szpital
“szpital” — hospital in Polish. Noun, level A1, topic — buildings and premises. From the Latin hospitale by way of German; said "SHPITAH" and instantly recognizable. Said aloud, it sounds like a piece of very old vocabulary from this part of Europe. In a live sentence: “Szpital jest blisko” — The hospital is close. One of 25 words in the set “buildings and premises” in the Polish course.
In short
| Written in Polish | szpital |
| Translation | hospital |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
From the Latin hospitale by way of German; said "SHPITAH" and instantly recognizable. Said aloud, it sounds like a piece of very old vocabulary from this part of Europe.
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.
- Szpital jest bliskoThe hospital is close
Nearby words: buildings and premises
Where to go and what is done there. These words are read off a sign more often than they are spoken.
- restauracjarestaurantA place with a full dinner and a bill. Cheaper and homier is the bar mleczny, the "milk bar", where soup still costs pennies.
- kawiarniacoffeehouseFrom kawa. A place people sit in for hours by design, not by abuse. The word itself arrived by way of the Italian cave.
- 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.
- sklepshopA false friend with a body: it looks like the word for a burial vault in several languages, and the resemblance is real history — the shop once sat in a cellar, straight from the Latin crypta.
- targmarketThe same root as the trade words of half of eastern Europe: the market was the trading. The most famous one is Kraków's Cloth Hall on the Rynek.
- 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.
- dworzecstationA false friend inside the language itself: dwór is a manor, dworzec is a station. The bus stop is przystanek — do not mix the two.
- ladacounterNo kinship with any familiar word — the word came from Italian, and it names the counter in a shop and in a bank alike. And lada dzień is "any day now" — a different creature entirely.
- sklep spożywczygrocery storeSpożywczy comes from spożywać, "to consume food" — a "food shop" by construction. The signs you will meet: Żabka, Biedronka, Lidl.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “buildings and premises”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “hospital” in Polish?
From the Latin hospitale by way of German; said "SHPITAH" and instantly recognizable. Said aloud, it sounds like a piece of very old vocabulary from this part of Europe.
- How do you say “bank” in Polish?
Matches sound and meaning at once. No false caution needed: bank really is a bank — the glass jar is słoik.
- 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 “grocery store” in Polish?
Spożywczy comes from spożywać, "to consume food" — a "food shop" by construction. The signs you will meet: Żabka, Biedronka, Lidl.
- How do you say “pharmacy” in Polish?
The same Greek word several languages borrowed. The night one is apteka nocna, and you find it by search, not by the green cross.
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 “hospital” in Polish?
«szpital». In a live sentence: “Szpital jest blisko” — The hospital is close. Noun, level A1, from the set “buildings and premises”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
From the Latin hospitale by way of German; said "SHPITAH" and instantly recognizable. Said aloud, it sounds like a piece of very old vocabulary from this part of Europe. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.