A1 · The simple sentence · about 7 minutes
Question words: kto, co, gdzie, kiedy
who, what, where, when, how, why
The question word goes first; the rest stays as in the statement.
Do you know this already?
“New to me”: the explanation first, then practice. “Test myself”: 3 short questions – get at least two right and you go straight to the harder exercises.
Words you will need3
They appear in this topic’s examples and exercises and are new at this point on the learning path.
- długopispen, biro
- centrumcentre, town centre
- pogodaweather
Understand
RememberThe question word goes first — nothing else moves.
- Signal words
- kto
- co
- gdzie
- skąd
- kiedy
- jak
- dlaczego
- ile
- który
- jaki
The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in Polish.
question marker
| who? what? | Kto? Co? |
| where? where to? where from? | Gdzie? Dokąd? Skąd? |
| when? how? | Kiedy? Jak? |
| why? | Dlaczego? Czemu? |
| how much? how many? | Ile kosztuje? Ile masz lat? |
| which? what kind of? | Który autobus? Jaka pogoda? |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
The question word goes first; otherwise the sentence stays like a statement.
Gdzie mieszkasz?Where do you live?
After kto the verb is in the third person singular.
Kto ma długopis?Who has a pen?
For “where from” you ask with skąd.
Skąd jesteś?Where are you from?
After ile the noun goes into the genitive.
Ile masz lat?How old are you?
który and jaki agree with the noun.
Który autobus jedzie do centrum?Which bus goes to the centre?
Example sentences
Co robisz w weekend?What are you doing at the weekend?
Kiedy jest koncert?When is the concert?
Jak się masz?How are you?
8 more example sentences
Dlaczego nie jesz?Why aren’t you eating?
Ile kosztuje ten chleb?How much is this bread?
Jaka jest dzisiaj pogoda?What is the weather like today?
Gdzie jest dworzec?Where is the station?
Skąd pani jest?Where are you from? (to a woman)
Kto to jest?Who is that?
Jak masz na imię?What is your name?
Która jest godzina?What time is it?
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Polish does not ask “how old are you” word for word. It counts the years you “have”: Ile masz lat? — and the answer is built the same way: Mam dwadzieścia lat. A literal translation of the English question is understood, but it sounds like a textbook, not like a person.
Quick check
A warm-up: 2 questions, answered straight away. They do not count towards your progress.
Practise
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The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
The main question words are kto (who), co (what), gdzie (where), kiedy (when), jak (how), dlaczego (why) and ile (how much, how many). They come first, and the sentence follows in its usual order: Gdzie mieszkasz? (Where do you live?). As with czy, there is no “do” and nothing is inverted.
“Where from” has its own word, skąd: Skąd jesteś? (Where are you from?). For “where to” the written language has dokąd; in conversation most people use gdzie for that too: Gdzie idziesz? After kto the verb is in the third person singular, even if the answer is several people — as with English “who is coming?”.
Two question words agree with their noun like an adjective: który, która, które (which) and jaki, jaka, jakie (what kind of, what … like). After ile the noun goes into the genitive (dopełniacz): Ile masz lat? (How old are you?), literally “how many years do you have?”.
Worth knowing1
Worth knowing
kto and co have cases
Like nouns, kto and co change their ending: kogo(whom)komu(to whom)czego(of what) English has kept only “whom”, and hardly uses it; Polish uses all of them every day. The basic forms are enough for now.
Kogo szukasz?Who are you looking for?
The verbs on this page, in every form: być · mieć · mieszkać · jechać · robić · jeść