trzy
“trzy” — three in Polish. Numeral, level A0, topic — numbers and counting. One burst: "tshih" — the three opening consonants are said together. In a live sentence: “Czekam już trzy godziny” — I have already been waiting for three hours. One of 57 words in the set “numbers and counting” in the Polish course.
In short
| Written in Polish | trzy |
| Translation | three |
| Part of speech | numeral |
| Level | A0 |
How to pronounce it
one burst: "tshih" — the three opening consonants are said together
Why it looks that way
The opening trz frightens only the eye: it is pronounced in one go. After trzy the noun stands in the plain plural.
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.
- Czekam już trzy godzinyI have already been waiting for three hours
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.
- czteryfourThe cz is one sound, the ch of "church". Consonant clusters in Polish are the norm, not a typo.
- pięćfivesaid "pyentch" — the nasal ę softens the p
- 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 “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 “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 “four” in Polish?
The cz is one sound, the ch of "church". Consonant clusters in Polish are the norm, not a typo.
- 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 “three” in Polish?
«trzy». One burst: "tshih" — the three opening consonants are said together. In a live sentence: “Czekam już trzy godziny” — I have already been waiting for three hours. Numeral, level A0, from the set “numbers and counting”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The opening trz frightens only the eye: it is pronounced in one go. After trzy the noun stands in the plain plural. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.