QCAA Polish (SEE) cheat sheet

Polish distinguishes three levels of vowel-consonant softening: hard (t, d, s, z, n, r), soft (ś, ź, ć, dź, ń), and historically soft (l, b, p, m, w, f, g, k, ch before i).

Final devoicing rule: voiced obstruents b, d, g, w, z, ż, dz, dź, dż become voiceless (p, t, k, f, s, sz, c, cz, cz) at word end, e.g. chleb → chlep.

Regressive assimilation of voicing: a voiceless consonant before a voiced obstruent voices (prośba → proźba), and a voiced obstruent before a voiceless one devoices (wszystko → fszystko).

Polish stress falls on the penultimate syllable; exceptions are numerals ending in -ście/-set (e.g. czterysta), acronyms, and some loanwords where stress may fall on the antepenultimate.

Nasal vowels: ą and ę are nasal before s, z, ś, ź, w, f, ch (kęs, gęś) and denasalise to [o]/[e] before l, ł, r (wziął, wziąłem); ą before b/p is realised as [om] (kąpiel → kompiel).

Question intonation: yes/no questions end with rising intonation, while wh-questions (kto, co, gdzie, kiedy, dlaczego) typically use falling intonation on the final syllable.

Listen for discourse markers that signal structure: najpierw, następnie, potem, z kolei, wreszcie; they mark sequence in announcements and instructions.

Distinguish aspect in fast speech: imperfective forms (robić, pisać) describe ongoing or repeated action; perfective forms (zrobić, napisać) mark completion or single event.

Seven cases govern noun endings: nominative (kto? co?), genitive (kogo? czego?), dative (komu? czemu?), accusative (kogo? co?), instrumental (z kim? z czym?), locative (o kim? o czym?), vocative (direct address).

Genitive singular masculine inanimate nouns typically take -u after soft stems and mass nouns (cukru, mleka) and -a after hard stems for concrete countable items (stołu, samochodu).

Negation triggers genitive: after nie ma, brak, and negated transitive verbs the object switches to genitive (Nie mam czasu; Nie widzę samochodu).

Numerals 2-4 take nominative plural (dwa koty, trzy książki), numerals 5+ take genitive plural (pięć kotów, pięć książek), and collective numerals (dwoje, troje) pair with mixed-gender or diminutive referents.

Verbs of motion: iść (on foot, determinate) vs chodzić (on foot, habitual); jechać (vehicle, determinate) vs jeździć (vehicle, habitual); the prefix przy- marks arrival, od- departure, wy- outward.

Reading inference cues: contrastive connectors (jednak, natomiast, ale) introduce counterpoints; causal connectors (ponieważ, dlatego, gdyż) introduce reasons; concessive (chociaż, mimo że) signals unexpected outcome.

Formal register markers in written Polish: Pan/Pani with third-person verb, Szanowny Panie, Z poważaniem; informal uses ty with second-person verb and first-name address.

Relative clauses: który/która/które agree with the antecedent in gender, number, and case determined by its role in the relative clause, not by the antecedent's case.

Formal letter structure: place and date top right, salutation (Szanowna Pani / Szanowny Panie), opening paragraph stating purpose, body paragraphs, closing formula (Z poważaniem), signature.

Email register: openings Dzień dobry / Witam (informal only), closing Pozdrawiam (semi-formal) or Z poważaniem (formal); avoid English-style 'Dear' calques.

Opinion essay scaffold: teza (thesis) in introduction, 2-3 arguments each with example (argument + przykład), a counterargument introduced by wprawdzie... jednak, and a conclusion restating the position.

Report structure: tytuł, wstęp stating aim, rozwinięcie with data or observations, wnioski (conclusions); use impersonal forms (stwierdzono, zauważono, można zauważyć).

Recount/narrative uses past tense with aspect contrast: imperfective for background (czytałem, gdy...), perfective for sequential events (przyszedł, usiadł, powiedział).

Cohesion devices: spójniki (ponieważ, dlatego, zatem, ponadto, natomiast), zaimki odsyłające (ten, ów, taki), and lexical repetition avoided by synonimy.

Punctuation: Polish uses a comma before ale, że, żeby, ponieważ, który, który introduces a subordinate clause; a comma is not used before i, oraz, lub, albo when joining single clauses.

Orthography rules: rz after p, b, t, d, k, g, ch (przyjaciel, brzeg); ó in genitive plurals and after w (wóz), but o in other positions; ż after l, ł, r (lżej, łża).

Formal address uses Pan/Pani with third-person singular verb (Czy Pan mówi po polsku?), while plural formal uses Panie/Panowie with second-person plural verb.

Politeness formulae: Proszę + infinitive (Proszę usiąść), Czy mógłby Pan / Czy mogłaby Pani + infinitive for requests, and Dziękuję / Przepraszam for routine exchanges.

Conversational turn-taking markers: aha, no, właśnie, oczywiście, rozumiem, no tak; these signal active listening and should be used sparingly in formal monologue.

Hedging in spoken opinion: moim zdaniem, wydaje mi się, przypuszczam, być może, chyba; these soften claims and are valued in discussion tasks.

Repair strategies: to znaczy, a więc, przepraszam, mam na myśli; use them when the interlocutor signals misunderstanding rather than restarting the whole utterance.

Consonant clusters in rapid speech: initial clusters like szcz, trz, prz are common (szczęście, trzy, przez); practise them with a schwa-free articulation, not by inserting a vowel.

Register switching: use ty, twój, and first-name forms with peers; switch to Pan/Pani with teachers, officials, and adults unknown to the speaker.