The Polish language is quite famous for its convoluted grammar, but the pronunciation is also nothing to sneeze at and often causes some adorable problems for foreigners. This is even more true when it comes to our beautiful tongue twisters.
Despite the Polish alphabet being rather similar to the Latin one, it doesn’t necessarily help pronounce Polish words. And it only gets crazier with the Polish tongue twisters! Here are our top picks that even native speakers of Polish can struggle with.
Spis treści:
Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz
Let’s start with a tongue twister that Poles consider truly iconic. Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz is a fictional name from a cult classic Polish comedy Jak rozpętałem II wojnę światową (How I started World War II).
At some point in the film, the protagonist is captured by Nazis and teases the officer who has to write down his personal information with this fake name. A task that causes a lot of problems for the German soldier.
Jola lojalna, lojalna Jola
Translation: “Jola is loyal, loyal Jola”
A tongue twister that gets harder the more times you try to say. Even when translated into English, it can cause some trouble. And remember that the sound represented by the letter “j” in Polish is that of the English “y” as in yeti.
Konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka
It could be translated as “a girl that lives in Constantinople”, but actually it is largely a made-up word.
Some say that it is the longest word in Polish, however, according to Polish scholars, this title belongs to “piećdziesięciogroszówka” and “Konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka” shouldn’t be considered an actual word.
None of that makes it any easier to pronounce this 33-letter-long creation, and whether it is a real word or not, it is still a mighty difficult tongue twister.
Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego
Translation: “King Charles bought coral-coloured beads for Queen Caroline”
Differentiating between “l” and “r” sound is tough not only in Polish, but this tongue twister takes it a step further. Even Poles often struggle to not mix up the sounds in this sentence. Plus it is also a tautogram with each word starting with the same letter.
Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami
Translation: “A table with broken legs”
A table has broken legs, so what? Doesn’t really sound too complicated. The English translation makes it sound easy.
It’s another Polish classic often used by adults to annoy children who can’t yet deal with complex sounds. The smarter ones will just say “stół bez nóg” (“a table without legs”) to avoid having to deal with the complexity of the tongue twister.
Szedł Sasza suchą szosą i suszył sobie spodnie
Translation: “Sacha walks a dry road and dries his trousers”
This one is made up of two slightly easier versions “W czasie suszy suchą szosą Sasza szedł” (In the drought Sacha was walking a dry road) or “W czasie suszy szosa sucha” (The road is dry in the drought).
Constant repetition of similar sounds can make even Polish linguistics majors stumble.
W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie i Szczebrzeszyn z tego słynie
Translation: “In Szczebrzeczyn, a beetle buzzes in the reeds and this is what Szczebrzeszyn is known for”
It’s probably the most famous and favoured by many tongue twister. The phrase comes from the poem Chrząszcz by a polish poet, Jan Brzechwa. Without this famous quote, probably no one would know about the real town of Szczebrzeszyn.
But now almost every Pole knows it and won’t hesitate to try it out on newly met foreigners, dare they attempt to repeat it.
Wyindywidualizowaliśmy się z rozentuzjazmowanego tłumu
Translation: “We individualised ourselves out of an over-enthusiastic crowd.”
Phrases like this one rarely come in handy in day-to-day conversations. So what! This one may look scary, but it should prove easier to learn than some of the others that we presented. If you want to make an impression on a Pole, this one might just be the one to go with.
Languages are our speciality
That’s it for the Polish tongue twisters that we prepared for you. Sadly, an English translation doesn’t do them justice. Which one was your favourite? And don’t hesitate to share tongue twisters in your language. We can’t wait to see what you will come up with!
If you found this article interesting, you may want to consider taking one of our language courses. Maybe even the Polish one. It is a great way to expand your linguistic competence and increase your value in the job market. We offer courses for companies and private clients. Additionally, our company has a wide and complex offer of translation services in many languages. All the information can be found on our websites.