to work
Nearby words: everyday life and routine
Work, home, rest, errands. The words the answer to “how are things?” is made of.
- 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".
- czesać sięto comb one's hairFrom czesać, "to comb". The comb itself is grzebień — literally "a crest".
- 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 “work” in Polish?
One word for the job and the labor: Szukam pracy — "I am looking for a job" — is the opening line of every ad.
- 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 “to wake up” in Polish?
The particle się — you wake yourself. Without it you wake someone else: budzę dziecko — "I am waking the child".
- 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 comb one's hair” in Polish?
From czesać, "to comb". The comb itself is grzebień — literally "a crest".
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 “work” in Polish?
«praca». In a live sentence: “Do pracy jeżdżę rowerem” — I bike to work. Noun, level A1, from the set “everyday life and routine”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
One word for the job and the labor: Szukam pracy — "I am looking for a job" — is the opening line of every ad. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.