What does “nie” at the end of a Polish sentence mean?
Naleśniki babci krok po kroku
A2 Polish listening practice · Standard Polish · Picked for people who know a little
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?
How common in written Polish
How common in spoken Polish
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-PL 2014 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.