przestępca
“przestępca” — criminal, offender in Polish. Noun, level A2. The same root as the crime. In the report another word is written — the perpetrator — because until the verdict no one is called a criminal. The word itself keeps the stepping-across inside. In a live sentence: “Przestępcę złapali po trzech dniach” — The criminal was caught after three days. A word from the everyday Polish course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Polish | przestępca |
| Translation | criminal, offender |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
The same root as the crime. In the report another word is written — the perpetrator — because until the verdict no one is called a criminal. The word itself keeps the stepping-across inside.
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.
- Przestępcę złapali po trzech dniachThe criminal was caught after three days
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 “criminal, offender” in Polish?
«przestępca». In a live sentence: “Przestępcę złapali po trzech dniach” — The criminal was caught after three days. Noun, level A2.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The same root as the crime. In the report another word is written — the perpetrator — because until the verdict no one is called a criminal. The word itself keeps the stepping-across inside. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.