When we speak a foreign language, we usually try to be polite. It’s not always easy for two main reasons. Firstly, our language may not be fluent; then we rather focus on giving information rather than the style of our speech. There’s also the possibility that we are already fluent but we don’t know or don’t remember the exact phrases which make our words sound more polite. So, with that being said… Let’s learn them! Or revise them.

I want to teach you how to ask for favours in Polish in such a way that other people will help you willingly. There are three basic magic words which we should use: „proszę” (please), „przepraszam” (excuse me) and „(z góry) dziękuję” (thanks (in advance)). With these words, we can form sentences a few times more polite than regular ones. Look!

• Podaj mi sól. Pass me the salt. → Podaj mi sól, proszę. Pass me the salt, please.
• Możesz podać mi sól? Can you pass me the salt? → Możesz podać mi sól, proszę? Możesz, proszę, podać mi sól? Can you pass me the salt, please? Can you, please, pass me the salt?

But can we put only one magic word in the sentence? No! Our sentences can evolve to more polite forms.

• Podaj mi sól, proszę. Pass me the salt, please. → Przepraszam, podaj mi sól, proszę. Excuse me, pass me the salt, please. → Przepraszam, podaj mi sól, proszę. Dziękuję. Excuse me, pass me the salt, please. Thank you.
• Możesz podać mi sól, proszę? Can you pass me the salt, please? → Przepraszam, możesz podać mi sól, proszę? Excuse me, can you pass me the salt, please? → Przepraszam, możesz podać mi sól, proszę? Dziękuję. Excuse me, can you pass me the salt, please? Thank you.

The usage is so easy! Nevertheless, many people often forget about these words.

Is it the furthest we can go? No, it’s not! There’s a second way of being more polite: „tryb przypuszczający”, which is the equivalent of the English word „would”. How do we create it? First, you need to choose the gender of a subject and create the past perfective form of the verb. For example: podać — (on) podał — (ona) podała — (oni) podali — (one) podały. Then, depending on the person, we add the proper ending to that past form. The endings go like this:

• Ja — bym.
• Ty — byś.
• On/ ona — by.
• My — byśmy.
• Wy — byście.
• Oni/ one — by.

Not very difficult, right? And then the connection! You want to ask Ania if she would pass you the salt. Ania is a girl. A girl in the singular. We’re choosing „podała”. We’re saying about Ania to Ania. So we will say „you”. So we should choose „byś”. And we connect it to one word: „podałabyś”. Done.

• Podaj mi sól. Pass me the salt. → Podałabyś mi sól? Would you pass me the salt? → Podałabyś mi sól, proszę? Would you pass me the salt, please?

Why not use the word „móc” (can) and create tryb przypuszczający (could) to sound even more polite? Here’s how we use it (for each gender).

• Ja — mógłbym (masc.), mogłabym (fem.).
• Ty — mógłbyś, mogłabyś.
• On — mógłby.
• Ona — mogłaby.
• My — moglibyśmy (masc.–pers.), mogłybyśmy (n.–masc.–pers.).
• Wy — moglibyście, mogłybyście.
• Oni — mogliby.
• One — mogłyby.

And then, our super–duper polite sentence.

• Możesz podać mi sól? Can you pass me the salt? → Mogłabyś podać mi sól? Could you pass me the salt? → Mogłabyś podać mi sól, proszę? Could you pass me the salt, please?

But can we combine both tryb przypuszczający and our three magic words? Yes, we can! This way we will create the most polite sentence ever. How does it look?

• Przepraszam, mogłabyś podać mi sól, proszę? Dziękuję. Excuse me, could you pass me the salt, please? Thank you.

I wrote about „z góry dziękuję” — „thank you in advance”. When do we use it? We use it in written forms. For example, when we ask something on the Internet. We could write: „Cześć. Czy moglibyście mi powiedzieć jaka jest różnica między „bus” i „autobus”? Z góry dziękuję”.

Let’s summarise. How can we ask for the salt in various ways? From the least polite to the most polite way.

• Sól, ku***.
• Podaj, ku***, sól.
• Sól.
• Podaj sól.
• Podaj mi sól.
• Możesz podać sól?
• Możesz podać mi sól?
• Mógłbyś podać mi sól?
• Podaj mi sól, proszę.
• Możesz podać mi sól, proszę?
• Mógłbyś podać mi sól, proszę?
• Przepraszam, mógłbyś podać mi sól, proszę?
• Przepraszam, mógłbyś podać mi sól, proszę? Dziękuję.

I wrote in bold the border where in my opinion politeness begins. Unfortunately, in comparison to English people, Polish are less polite. Most of us would use „Podaj mi sól”. I don’t recommend that, though. I hope you will use these forms regularly!

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The image comes from flickr.com.