misleading differences between Polish and English languages

no i co? - and what? well?
no nie - oh no
no nie? - isn't it? isn't that right?
no co jest? - what's going on?

"No" in Polish is also used to make things you say sound more like an order, for example no idź (move it!) or no już (now!)

my goodness so many ways to say no, theres nothing wrong with P*ss off if you ask me :) or even just good old no :)

'No' in Polish is actually almost identical to 'Na' in German, even 'Naa' in Danish: Na, wie geht's?, Naa, hvordan gaar det? = No, co słychać? = So/Well, so what's up?

another:
eventually and ewentualnie :)

'No' means 'yes' has got to be my fave Polish mistake. I do this sometimes after speaking to my parents or relatives in Polish and forget to 'turn off the switch' and sometimes say no to non-Polish people when I mean yes. Oops :)


My mom does this all the time :)

lol, but she's living in canada, i didn't know they spoke english there :):):):):)

Its not like we call it 'Canadian' lol. Didn't you know that Canada was a former colony? :)

Quebec is a different animal altogether :)

lol, of course i did :) i was just kidding around thats all, you know the talking english properly and all that :)


no thats something i don't quite understand, isn't the yeti hides out???

I was kidding too lol. I figured with all those smileys that you have to be kidding :)
Computer 'speak' is so messy sometimes!


Among other things....LOL

i know sometimes you can misread or even mistype something and even if you do neither of what i have just said people can still mistake it as being meant in another way


like what??? lol

Its kind of weird (and sometimes funny!) when you type something 'innocent' and it p*sses people off, and you're like 'WTF?'. Gotta love forums for that.


crazy separatist Frenchies. They want to be their own country, in the middle of Canada.
Actually, I do like the Quebecers. Still, its so easy to make fun of them.

No, actually. :D

Even in a non-Indo-European language like mine, we have Latin loan-words but they can mean completely different things than their English counterparts.

Something I have to add to the misleading differences: I was confused when I first heard "priceless". I always thought it had the same derogatory meaning as "worthless", e.g. "something that isn't worth half a penny". But in reality it is the complete opposite: something so precious that its price can't even be estimated!


Strange, looks like the Saxons left behind this useful little word when they moved to the islands, then! :) Po węgiersku, "na" is of a similar use!

Na, I'm off now.

Also,

"w życiu" (lliterally 'in/during life(time)) = never

"bo ja wiem" (literally 'because I know') = I have no idea.

"dziękuję" (literally 'thank you') = No, thank you.

And (not on the phone) if someone says "Hallo!" it's not a greeting, it's just to get your attention (in the US I'd say "Excuse me!" maybe with sir or ma'am at the end.

In American

"that's okay" (w porządku, może być) = dziękuję

"I'm fine, I'm okay" (nic mi nie jest) = dziękuję

In the area of pragmatics:

Naprawdę! ("Really!" with exaggerated intonation) = I'm lying to you, but trying to be polite about it.

X kłania się (X bows (to you)) = I'm about to make an inconvenient request

I love the fact that Gary means saucepans in Polish. There are lots of names that mean something in other languages. (e.g.) Linda = beautiful in Spanish. My bf has a friend whose Polish name means something really rude in English, but I cant remember what it is right now. Maybe we could get some other egs.

In the middle of England a bonk is a place where you keep your money and a fake is a cigarette.

me too, it's funny heh

no, it's just another picture of you

I was so confused when I started learning because I would hear my friend say "NO JA!" the phonetics in English really upset me lol.

indoor , indor :)

My French students will never forget how to pronounce bank after I told them that they were pronouncing it like a vulgar word (it's banque in French: sounds like "bonk").

In fact a lot of the examples quoted as being confusing between Polish and English are the same between French and English:

eventually = in the end
eventuallement = perhaps

actually = in fact
actuellement= now

important (French) often means a large number or quantity, whereas
important (ENG) is more to do with the quality of the thing discussed.
un charge de travail important: a lot of work
important work: it is vital, for some reason

the thing with "combine" works in French too: "un combine" can be a trick or a fraud

other examples:
offrir = give someone a present
to offer = to propose

sensible is sensé in French whereas
sensible in French is sensative in English

Mel (who speaks French a lot better than she does Polish!)

Apropos this topic thread, 'noga' means 'leg' in Polish, but 'Noga' (capital N) is a Hebrew female first name, of biblical origin, named after an Old Testament king, or something.

How's that for an odd coincedence?!

I still like
Wino =in english pronuntation it means a drunk who drinks wine,where as
Wino=in Poland,with english pronuntiation means,er,what winos probably do :) not
Wino=Vino....if that makes sense :)

Polish and Croatian:
Polish - ćipka -> polite way of saying pussy/vagina
Croatian - ćipka (not sure how its actually spelled but the pronunciation is the same) -> a hand knitted doily.

My brother went to HR with his girlfriend (she's hrvatska) and her grandmother asked my brother if he wanted to buy a ćipka from some old lady. Its safe to say that he was more than a little bit 'confused' until his gf explained it to him. LOL

oh lmao mali,like it,reminds me of a time in Warsaw when I asked to see a "First"armored division badge in a shop,I tried to show off and asked in Polish,much to the hilarity of the Polish girl with me and the embaresment of the shopkeepr I actualy asked to see his "Breasts" :)

LOL! Maybe this should be in the 'gay tolerance' thread...;)

another one
Polish - być - a form of 'to be'
English - b*tch - no explanation necessary :)

I remember my English friends here (in Poland) always complaining why kupować doesn't mean robić kupę...;)

(Mini) Cooper - a car someone at work has.
Kupa - What someone else at work thinks of that car.

or "kuper" - bird's rear end, also human ass, I mean arse ;)

indonesian: kaka = sister
polish: kaka = sh*t

this thread is very interesting, where i come from in england people call each other "cock" which could mean "mate" for example, so when i said it to a polish friend of mine he got upset because he thought it meant the same as "kutas" lol

i would think the same hehe