Dog Commands in Polish

Hello all,

I am about to get a new dog, and as I am studying Polish (still a beginner), I had the thought that I'd like to train him to respond to Polish commands. So I was hoping you could help me with translating a few phrases, and possibly thinking of some more phrases I should know.

Here is the initial list I had in mind:

Good
Good dog
Bad
Bad dog
Come
Go
Let's go
Stop
Walk
Slow
Fast
Run
Fetch
Get the ______
Sic
Food
Treat
Water

Thank you very kindly in advance for any help you may offer.

Dobry piesek vs Niedobry piesek.

Polish piesek means doggy. It shows the affection of Polish owners for their pets.

And "pies" by itself is "dog", right? I'm still getting the hang of Polish noun forms, so I'm always unsure if I'm conjugating nouns properly.

Also, is "dobry/nieodbry" sufficient for "good/bad"?

Also, does any of this have to change if the dog is female? Or is the word for "dog" always male even if the animal itself isn't?
Thank you for your help.

Yes.

Hmmm...... let me think.............. Polish dobry means good in English. Nothing else comes to my mind now. ):):


Wow!!! Excellent question I must admit. You must be a perfectionist! Just like me.
Yes, doggy aka pisesk is used on both male and female dogs. Why? Because when you say it, you are bending over your pet and you don`t look underneath to see if the dog has the balls or not.

That's a mistake... What if your dog decides to emmigrate to the US?

Never judge by repro organs...Today, females can self-identify as males and males can be pregnant.

Temp, don`t mind Novichok, a notorious forum maniac who spreads crazy ideas about self identity. The freedom of speech principle is the reason we keep him here.

I 100% support the principle of free speech.

I have some ideas for what many of these other phrases could be, but I don't know the "command form" of verbs (if there even is such a thing).

Please tell me if this is right:

Let's go: Idziemy
Go: Chodź

Actually, I really don't understand the difference between chodzić and idzić. It seems like which one means "go" and which one means "walk" is in constant flux. I would like it a lot if someone could offer some clarification on the difference between those two words.

Food: Jedzenie
Water: Woda

Eat: Jesz
Drink: Pijesz

This is where I'm confused about what the command form of verbs would be. I stole "idzemy" and "chodz" from Geralt the Witcher because he says those to his horse all the time in the game, but chodź would be chodzisz in this same form. Unless chodź means something completely different...

Fast: Szybko
Slow: Wolny

Also stolen from the Witcher, though I may have misunderstood the meaning.

Treat: Frajda

Got this from a dictionary. Is it right?

The rest I don't really have a clue about, so thank you again to everyone for your help.

chodzić - by foot, no particular destination
iść - by foot with a destination

nb. some usage departs from that in set phrases but that's the basic distinction


Yes, it's called the imperative (tryb rozkazujący in Polish).

The second person singular familiar (that you would use with a dog) is made in various ways, they usually involve adding a -j to the final vowel of the stem or dropping the final vowel of the stem.

czytać: czyta- czytaj

pisać: pisze- pisz-

There are rules about which to use but at this stage just learn which with particular verbs.

Chodz = Come
Siad = Sit
Lez = Lie down
Dobry Piesek = Good dog

Bad dog = no such thing

Also

Heel! = Do nogi!

A female dog is suka (b1tch) diminutive suczka. A few decades ago it was only used about canines but under translation pressure from English the word is also now used about women the speaker doesn't like....


Or just Źle! (bad!)

waruj! = down!
równaj = realign (when you want your dog to walk along your knee area)

Of course there is. You certainly didn`t watch the cult comedy Killer 1 when Wąski goes to a brothel and pretends a bad dog to be whipped. hahahaha

Said as leżeć!

Hello all,

The forum would no longer allow me to post to this thread as a guest, so I had to register.

This is what I have so far. Please correct the things that I have wrong.

Good: Dobry
Bad: Żle
Good/Bad dog: Dobry/Żle piesek
Come: Chodz
Let's go: Idziemy
Sit: Siad
Lie down: Leżeć or Lez?
Heel/Stop: Do nogi
Down: Waruj
Realign: Równaj (thanks @jon357, @mafketis , and @Ron2 for these great suggestions!)
Eat: Jedz
Drink: Pij
Fast: Szybko
Slow: Wolny
Food: Jedzenie
Water: Woda
Treat: Frajda

Still looking for initial help with these:

Walk
Run
Fetch
Sic
Get
Bring
Pick up
Put down/release/drop

Thank you so much to everyone so far. I'm very excited!

There are variations of these, but in general:

Walk - Spacer
Run - Biegaj
Fetch - Aport
Sit - Siad
Get - Bierz
Bring - Przynieś
Pick up - Podnieś
Put down/release/drop - Puść

@Tlum: Thank you very kindly for your translations.

To be clear, "sic" is not a misspelling. merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sic%20%28something%29%20on%20%28someone%20or%20something%29

I think these translations are useless for English speakers who don't know the rules of Polish pronunciation

They're not too hard.

It sems like a lot of 'commands' for just one doggie.

Yes, I know. But you put the word "sic" as if you wanted it translated..

Zero problem today. They copy and paste all of them into Google translator and click the speaker icon. I strongly advise my students to use it to be better prepared for their class presentations.

I do, yes, but it looked like you thought I meant "sit" since that was the only difference between the bottom of my previous message and your very helpful translations.


I am actually familiar with Polish pronunciation rules. I'm sure my accent won't win any hearts or awards, but I'm certain I could make myself understood.

The only time Polish pronunciation gets confusing is when there's suddenly a full-on English word or something in the mix like "weekend". That's how the hell that is English spelling got started, guys! Don't stray down that path any further! Borrowing foreign words is fine, but either spell it or pronounce it in your native system!

Never heard this used by itself.... it's usually "sic 'em!"

Maybe "Atak!"

I've never heard it at all. Is it American?


I can't imagine telling a doggie to do that,.

Not marked as such here:

dictionary.cambridge.org/pl/dictionary/english/sic-on

More info on it:

youtube.com/watch?v=iZldPl6q8CE

As a command for dogs I've only ever heard 'sic 'em' regardless of the number or sex of the target (and tbh I've only heard it used seriously in tv/movies, in real life I've only ever heard it as a joke)

Same with me. Or seen it in a novel. I wonder what the etymology is.

one idea is in the youtube vid I linked (may be dialect pronunciation of 'seek')

I didn't look (at work and posting in spare minutes and now travelling on a very bumpy road). Seek sounds a good possibility.

Do ye ken the old song: "Do ye ken John Peel". Plenty of hunting language and stuff about doggies, including the call "view halo" which is I suspect a forerunner of the telephone term "hello", that or connects to the word "hail/hele".

A nice song too. I have about half my roots in that region.

When I was professionally training my German shepherd in Poland, the trainer used the word "Fe!" instead of "No / Nie." It's mostly to avoid common people to confuse the dog and that's how the police/military trains their dogs (they don't use the common words but some other keywords that only their dog knows).

That's fantastic information. That's one of the primary reasons I want to teach my dog to respond to Polish (chances of a random Polish-speaker where I live are effectively zero), and have a few unique phrases besides.

Regarding "sic": it's commonly used in hunting and tracking. Something in the spirit of, "Go get 'em!" would do nicely, I think.

Then I'd suggest 'dawaj'. It's always shouted as a form of encouragement especially for sports and that kind of thing.

That`s not enough coz corresponds only to Go! while we still need Get them! Tlum already provided the correct command: