Polish was chosen the HARDEST LANGUAGE in the world to learn... :D

Yes even when I deal with advanced level English speakers their spelling is quite bad - sometimes they choose completely different words from the spellcheck. Even I can't say my spelling is great, sometimes I write words as they sound automatically when I'm typing fast and then need to go back to check.

Anyway going back to the topic. This youtube was interesting on Poles' common mistakes in their language:



Some mistakes I've noticed in speech - poszłem, umię. Also, I can hear Poles self-correct their use of cases especially then they're using relative pronouns which of course define the phrase following it. I've heard six year olds make mistakes with declining the numbers when an English six year old can spend time learning new words instead of 17 ways to decline two. But on the whole I'd say the complexity of Polish makes Poles work hard on it and in general they're probably more correct in speaking their own language when compared to the English even though the language is much easier to pick up.

This makes perfect sense.

I got the impression that for a native English speaker Polish is considerably harder than it is for a native German speaker (maybe because of the lacking genders and cases). But I think English speakers therefore usually have less Problems with French than German Speakers have

English has no diacritical marks, as have German, Polish, French, Spanish and a number of others. The fairly consistent spelling of Polish therefore makes it far easier to read as well as to pronounce than either English or French. In fact, Polish has many consonant combinations which are quite similar to American English, such as "-je" compared with North American "Missya" (Miss you) etc..

I also read that Poles usually have more problems with French than with German. Many English Speakers therefore (but of course not all) have more problems with German despite the languages are closer to each other.

I've often compared the case endings of German with the "prehensile tail" (Uebrigbleibsel) of O.E. (Old English), long since dropped from our language. For that reason, German speakers can handle Polish grammar a bit more easily than native English speakers with only a basic or working knowledge of high school Spanish or French, both Romance tongues!

Polish, with its frequent changes and shifts in spelling as well as case morphology usually prove overwhelming for American learners in particular. While at the same time, English orthographic exceptions and wildly flexible word usage can doubtless drive Polish learners to distraction, except of course if they've been exposed to the language very young:-)

I have said that Spanish is very easy to learn for me. I fear I must take this back, since Spanish is quite easy at the beginning and turns to be really tough when you are at advanced Level.

Polish is quite hard at the beginning and turns easier by the time.
I would still say that Polish is harder than Spanish definetally but not as much as many People think. So it's definatelly not correct to say that Spanish is one of the easiest languages in world. Or are there any easy languages? lol

It would definetally be hard to explain that for example "English is harder than Icelandic" or that "Bulgarian is harder than Polish". But I would say now that every language has it's dark and bright sights.

Polish though DOES have the charactaristic of beginning hard, but gradually becoming more transparent. The same CANNOT be said for English:---)

It also took me just one day to learn all the different forms of the number "two" and how to use them.

And if you think "W szczebrzeszynie....." is difficult try following German one: "Der Leutnant von Leuthen befahl seinen Leuten nicht eher zu läuten, bevor der Leutnant von Leuthen seinen Leuten das Läuten befiehlt."

I have to agree with JanMovie. I think Polish is the easiest or at least one of the easiest languages in the world :S

I can say the German with ease! Even after many years though, the Polish still bedevils the tongue:-)

We, the poles are proud of our language, it is one of the most difficult in the world :)

Says the one who has no idea about foreign languages. In fact, Polish is not even in the group of the hardest languages. I am Polish myself btw.

47 pages? really?

Polish is insanely hard....enough already.

And you've just started the 48th page, stupid!. So it's heading towards the total number of states within the Union ...

My Grandma is teaching me Polish. ^.^

too bad she didn't teach you how to create an account

does some1 has a ard word in polish?

proszę

"Chrząść brzmi w tcicinie." is part of a popular Polish tongue twister written by the late Jan Brzechwa. It means "....the beetle buzzes in the reeds.

Many foreigners consider this the hardest Polish sentence to pronounce both correctly as well as intelligibly to a Pole:-)

w trzcinie


It's actually not that hard to say, I find

"Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami" (table with broken legs) to be much harder, as is

"Wyindywidualizowaliśmy się z rozentuzjazmowanego tłumu" (we stood out from the enthusiastic crowd)

I meant that this is the FOREIGNERS' perception of difficulty, not necessarily that of the Polish-native speaker:-)

For me chinese is hard, much harder than polish to learn, it makes no sense but dai jen (phonetic good day) almost sounds Polish

And I thought it was "Chrząszcz brzni w trzcinie"


It is


And what would that be in Polish?

Yeah, that's the problem, someone told you that no-one uses it these days. Next time, read up a bit and ask more than "someone", the phrase is neuter form denoting female so it is different from standard neuter forms such a "dziecko" (child), "lozko" (bed), "gniazdo" (nest) and it is used quite often; in the west less so but in the east more so. The phrase "dzieweczka" (female girl) is one not used much anymore except by mountain people (gorals).

Yeah,and he says he works in medical field and learned (LOL) Polish to communicate with Polish patients who don't speak English! I am surprised he hasn't been (I am assuming he hasn't been) sued for malpractice yet! Lyzko,ultimately it may be cheaper for you to simply hire some Polish interpreter.I am sure there is plenty of Poles in NYC, whose English is million times better than your Polish.Or maybe get someone from Chicagoland.No offence but your Polish is pathetic.

Apparently his German who he claims to be at the native level is no better :-)

Yeah, I have had the displeasure to read his totally broken Polish (wypociny Jasia) on a number of occasions; he served me extra sentences as if the first one was not enough of a testament to his linguistic disability, he needed to proove to me how bad he is and he did a good job of it, congrats Lyzko! But Jews are really smart you know.

And I thought it was "Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie"


I'm a foreigner, non-native speaker of Polish and the other two are more difficult to say for me, 'Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcine' certainly looks more intimidating to those who don't know Polish spelling, but it isn't that hard to say.

"M" next to "N" on the keyboard, my fat fingers and 5 minutes edit time, done :-)))

"Jeez"! Polish is very very difficult for NON slavic populations but it is VERY EASY for people speaking other slavic languages. I have had a huge number of Russians, Ukrainians, Czech, Bulgarians .... around me and all ("normal" people) were able to learn Polish in a few months. I bet our friend Crow if moving to Poland would learn Polish in a mere couple of months ;)

Languages like Baltic languages, Hungarian, Finnish, Gaelic, Basque (just to mention European languages) are MUCH harder for other Europeans than Polish is for NON slavs. Try to check above languages! First of all, we won't be able to recognize any word whereas any European can figure out a lot of Polish words (both in writing or orally) since a lot of words come from Latin (through French since thousands of Polish words included among those used daily come from French (Napoléon's period only? Only Polo3 will know in PF) , although spellt the Polish way).

Yes, Polish is very hard for NON slavs but NO BIG DEAL for any other Slavic speakers.

PS: I won't mention Chinese ;)