What does “nie” at the end of a Polish sentence mean?

Naleśniki babci krok po kroku

WhatsAppGmailTelegramEmail

A2 Polish listening practice · Standard Polish · Picked for people who know a little

💡 Did you know?
…, nie?
Polish tag question
“…, right?” — the little nie at the end of a sentence asks for agreement

The word for “no” is how Polish says “right?” Tack nie? onto the end of any statement and it turns into a tag question: moje ulubione, nie, babcia? — “my favourite, right, grandma?” It replaces the whole English zoo of “isn’t it / don’t you / aren’t they” with one syllable, and it’s the sound of relaxed, spoken Polish. The formal alternative is prawda?, “true?”

Grandma’s answer is the other half of the pattern: no — which, confusingly, means “yeah” in casual Polish (no też, też w nocy — “yeah, overnight too”). So in this kitchen nie asks and no agrees. The recipe itself gives you the Polish for a crêpe batter that rests: pół litra mleka (“half a litre of milk”), pięć jajek (“five eggs”), woda gazowana (“sparkling water,” the grandmother’s trick for lighter crêpes), skórka z pomarańczy (“orange zest”) and na dwie godziny do lodówki — “into the fridge for two hours.”

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A2 Polish listening practice video?

84.3%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Polish words
Most of the words in this video are common Polish words.

How common in written Polish

74.5%
Top 1,000
84.3%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Polish

90.9%
Top 1,000
100%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Words for talking
This video uses words people often say in Polish.

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.

mąkę
2×
Not in top 5,000
dodajemy
1×
Not in top 5,000
dolewamy
1×
Not in top 5,000
gazowanej
1×
Not in top 5,000

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-PL 2014 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

See Standard Polish Videos You Can Understand on Reelang

Open Polish page