One of the most confusing words for me in Polish is the shortest. The Polish word for ‘Yes’ is ‘tak’. The Polish word for ‘no’ is ‘nie’. Ok that is easy. However, more common than ‘yes’ or ‘tak’ ,I hear, the word ‘Yeah’, which in Polish is pronounced or said ‘no’. If I would ask a girl to the movies and she says ‘no’ in Polish this means ‘yes’, or ‘yeah sure’. To add to the confusion I speak Polish, at a reasonable level. Most of my conversations are a mix of Polish and English. So I get confused often when I hear ‘no’, because there is little context for a one word answer. Lucky the accent for ‘no’ which really means ‘yeah’ or ‘yes’ is different than the ‘no’ meaning ‘no’. Usually I ask for clarification so I do not get myself in trouble.
8 responses to The Polish word for yes is no
I feel you! The Japanese word for the possesive ‘s (i.e. Ana’s ball) is “no” (i.e. Ana no booru) and in both Spanish and English, the two languages I speak, “no” is the opposite of “yes.” Luckily, it’s never confusing if it’s in writing. A very different alphabet is used when writing foreign words if they mean to say it in English.
Sorry, but you’re confused. The polish word for ‘NO’ is ‘nie’. ‘Yeah’ is not a Polish word for ‘NO’. It’s the same exact as American English ‘yeah’ meaning ‘yeah’ or ‘ya’. There are many American words adapted or absorbed by the Polish language. My guess is that you’re not noticing the probably subtle difference in the ‘n’ sound vs. the ‘y’ sound in ‘nie’. The pronounciation of ‘nie’ is almost perfectly ‘neah’ if we substitute the ‘y’ with a ‘n’ in ‘yeah’.
In India they shake their heads up and down for ‘no’ and side ways for ‘yes’. Now that’s confusing!
‘Nie’ is the Polish word for no. ‘Tak’ is the Polish word for yes. ‘No’ is the Polish word for ‘yes’ or ‘well yeah’. I speak Polish. My name is ‘Biernat’ that is a Polish name. I live in Krakow, Poland. ‘No’ in Polish means ‘yes’ or ‘yeah’ or ‘well yeah’. So I am not confused. But thanks for the comment.
Polish “no” is present in other Slavic languages, too. In Slovak, “áno” means “yes”; in Czech, it’s “ano” or “no”. In certain areas of Serbia and Croatia, besides the canonical “da”, you can hear a prolonged “noooo” for “yeah”, “of course”, “what else?”.
As for shaking vs. nodding, that’s a Greek thing: they shake for “yes” and nod for “no”. The same in Bulgaria and Macedonia.
Hope this confuses.
Sorry markbiernat! I was simply following the thread of the article and not intending to insult anyone. The author (you?) said he was confused which prompted my comment. So now you’re not confused? Well, I am!
Well, I also speak Polish. It’s my first language and I’m fluent in it. I think our mis-understanding is in the way I read “NO”. I assumed you were pronouncing it the way an American would……with is more like “no-w” (where does that “W” come from anyway?). My bad. Pronouncing it phonetically (maybe a dipthong?) would yes, indeed, mean “of course” , “sure”, etc.. But that would sound to an English spearker more like “no-h” not “no-w”.
Again, sorry. Did not mean to demean anyone. Fun to delve into languages!
Polish 'No' in Australia.
I am a born and bred Australian with a lot of Polish friends made here in recent years. I have a very strong interest in languages. It certainly puzzled me when I first came across it. To me, as with other languages the differences mainly are in the vowel sounds. English, being a ‘hotch-potch’ language, has such a large variety of vowel sounds whereas, with Polish, usually what you see is what you get. I think I’m right in saying that in reciting the Polish alphabet it is the sound itself not a ‘name’ as in English.
Again, to me, that Polish ‘no’(English ‘noh’, ‘hard’ ‘o’) is more like an agreeing ‘uh-huh’, along the way. As has been said, a ‘yeah’. Maybe even ‘you don’t say!’?
I live in Melbourne which is now one of the most ethnically mixed cities in the world. I have tour-driven right around Europe including Poland.
Means no.
Like, don’t do that. It doesn’t matter what its pronounced like.
In Polish no means yeah or yes. But further, with girls often no means you have to charm them a bit more. You know very little about how the world of love and romance works.
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