Why English to Polish is harder than it looks
Every name and noun changes shape. Writing to Anna, you use Anno to address her and Annie to give her something. English keeps the name fixed and adds small words around it, so a one-line English message hides several decisions Polish has to make out loud.
Past-tense verbs reveal the speaker’s gender. “I was there” is byłem from a man and byłam from a woman. English gives no clue, so this is the single most common thing worth checking in the preview when you write about yourself.
Formality is a noun, not a pronoun. Polish politeness uses pan and pani with a third-person verb, which is structurally unlike anything in English. Setting a professional tone before translating produces the right form; leaving it casual produces ty, which can be too familiar for a first message.
English hedging becomes vague rather than polite. “I just wanted to quickly check if maybe you’d had a chance…” translates into Polish that sounds evasive. Running Concise over the English first gives Polish that reads direct and courteous, which is what Polish politeness actually is.
Written by Hardik Vegad, Co-founder, Translatify. Last updated .
Translatify