Greetings are essential part in our everyday life no matter where we live, what we do, who we are or what culture we belong to. We cannot imagine a single day without greeting somebody.
There are lots of different kinds of greetings which are used in various situations depending on how well we know a particular person, on time of the day or circumstances of the meeting. The words said when greeting people can express respect or be just a normal polite expression. Very often, they show joy because of the meeting or even are a spoken joke.
I would like to present some of the most important and common Polish expressions used to greet people.
Dzień dobry is a general official form of greeting people (people that we know, we do not know and older people). We use it no matter whether it is morning ( Good morning) or afternoon ( Good afternoon).
Dobry wieczór (Good evening) is similar to Dzień dobry, but it is used in the evening.
Dobranoc ( Good night) is said when people leave each other in the evening or before going to bed.
Do widzenia! ( Goodbye) is used when someone leaves or is left.
Cześć! ( Hi!, Hello!, Bye!) is an informal expression we use both when we want to greet our friends, relatives, children and people we know well and when we want to say goodbye.
Witam! is quite similar to Cześć! but a little bit less emotional.
Czołem! is again close to Cześć! It is used usually by young people between each other
Jak się masz? (how are you?), Jak się miewasz? (how do you do?), Co u Ciebie słychać? (what is going on with you?) or Co słychać! (how is everything?) are greetings which express interest in mood and health condition of the person we have met.
Polish language has also got a few more informal ways of greeting. Here they are:
Graba!, Grabula!, Witka!, Strzała! or Strzałeczka! are mostly used by men and they are more like a slang that you can’t find in the dictionary. It encourages to offer one’s hand and is connected with the gesture of shaking hands (used by people who know each other very well).
Piątka! High five! – used between people who know each other, especially younger people
Kopę lat! meaning: I haven’t seen you for ages! It emphasizes the fact that a lot of time has passed since the last meeting.
Sie masz! or Sie ma! is a shortened version of Jak się masz! (How do you do?) which has become characteristic among teenagers.
Szczęść Boże! ( God bless!) is a greeting sometimes used by Catholics.
Similar in meaning is: Niech będzie pochwalony Jezus Chrystus! or just Pochwalony! ( Praised be Jesus Christ!). As a reply to this greeting we say: Na wieki wieków, amen! (usually used in the church).
These gestures are sometimes used as a greeting:
– Shaking hands,
– Taking off one’s headgear for a moment,
– Raising one’s open hand up,
– Nodding one’s head,
– Giving somebody five,
– Smile,
– Kissing somebody’s hand (a man kisses a woman’s hand),
– Kissing one’s cheeks (in Poland usually 3 times)
Hopefully this gave you a little picture of how people greet each other in Poland.
Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)
Comments:
John Morgan:
Could you please add pronunciation to your very useful Polish news?
Thanks,
English speaker!
John
Jonathan:
Thanks for these good fun explainations.
Can you write something about how people greet each other in the street …
My wife is Polish, and when we first went to Poland she warned me not to smile at everybody or greet strangers when I walked past them in the street.
In England, it is to OK to nod to, or say ‘hi’, to a stranger when walking past them, especially if you are the only two people walking on the street. But in Poland, people seem to study me from a distance, then look away with a ‘stony’ face as we pass.
Also, although she loves her country, she always remarks that ‘everybody looks miserable [unhappy]’ when we’re walking around town.
Jonathan
Ronnie:
I agree! I know how to pronounce some of these, but phonetics would be so helpful.
Thank you.
Dorothy:
Can you cover formal as well? I’m not sure when you’re suppose to say pan, pani, panstwo, etc.
Thanks!
Steve:
‘Do zobaczenie’ (see you, see you around) replaces ‘do widzenia’ amongst friends.
‘Na razie’ (see you soon), is also frequently used when the time between meeting is small.
‘Pa, pa’ is used as goodbye with very young children, with ‘pa’ being used between close adult friends and family as well as slightly older children. It may primarily be used between people who have known each other from childhood.
I have also heard ‘serwus’ as a greeting, which literally means ‘at your service’ but is usually used between colleagues (ie friends who are neither family nor extremely close). It may be a bit old fashioned and I suspect it is used as a term of respect and status amongst equals.
‘Bye’ is a current fashion farewell term.
‘Dziękuję’ (thank-you) is used as a final farewell without any specific form of goodbye much more in social circumstances than in England. The usage in shops, etc is roughly similar, although very polite English people would also add ‘goodbye’. It is often used this way when leaving homes after dinner parties, etc. (However, some Polish people are quite unaware that they do this. I just happen to listen.)
‘Dobry wieczór’ seems to be used from the time when it is getting dark, rather than a summer evening when it is still fully light.
‘Co słychać’ is important to remember as it can be confused by the learner with ‘co słuchać’ (possibly bad Polish, but seeming to mean ‘what have you heard?’). The nothing-much-to-say’ reply to ‘co słychać?’ is ‘wysztko dobrze’ (everything’s OK or fine), whilst ‘nic nowego’ (nothing new) gets you funny looks. I would say it’s a bit wider than asking about your mood and health, as it is often a conversation starter, with you being given the chance to start talking about what’s interesting you. You might think of it as ‘how’s the world treating you, then?’, with the world being an open option for you to start talking about anything that’s generally on your mind. However, I don’t recall this or the other variants as being a greeting. I would rather say that they’re a standard follow on to ‘cześć’, etc.
When picking up the telephone, the initial opening greeting is often ‘allo’ followed by ‘cześć’ or ‘dzień dobry/wieczór’ when you know who it is. However, the only times I have heard ‘allo’ used off the phone it has had a very different meaning, something like: ‘I heard you call my name the previous times but decided to ignore you. I’m sick of you shouting out my name all the time and telling me to come to you to do irrelevant and useless things. I’m busy, so come to me if you want something, although actually I’d prefer it if you’d shut up completely’. It can be used in the office, etc with the right degree of friendship, but a tough boss would get angry.
I agree with Jonathan’s comment about not being polite to strangers on the street, but I do it anyway. It seems strange to me not to say hello to people you pass on an otherwise empty road several times a month or more, but some people think it’s strange when I do.
ben:
I am polish and my family is too!
ben:
me is caca