wtedy

In short

Why it looks that way

Then — at that moment: back then I had no car. And "then" as a conclusion is the in-that-case phrase: Polish keeps them apart.

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.

• Wtedy jeszcze nie mieliśmy samochodu

  Back then we did not have a car yet

Nearby words: basic words

Yes, no, good, bad, very. The small change of a language — and no sentence assembles without it.

• tak

  yes

  Read exactly as it is spelled and means exactly what it looks like — a rare coincidence that does not cheat. In living speech it is always tak; no bookish alternative exists.
• nie

  no

  The same word negates a verb: nie rozumiem — "I don't understand". The negation always stands before the verb and always stays a separate word.
• dobrze

  well

  The standard full answer: Mam się dobrze, dziękuję — "I am well, thank you". From dobry, "good".
• źle

  badly

  soft zh: "zweh"
• świetnie

  great

  soft sh: "shvyet-nyeh"
• i

  and

  Matches sound and role at once. Before i the consonant softens — kawa i herbata is said as if glued.
• ale

  but

  The conversational "but", at home in any sentence. The bookish lecz and jednak exist, but living speech says ale everywhere.
• można

  may, one can

  Impersonal "may": Można zapłacić kartą? is literally "is it payable by card?". The personal "I can" is mogę — a different verb.
• kilogram

  kilogram

  At the market it is said short: kilo. What is weighed follows in its of-form, like English "of": kilogram chleba.
• połowa

  half

  The honest relative: said much like its cousins elsewhere. Half a kilo at the market is asked for shorter — pół kilo — while połowa is about anything divisible: połowa godziny, połowa miasta.

Test yourself

Five questions from the same set — “basic words”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.

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 times
  Kim & 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 times
  Adesope, 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 times
  Bertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.

Next

• Basic words309 words on the topic
• po to, żeby — in order to, so thatphrase
• dopóki nie — until (something happens)phrase
• jakby — as ifphrase
• zamiast tego, żeby — instead of (doing something)phrase
• All Polish wordsIndex by topic
• Why a word list doesn't sticka note