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 | Impressively good, stylish or admirable in casual praise. Not about low temperature. |
| awesome | super | Extremely good, said with enthusiasm about something you really like. |
| guy, dude | facet | Informal for a person; friendly, not insulting in casual speech. |
| to hang out | spędzać czas | To spend unhurried free time somewhere, usually with friends. |
| to chill, relax | relaksować się | To let go of tension and rest calmly after effort or stress. |
| No way! | Nie ma mowy! | An emphatic refusal meaning absolutely not, under no circumstances. |
| Awesome, right? | Fajnie, co? | A casual tag inviting the listener to agree that something is great. |
| 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 | Gradually, in small amounts or stages over time. |
| more or less | mniej więcej | Approximately, roughly true but not exactly. |
| What a mess! | Ale bałagan! | An exclamation about a scene of great disorder or muddle. |
| Are you kidding? | Żartujesz? | Said in disbelief, asking whether the speaker is joking. |
| no worries | spokojnie | A casual reassurance that everything is fine and nobody should fret. |
| awesome time | świetna zabawa | A hugely enjoyable stretch of fun. |
| 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 | A very large amount or quantity of something. |
| to mess up | dać ciała | To blunder and spoil something through your own clumsiness. |
| step by step | krok po kroku | Proceeding one stage at a time in careful order. |
| It's worth it | warto | Said when the effort or cost is repaid by the result. |
| so-so | tak sobie | Neither good nor bad, only middling. |
| to keep an eye on | mieć oko na | Idiom: to watch or monitor, not literal eye. |
| Get it?, Understood? | Jasne? | A short question checking that the listener has grasped what you said. |
| Okay, alright | dobrze | A word expressing agreement or consent to what was proposed. |
| to be worth nothing | nie być wartym nic | To have no value or usefulness whatsoever. |
| hurry up! | pośpiesz się! | A command telling someone to move or act faster right now. |
| to be in a hurry | śpieszyć się | To have too little time and need to act quickly. |
| for real, seriously | na serio | Genuinely and truly, without any joking. |
| That's life | takie jest życie | A resigned remark that such unwelcome things simply happen. |
| Better late than never | lepiej późno niż wcale | A saying that doing something behind time beats not doing it at all. |
| 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. - 448 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.