ty
“ty” — you (informal) in Polish. Pronoun, level A0, topic — pronouns. People your own age move to first names quickly, but the older person or the woman is the one who offers it first. In a live sentence: “A ty, skąd jesteś?” — And where are you from? One of 27 words in the set “pronouns” in the Polish course.
In short
| Written in Polish | ty |
| Translation | you (informal) |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
People your own age move to first names quickly, but the older person or the woman is the one who offers it first.
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.
- A ty, skąd jesteś?And where are you from?
Nearby words: pronouns
I, you, we, they. There is a handful of them, they turn up in every sentence, and politeness rides on them: most of these languages keep a formal “you” apart from a familiar one, and choosing the wrong one is noticed faster than a mispronounced word.
- jaIUsually dropped in speech: the verb ending has already named the person. Jestem on its own means "I am".
- wyyou (plural)Plain "you" about several people at once. To one adult stranger a Pole says Pan or Pani instead: Czy Pan wie? rather than Czy wy wiecie?
- onheSame shape as several familiar words, same meaning. Just remember: one is not "they" — one is women and everything non-human.
- onasheMatches sound and meaning at once — the kind of word that memorizes itself.
- myweSaid the way it is spelled, an honest look-alike. The verb with my is an ordinary plural: my jesteśmy — "we are".
- my dwojethe two of usLiterally "we two". The verb stays an ordinary plural: My dwoje jesteśmy razem. There is no special two-of-us grammar to learn here.
- onithey (with a man)Only about people, and only if at least one man is in the group. Women, children and things are one — swapping them is heard at once.
- mójmyDeclines like an adjective: mój dom, but moja kawa, moje piwo. The ó is heard as "oo": "mooey".
- twójyour (informal)The partner of mój and it changes the same way: twój klucz, twoja kawa. In polite speech Pan and Pani stand in for it.
- naszourThe same root as several familiar "us" words. Feminine nasza, neuter nasze — it behaves like an adjective.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “pronouns”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “you (informal)” in Polish?
People your own age move to first names quickly, but the older person or the woman is the one who offers it first.
- How do you say “they (with a man)” in Polish?
Only about people, and only if at least one man is in the group. Women, children and things are one — swapping them is heard at once.
- How do you say “he” in Polish?
Same shape as several familiar words, same meaning. Just remember: one is not "they" — one is women and everything non-human.
- How do you say “our” in Polish?
The same root as several familiar "us" words. Feminine nasza, neuter nasze — it behaves like an adjective.
- How do you say “the two of us” in Polish?
Literally "we two". The verb stays an ordinary plural: My dwoje jesteśmy razem. There is no special two-of-us grammar to learn here.
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 “you (informal)” in Polish?
«ty». In a live sentence: “A ty, skąd jesteś?” — And where are you from? Pronoun, level A0, from the set “pronouns”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
People your own age move to first names quickly, but the older person or the woman is the one who offers it first. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.