What is a “kamienica” in Polish?
Odpowiedź na zarzuty o kamienicę i prywatność
B2 Polish listening practice · Standard Polish · Curated for upper-intermediate learners
Kamienica is the Polish word for an older multi-story apartment building, often pre-war and ornate, with stucco facades and inner courtyards that line many of the older streets of Polish cities. Owning one can signal old money, shrewd inheritance, or a post-1989 reprivatization win.
In this celebrity reel, a woman defends herself: “my husband doesn’t have a kamienica in Warsaw, but I have one in Łódź.” The Warsaw-versus-Łódź beat is a classic Polish jab. Łódź, Poland’s third-largest city, sits about 130 km from Warsaw and has long been compared with the capital. Owning a kamienica in Łódź signals different ambitions than owning one in Warsaw.
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this B2 Polish listening practice listening practice?
General Polish frequency
Spoken Polish frequency
Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s B2 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-PL 2014 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸In Polish real-estate content and Otodom listings
- ▸In Polish films set in pre-war Warsaw or Łódź (Ziemia obiecana by Andrzej Wajda)
- ▸In Polish wealth-and-class debate columns
- ▸In Polish reality TV about renovating old buildings
- ▸In Polish family arguments about inheritance and zachowek