misleading differences between Polish and English languages

When English says absolutely it means yes
When Polish says absolutnie it means no
When English says actually it means in fact
When Polish says aktualnie it means currently
When English says accurate it means precise
When Polish says akurat it means no,you are wrong
When English says ordinary it means usual
When Polish says ordynarny it means rude,unkind
When English says curve it means bend
When Polish says kurwa it means....
Why it's so misleading

what are you basing this on Panienka??? with respect you haven't been to england, lol :)

That is very interesting Panienka...do you know of any more?

Ow right i see, what you mean, reading over them again i have noticed, lol. i can even finish this off for you, lol, kurwa is whore :) Before i didn't have a clue what it represented, i thought it was the same word written twice like in English then two different meanings,

a little like when men say yes it means yes and when women say yes it means maybe :)

there must be more of these, i wonder it its in Polish only!!

combine - join
kombinować - contrive

Ok in English means middle, neither good nor bad
Ok in Polish means good
my favorite though, is in Polish when "No" means yes

i remembered about one that sounds exactly the same both in English and Polish but it means something completely different...

whistle and łysol (a bald man)

Brat is Polish for brother (I think), in English it's used to describe a nasty little spoilt child.

In my brother's case he used to fit both well

It's not misleading, that would imply that the evolution of languages had the sole purpose of deceiving you. It's just due to the fact that they are totally different languages, not even part of the same family. I myself wonder while learning Polish why there is absolutely no recognisable word (except the load-words) in Polish.

M-G (it's all one big set-up!)

Edit: the part of the not recognisable words is not entirely true, I just figured. When I try to learn Polish with my own native language, Dutch, as basis, I find that there ARE some recognisable words: one simple example is Szukaj, the Polish word for search. In Dutch that would be Zoek. The combination oe is in Dutch pronounced like a Polish U. With a little imagination you can figure out what Szukaj means without using a dictionairy.

Who, you? - sounds like an innocent question in English, but like a nasty insult in Polish
Cheaper may mean less expensive in English, but in Polish, again, you might sound like you're saying something slightly rude.
Słoń is elephant, not swan. Nothing rude about that.


C'est combien - how much is that? - French!

i remember also:
capture - seize
kaptur - hood

actually, kombinować as contrive is of secondary or tertiary meaning. Kombinowac primarilly has exactly the same meaning as English combine i.e. łączyć różne elementy w określoną całość. In both languages the word is of Latin origin.


I dunno. It MAY mean that, but this is not the primary meaning of the word. Kinda like English "yeah, right".

Back to misleading ones:

Polish kant
English cunt

Polish PiS
English piss (these actually seem to be synonyms at times)

Polish mak
English muck

pet in English is a dog or a cat or a hamster, or any animal you keep in the house
pet in Polish is a fag

Gary is an English/American name
gary in Polish is saucepans or pots ;)

right JustysiaS, in fact i didn't realise hehe

i totally get where your coming from there :)


lol, a name that means something in another language

You're not really going to mistake these two either in writing or orally.


To pot (verb: to put plants in pots)
Pot - Polish for sweat / perspire.

- Osiol (bringing a bit of horticulture to the forum, again and again and again and again)

hmm, by the way i think pronunciation of donkey is similar to Polish domki (small houses) ;)

That may be better than it being likened to the word 'bąki'.

bonk - bąk

ham (hog'a rump) - ham (an @s$hole-person)

but why is it misleading? hmm.. these are totaly different languages and really none of these words sound the same.. similar, sure but not the same. practice your pronunciation. the meanings are completely different too. hmm..

because when i was learning English i was sure actually means aktualnie etc. , it might be a bit helpful for some people :)

lol, thought Bak, was a polish centre back, and yes the commentators do pronounce it bonk!!


i wondered the same thing too, i learnt French at school and there not that many misleading words that were both very similar but meant two totally different things in both English/|French. Although i guess i've never thought of it like you have. Maybe its just an english/polish thing, lol, a secret mesaage!!

In English 'No' means 'Nie', in Polish 'No' means 'Well?', 'So, uh..' e.g. 'No, co słychać?' = So, what's up?

'no' does not means 'well'.... it means 'yes'.... but: 'No to co slychac?' = "So, what's up?'

Marek is right. "no" has more meanings than just "yes".

ok...could you give me a few more examples?

i think z_darius is right, we can say "no nie wiem..." etc. :)

yes....i checked.... 'no' itself means yes or well... but when combined with other words, means different stuff.... you're right guys

No tak (it doesn't mean "yes yes")
No... siadaj (well, sit down)
No i co ja mu powiem? (and what am I going to tell him?)
No i sie spierdolilo (and so it got fvucked up)

thanks z_d....