Do other slavs understand Polish and vice versa?.

Danuogma

Czechs, Slovaks, Yugoslavians, Russians, Ukrainians etc. Can they easily understand Polish given that that the Slavic languages have common roots and similar structure?.

emka1984

Not too easily... I can talk about Russians, Chechs and Slovakians from expierience, I don´t really know about the rest... I would say with Slovakians it´s the easiest... Russians - if you put your heart into it, should be fine... Chechs - REALLY depends on what you´re talking about

herya

It depends, you can definitely get the general context but not the exact words. There are also many misleading pseudosimilarities, for example there is a verb "zapomni(e)c" which in Polish means to forget and in Russian to remember. Polish word "szukac" (to seek, to look for) means to f**k in Czech. You don't want to ask the Czechs "I'm looking for a train station" type questions in Polish!

I speak Russian so it's easy for me, I can also read Czech and Slovak reasonably well although I've never learnt them, I can understand them to a degree but not very well.

WooPeeA

I for example can easily understand Slovakian. Their accent is very clear and friendly. Czechs are harder speakers.

Russian is impossible. I have never seen many similarities between Polish and Russian to be honest. Even the fonts they use are different.

But as I think see everything depends on the person. I think it also depends where are you from. For example people living in Gdansk or Stettin (North, North-West) are more German speakers I think as there was always big German community there. Many of them have some relatives or roots in Germany.

assorti

It depends where you live. My hometown is just 15 km from Czech border and I do understand them and they do understand us.

It is harder to understand for me Slovakian or Russian.

I can have a proper chat with Czech, me speaking in Polish and he/she speaking in Czech.

Waterford26

:eek: prajem pekne a vesele vianoce a stastny novy rok. ..what language is that? :eek:

spurious

Slovakian?

It's not Polish anyway.

*edit* the last bit is something like Happy New Year - don't know about the first bit - maybe Happy Christmas or similar.

herya

It means literally "we wish you a Beautiful and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" but I don't know if it's Czech or Slovak. Certainly not Polish.

It only shows how Polish people can recognize certain words not knowing the language at all

djan

Im czech, most czechs will understand slovakian perfectly as when CZE played SVK in the qualifiers the comentator was slovakian and it was broadcasted on czech tv ... I think there was a czech guy and a slovak one.

As for choratian and russian I can get the general idea in choratian but with russian its harder. Polish is ok like choratian

Vesele Vanoce

Waterford26

it was slovakian ..happy christmas anyway