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B1

Polish B1: Intermediate

At B1 speech stops being a run of separate sentences. An opinion comes with a reason, a story has a beginning and an end, and a misunderstanding can be cleared up without anyone stepping in to help.

Mistakes still happen, but they no longer get in the way of being understood. This is the level at which a language becomes usable at work.

Sounds, first sentences and numbers2

Numbers, time, date

2
B1Numbers for groups of men: dwaj, dwóch, pięciuGroups with men have number forms of their own: dwaj koledzy or dwóch kolegów, pięciu studentów.B1Collective numbers: dwoje dzieci, obojedwoje, troje and czworo count children, couples of a man and a woman, and words that exist only in the plural.

Nouns, cases, pronouns, adjectives3

The cases

2
B1The genitive plural: pięć kotów, dużo książekThe form with the most endings — and one of them is no ending at all.B1Which case after which verbMany verbs require a fixed case — and some common ones take a case you would not expect from English.

Pronouns

1
B1Relative clauses with któryktóry takes its gender from the noun it refers to and its case from its role in the clause.

Prepositions and their cases1

Prepositions

1
B1nad, pod, przed, za, między: place or directionWhere something is takes the instrumental, where it is going takes the accusative.

Present, past, future1

The past tense

1
B1Gdzieś był? The movable personal endingThe ending -em, -eś, -śmy, -ście can move from the verb to a word further forward.

All about the verb: aspect, mood, motion6

Aspect

1
B1Choosing the aspect: signals in the sentenceWords like “codziennie” and “w końcu”, commands, negation and questions show which aspect fits.

Commands, requests and conditions

2
B1Gdyby: conditions that are not realGdyby with the ending, the verb in its -ł form — and the conditional in the main clause.B1Żeby: wishes, requests and aimsAfter “want somebody to” and for “so that” you use żeby with the -ł form — or, for the same person, the infinitive.

Must, can, like

1
B1Powinien: what you should doA word that looks like an adjective, changes like the past tense and means “should”.

Verbs of motion

2
B1Prefixes on iść and jechać: arrive, leaveA prefix gives the trip a direction — przyjść, wyjść, wejść — and makes the verb perfective.B1Three verbs for one trip: iść, chodzić, pójśćpójść and pojechać are the perfective partners: somebody who poszedł has gone and is not back yet.

Sentence structure: linking and reporting3

Joining sentences

3
B1What somebody said: reported speech with że, czy, żebyPolish does not shift the tense back in reported speech: the tense of the original stays, only persons and pronouns change.B1Participles and the passive: czytający, czytając, napisanyThree participles: -ący like an adjective, -ąc for “while”, -ny and -ty for the passive with być and zostać.B1A noun from a verb: czytanie, pisanie, jedzenieWith -anie, -enie or -cie you turn a verb into a noun — the Polish “-ing” in “reading is fun”.

Fine tuning: diminutives and particles2

Fine tuning

2
B1Diminutives: domek, kawka, okienkoWith -ek, -ka and -ko you make things small, dear or polite — far more often than English does with “-ie”.B1Small words, big effect: już, jeszcze, chyba, przecieżjuż and jeszcze, chyba and przecież, dopiero and tylko — small words that show what you expect or suppose.

Word lists at level B1

Lists: 38 · words: 1499

All word lists →

Reading texts at level B1

Sentences from this level’s topics

Nie ma już biletów.There are no tickets left.

Wieczorem słucham radia.In the evening I listen to the radio.

Kobieta, która tu pracuje, jest moją sąsiadką.The woman who works here is my neighbour.

Klucze są pod wycieraczką.The keys are under the doormat.

Practise level B1 only