Table of Contents
Polish adverbs answer the questions “how?”, “when?”, “where?” and “how much?”, and unlike almost everything else in Polish, they never decline. Learn an adverb once and it stays the same forever. This lesson shows you how to build adverbs from adjectives and gives you the everyday adverbs no conversation can do without.
Making adverbs from adjectives
Most Polish adverbs come from adjectives, the way English makes “quick → quickly”. Polish uses two endings, -O and -E:
-O is the default:
szybki (quick) → szybko (quickly)
tani (cheap) → tanio (cheaply)
drogi (expensive) → drogo
wysoki (high) → wysoko
zimny (cold) → zimno
-E (with a softened consonant) appears with many adjectives in -ny and -ry:
dobry (good) → dobrze (well)
zły (bad) → źle (badly)
ładny (pretty) → ładnie (nicely)
świetny (great) → świetnie
powolny (slow) → powoli / wolno (slowly; this one has two forms)
Which ending a given adjective takes is a matter of habit, not logic. Learn the adverb as its own word and you’ll be fine.
Adverbs describe the weather and how you feel
Polish loves impersonal sentences built from an adverb plus jest (or nothing at all):
Jest zimno – It’s cold
Dzisiaj jest gorąco – It’s hot today
Było ciemno – It was dark
Miło mi – Nice to meet you (literally “pleasantly to me”)
Dobrze mi tutaj – I feel good here
Nudno mi – I’m bored
The person who feels it goes into the dative: Zimno mi – I’m cold (literally “cold to me”). This tiny pattern covers a lot of small talk.
Adverbs of time and place you need daily
Time: dzisiaj (today), wczoraj (yesterday), jutro (tomorrow), teraz (now), potem (later), zawsze (always), często (often), czasami (sometimes), rzadko (rarely), nigdy (never), już (already), jeszcze (still / yet), wcześnie (early), późno (late)
Place: tu / tutaj (here), tam (there), blisko (near), daleko (far), wszędzie (everywhere), nigdzie (nowhere), w domu (at home), na zewnątrz (outside)
Degree: bardzo (very), trochę (a little), za (too: za drogo – too expensive), prawie (almost), tylko (only)
Watch out for double negatives: with nigdy, nigdzie and nic, the verb still takes nie. Nigdy nie byłem w Polsce – I have never been to Poland. In Polish, piling up negatives is correct grammar, not an error.
Examples
Mówisz bardzo szybko – You speak very fast
Ona świetnie gotuje – She cooks very well
Dlaczego jesteś tak późno? – Why are you so late?
W Polsce zimą jest zimno – In Poland it’s cold in winter
Mieszkamy blisko, możemy iść pieszo – We live near, we can walk
To jest za drogo – That’s too expensive
Często chodzimy do kina, ale rzadko do teatru – We often go to the cinema but rarely to the theater
Nigdy nie jem mięsa – I never eat meat
Vocabulary
| szybko – quickly
wolno / powoli – slowly dobrze – well źle – badly blisko – near daleko – far zimno – cold |
gorąco – hot
zawsze – always często – often czasami – sometimes nigdy – never bardzo – very trochę – a little |
Exercises
Part A: make an adverb from the adjective.
- szybki (quick)
- dobry (good)
- zły (bad)
- tani (cheap)
- ładny (pretty)
Part B: fill in a suitable adverb.
- Mów ______________, nie rozumiem – Speak slowly, I don’t understand
- Dzisiaj jest bardzo ______________ – It’s very cold today
- On ______________ nie pije kawy – He never drinks coffee
- Sklep jest ______________, pięć minut pieszo – The shop is near, five minutes on foot
- Ona mówi po polsku bardzo ______________ – She speaks Polish very well
Answers:
A: 1: szybko; 2: dobrze; 3: źle; 4: tanio; 5: ładnie
B: 1: wolno / powoli; 2: zimno; 3: nigdy; 4: blisko; 5: dobrze