Polish slang and idiom vocabulary: 448 words
Sound like a local — common colloquial words and idioms with their natural equivalents in each language (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese). This page lists 40 of them with their Polish translations, then lets you practise the full set in either direction with spaced repetition.
English to Polish: the first 40 words
| English | Polish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| cool | fajny | |
| awesome | super | |
| guy, dude | facet | Informal for a person; friendly, not insulting in casual speech. |
| to hang out | spędzać czas | |
| to chill, relax | relaksować się | |
| No way! | Nie ma mowy! | |
| Awesome, right? | Fajnie, co? | |
| It's a piece of cake | to bułka z masłem | Idiom: very easy to do, not about actual cake. |
| It's raining cats and dogs | leje jak z cebra | Idiom: heavy rain, not animals falling. |
| to cost an arm and a leg | kosztować majątek | Idiom: extremely expensive, not literal body parts. |
| to pull someone's leg | nabijać się z kogoś | Idiom: to tease or joke with someone, not physical. |
| to be broke | spłukany | Having no money, not damaged or injured. |
| Speak of the devil | o wilku mowa | Idiom: person arrives just as you mention them. |
| not my cup of tea | nie w moim stylu | Idiom: not something you like or enjoy. |
| to hit the nail on the head | trafić w sedno | Idiom: to say or do exactly the right thing. |
| Good luck! | powodzenia! | Said before a performance or challenge. |
| little by little | po trochu | |
| more or less | mniej więcej | |
| What a mess! | Ale bałagan! | |
| Are you kidding? | Żartujesz? | |
| no worries | spokojnie | |
| awesome time | świetna zabawa | |
| to be fed up | mieć dość | Very annoyed or tired of something; impatient. |
| on the dot | punktualnie | Exactly on time. |
| big deal, a lot | masa | |
| to mess up | dać ciała | |
| step by step | krok po kroku | |
| It's worth it | warto | |
| so-so | tak sobie | |
| to keep an eye on | mieć oko na | Idiom: to watch or monitor, not literal eye. |
| Get it?, Understood? | Jasne? | |
| Okay, alright | dobrze | |
| to be worth nothing | nie być wartym nic | |
| hurry up! | pośpiesz się! | |
| to be in a hurry | śpieszyć się | |
| for real, seriously | na serio | |
| That's life | takie jest życie | |
| Better late than never | lepiej późno niż wcale | |
| little by little the bird builds its nest | ziarnko do ziarnka, a zbierze się miarka | Proverb: steady progress achieves goals over time. |
| to be on cloud nine | być w siódmym niebie | Idiom: extremely happy, not literally in sky. |
408 more words in the full “Slang & Idioms” library, each aligned across seven languages and scheduled for you by spaced repetition. Add it to your account and start drilling English to Polish in one click.
What to watch out for in Polish
- Accents count. Answers are graded accent-sensitively, so you need
ąćęłńóśźż— LinguaSwap shows a one-tap keypad for them while you type. - 339 words carry a usage note in the full library, for the cases where a direct translation would mislead you.
Practise Polish slang and idiom vocabulary
Words come back just before you would forget them, and every language direction is tracked separately.