Polish is a member of the West Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. Polish is spoken as first language by about 38 million people in Poland, where it is the official language; by more than 1 million in other countries of Eastern Europe; and by about 1 million in North America. The Polish language is written in the Roman alphabet. It is extremely rich phonetically, having 10 vowels and 35 consonants. In pronunciation, stress is normally placed on the penultimate syllable of a word. A distinctive feature is the preservation in spoken Polish of nasal vowels which are no longer found in other modern Slavic tongues. Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives have seven cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, instrumental, and locative). The verb is inflected to indicate gender as well as person and number, and can do so without the use of personal pronouns. There are three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and two numbers (singular and plural). A large number of diminutive and augmentative forms is also characteristic. Vocabulary of Polish is basically Slavic, but it has been enriched by borrowings from German in the Middle Ages, from Italian during the Renaissance, from French in the 17th and 18th cent., and also from English, White Russian, and Ukrainian.

Brief vocabulary
 

Personal pronouns
Singular Plural
ja - I
ty - you
on - he
ona -she
ono - it
my - wy
wy - you
oni - they (group of people, including at least one male)
one - they (group of female persons or group not involving persons)

Numbers
jeden - one
dwa - two
trzy - three
cztery - four
pięć - five
sześć - six
siedem - seven
osiem - eight
dziewięć - nine
dziesięć - ten
jedenaście - eleven
dwanaście - twelve
trzynaście - thirteen
czternaście - fourteen
piętnaście - fifteen
szesnaście - sixteen
siedemnaście - seventeen
osiemnaście - eighteen
dziewiętnaście - nineteen
dwadzieścia - twenty
trzydzieści - thirty
czterdzieści - forty
pięćdziesiąt - fifty
sześćdziesiąt - sixty
siedemdziesiąt - seventy
osiemdziesiąt - eighty
dziewięćdziesiąt - ninety
sto - one hundred
pięćset - five hundred
tysiąc - one thousand
milion - one million
miliard - one billion

Months of year
styczeń January
luty February
marzec March
kwiecień April
maj May
czerwiec June
lipiec July
sierpień August
wrzesień September
październik October
listopad November
grudzień December

Animals
słoń elephant
koń horse
kot cat
pies dog
krowa cow
wilk wolf
świnia pig
mucha fly
osa wasp
pszczoła bee
niedźwiedź bear

Others
drzewo tree
kwiat flower
dzień day
miesiąc month
rok year
Anglia England
Szkocja Scotland
Walia Wales
Irlandia Ireland
Wielka Brytania Great Britain
Zjednoczone Królestwo United Kingdom
Niemcy Germany
Słowacja Slovakia
Norwegia Norway
Dania Denmark
Wyspy Owcze Faroe Islands
Belgia Belgium
Japonia Japan
Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki The United States of America
Francja France
Hiszpania Spain
Portugalia Portugal
Monako Monaco
Włochy Italy
Słowenia Slovenia
Europa Europe
Wenezuela Venezuela
Polska Poland
Polak (m)/ Polka (f) Pole
polski Polish
Cześć Hi
Dzień dobry Good morning
Do widzenia Good bye
Do zobaczenia See you
Dobry wieczór Good evening
Dobranoc Good night