I love you in Polish

How to say I love you in Polish

Kocham cie, Kocham ciebie, ja Kocham cie, this is how you say I love you in Polish.

Love is an undefined thing, no question. When you are in love the feeling is as strong in Paris, as it is in Cleveland USA or Jędrzejów ( a town in Poland famous for its Clock Museum, which is on third place in the world after Chicago Planetarium and Science Museum in Oxford in terms of amount and value of its Solar clocks). How you convey this is important. That is why I wrote this post, to provide some ideas beyond the obvious.

Expressions of love in general

Ways to express your feelings are countless, it depends on you and your relationship temperature, how many of them you will discover.

Polish couples dress stylish, even the next level of compared to European counterparts. Love is still romantic in Poland. This is steampunk love.

I think style and fashion speak strongly. I mean people in love do not walk around during the courting phase in white t-shirts and sweatpants, at least not in Krakow or Warsaw.

You can show love by the way you act – write poems, give flowers, make romantic dinner, sing by the moonlight, hold hands, look each other in the eyes, send love letters , e-mails and texting.

Polish expressions for I love you

As important as all this things that show your feelings are the words you talk to your beloved.

To confess love you can simply say:

  • ‘I love you’ which in polish is ‘kocham cię’
  • and also ‘I adore you’ – ‘uwielbiam cię’
  • ‘you mean a lot to me’ –  ‘wiele dla mnie znaczysz’
  • ‘you are my whole world’ –  ‘ jesteś całym moim światem’
  • ‘you are the joy of my life’ –  ‘jesteś radością mojego życia’
  • ‘you are my other half’ – ‘jesteś moją drugą połówką’
  • ‘you are the love of my life’ – ‘jesteś miłością mojego życia’.
  • You can also say: ‘you make me happy’ – ‘dzięki tobie jestem szczęśliwy (szczęśliwa) ‘
  • ‘I feel good with you’ – ‘dobrze mi z tobą’.

When you refer to the person you love you can say:

  • ‘darling’, in polish ‘kochanie’
  • ‘sweetheart’, ‘serduszko’
  • ‘my dear’,  ‘mój drogi’ for a man and ‘moja droga’ for a women.

In one of the best Polish love songs, a popular group “Maanam” the word “kocham cię” appears 18 times.

It is one of the best love songs I know. It is very sensual and very good to listen, when you want to learn to pronounce ‘I love you’ in polish language well.

Hot topic of love in Poland

Love is probably the cordialtest topic of all times, and it doesn’t lose its strength over ages. It is something that everybody are looking for and dreaming about. Poets, writers, singers, painters – they all get inspiration from love, for some reason especially tragic.

The ordinary people fall in love and so do the great ones. Polish king John III Sobieski was not only a great chief and soldier, but also a wonderful writer and author of beautiful love letters to his wife Mary, in whose he was totally in love.

The history of the verb ‘to love’ in Polish language, which is ‘kochać’ goes back to the XV century and it had many forms:

  • ‘zakochać się’ –  ‘to fall in love’
  • ‘pokochać’ – ‘to begin or learn to love’
  • ‘odkochać się’ – ‘not to be in love anymore’
  • ‘ukochać’ – ‘ to be in lust’.

The last term has a different meaning in modern Polish and it means the same as ‘pokochać’, but it is not in use as much. You can hear it as a noun more:

  • ‘ukochany’ (male form)
  • ‘ukochana’ (female form)
  • ‘ukochane’ (neuter or plural form) quite often.
  • Originally, in Old Slavic, the word ‘kochać’ was ‘kosnąti’ meant ‘to touch, to move’.

How Polish people express love

Polish people are pretty mild with expressing they feelings, especially the older generation. They prefer to show they feelings by simply being together in good and bad days more, than talk about them. My parents and my grandparents are very conservative with their feelings. They don’t have as much problem to say ‘kocham cię’ to the grandchildren or even children as to each other. I think that it partially comes from strict polish church, which is very traditional and rather serious in approach to love and family. On the other hand, especially man in all ages, have no problem to express their  affection towards a sport team…

The whole Polish society is also generally polite but distance at the same time. My mum told me that when she was a young girl and was listening to the group “Czerwone gitary” (Red guitars), which was a polish version of “The Beatles” her mother got very upset and forbid my mum to listen to this music. In my grandma’s opinion, it was morally wrong and inappropriate. This was the voice of the generation, and it had impact on my parent’s generation.

Today the trend is totally different and it came with politic changes. You can see it in films – the great part of productions are romantic comedies, which often get ideas from American movies. In the radio 90% of songs are in English, and most of them talk about feelings and relationships.

Twenty years ago we didn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, now days you sure can tell the 14th of February.  Young people are more open to talk about their feelings. Love is joy and it is the most beautiful thing in life and I get great enjoy and pleasure to hear and say the words ‘kocham cię’ to my beloved every day.

If you want to now how to say I love you in Polish with an indirect approach check out my page -> Love phrases in Polish

Here is my blog about  romance and love , bookmark and follow it. There are really crazy discussions about dating and girls from Poland and Eastern Europe and the world. Let people know what your experiences are there.

If you want to learn to say I love you in Polish and in other languages check out my page -> I love you

Please let me know what you think of this Polish view of love and I love you. If you want ideas on meeting women for love try other parts of my website or ask me. I lived in Poland long enough to know about these things.

Author: Mark Biernat

I live in with family between two worlds, US and Europe where I create tools for language learning. If you found my site you probability share my passion to be a life long learner. Please explore my site and comment.

26 thoughts on “I love you in Polish”

  1. So sweet ^^
    Polish couples also often use: żabciu, misiu, tygrysku, prosiaczku when talking to each other 😀
    Unfortunatelly, the music in Polish radios is vey commercial… If you want to listen to good music, I would only recommend polskie radio trójka.
    Here, you can hear a bit more Polish groups, like Pustki, Lao Che, Myslovitz, Muchy. Really lovely. 🙂 The songs from Pustki’s new album (kalambury) are very interesting – their lyrics are taken from poems of Polish poets, like Tuwim, Wyspiański, Leśmian.

  2. Hi,
    My mom says “yacha lubia” (sp?) for “I love you.”
    Can you explain.
    Thanks, deborah

    1. To me that means ‘which I like’. Lubie is the verb to like, while kochać is the verb to love. So I think she likes you and loves you, which is a good thing.

  3. Ja kohum cie ?
    Grandma used to say Ja cie kohum
    I was always told that she spoke beautiful well spoken Polish. Were others mistaken?
    Thanks

    1. Both forms are correct in polish 😉 In this language you can often change the place of a word in sentence.

      Ja kocham cię
      Ja cię kocham
      Ja ciebie kocham
      Ciebie kocham ja

      All correct 🙂

  4. Your grandmother’s not wrong. “ja cie kocham” and “kocham cie” can both be used. The “ja” part is not strictly necessary because the “I” in “I love you” is also indicated by “kocham” (as it’s the first person form of the verb kochać). But it can be added for stress in some circumstances.

  5. Is there a difference when refering to a baby? My friend is bilingual Polish/English and I am creating something for the babys room and I thought she would appreciate it saying “I love you” in Polish, but want to be sure I am getting it correctly. Thank you!

    1. “Kocham Cię” means “I love you”, doesn’t matter who you say that to. If you want to add something else, you can say “Kocham Cię maleństwo” – “I love you little one” – it sounds very sweet in polish.

    2. If you need further expressions for I love you in Polish or similar ideas just let me know.

  6. Does the cie at the end of kocham cie change depending on the gender of a person?

    1. Good question, no it is the same, but you could say ciebie or many other things to mix it up.

  7. How do you say Polish princess in polish? My grandfather was from Poland and that was his nickname for me I’m looking into the lettering for a possible tattoo.

    1. Polska księżniczka or Polska królewna The first is Polish princess and the second is Polish little queeny (princess) Which one did your grandfather call you? The later is used more I think. Really take your time and think about this as you want to get it right. I personally am not a big fan of tattoos as it is forever, maybe you want to get a temporary or three month one and see how it feels?

  8. Hi Mark,

    I’ve just noticed that “darling” in Polish is ‘kochanie’ and Circassian people, who have been called as Cerkes (in Turkey) and/or Adige (in their language), are also used “kachen” for the darling. They were originally from South Cafcassia, and in Turkey and Jordan, There are lots of Cerkes people. Cerkes girls are famous of their beauty, here. My mother-in-law was Cerkes, and so my husband is half of it, and my daughter has some unique and pure beauty coming from these beautiful ancestors.

    You may check it, i guess. It would be good for these silent and beautiful girls.

  9. I’m trying to get a tattoo that says “my beloved” for my grandmother in Polish.
    one site says it would be moja ukochana? and another says moja kochana? which one would it be?

    1. The first one sounds better as the form ‘ukochana’ is in past simple tense and sounds more definitive which the second is more of a past continues style. The difference is really little but I would go for the first one – it also sounds more tenderly and shows more affection.

    1. It is a different case, cie is the accusative case, while ciebe is Kogo/Czego the lets generative case. Cie is used much more often I love you, I like you etc. Away from the grammar, you might here ciebie in church or in songs a little more poetic.

  10. I have been listening to some online pronunciations for Kocham Cię and I think I am hearing 2 different pronunciations for the “Cię”.
    The first sounds like “Che” or “Chair”
    The second sounds like “Cha-ong (spoken fast)” or “Charm”.
    Which is correct – or what is the difference in these two pronunications for “Cię”?

    1. It’s like when you speak fast, some words sound completely different, but doesn’t change their meaning, of course. When you try to talk very slowly and clearly then you’ll say “Cha-ong” and when we talk normally it occurs that we “cut” the nedings and then say “Che”.

      1. Thank you, I understand now. This is a very helpful explanation.

  11. Though I dont like anyone using xmas to replace Christmas. I am enjoying your post and would like to thank you for it. I live in the south and miss my Polish roots very much.

    1. I agree 100%. In the past I did not like Xmas instead of Christmas as I am a practicing Catholic and faithful, I base my life on the the teaching and message of love. However, remember that X in Latin means Christ. In fact, if you look at the alter cloth in a church it will often have an X with a P over it. Remember our church is all about symbols and everything means something and comes from somewhere. Even the Protestants have a Jesus fish and if you understand the origins of that you know why they use it.

  12. A friend from Poland tells me there are two distinct ways of saying I love you. First there is “Kocham Cię” Which is general and can be used in many ways — I love you, I love chocolate, I love my mother, etc. Then there is a way of expressing a more spiritual, impersonal, universal love -“Miłuję Cię”- “you are my universe – the Earth, the moon, the stars”? When I use the Google Translation, they both translate to I Love you, but she says they have different meanings. Would you help me understand these two kinds of love?

  13. Is it correct for me (as a man) to say “dzięki tobie jestem szczęśliwy” to my polish girlfriend?
    I guess “szczęśliwa” is used by a woman to a man ?
    I’m not sure, but I want to make sure before I use it 😉
    Thanks.

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