Learn Polish for Free from English – PBC Languages
Free Polish practice for English speakers: small classes with native teachers plus 1:1 exchanges, 30 min Polish, 30 min English.
Create your free accountNo card needed. Exchanges between members are always free.
If you speak English, Polish pronunciation is more logical than it looks: stress always falls on the second-to-last syllable, so you never have to guess like you do in English. What trips people up is the sound system itself — ą and ę are nasal vowels English doesn't have, and there are three separate "sh"-type sounds (sz, ś, ci) that sound identical to an untrained ear but change the meaning of the word. Clusters like szczyt or źdźbło look unpronounceable on paper but follow strict rules once you learn them.
False friends are a constant trap. Aktualny doesn't mean "actual", it means "current"; sympatyczny doesn't mean "sympathetic", it means "nice"; lektura isn't a "lecture", it's assigned reading; fabryka is a "factory", not "fabric". These words feel like free vocabulary and then quietly mean something else in a sentence.
Grammar is where English speakers over-translate. Polish has no articles, so people keep reaching for ten/ta/to as if they were "the", which sounds foreign to Poles. The seven-case system means noun endings shift constantly (Warszawa, Warszawie, Warszawy), and verb aspect pairs like pisać/napisać don't map onto English tenses at all. Where you move fast is vocabulary: hundreds of Latin-rooted words like informacja, restauracja or telefon are nearly identical to English, and once you've internalised the spelling rules, reading Polish aloud stops being a guessing game.
Words you will actually hear
| Here | Elsewhere | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| aktualny | actual | False friend: aktualny means "current, up to date", not "real/actual" — that's faktyczny. |
| sympatyczny | sympathetic | False friend: means "nice, likeable", not "compassionate". |
| lektura | lecture | False friend: means "assigned reading" (a school text), not a spoken lecture — that's wykład. |
| fabryka | fabric | False friend: means "factory", not cloth — that's tkanina. |
| dres | dress | False friend: means "tracksuit", not a dress — that's sukienka. |
| preparat | prepared | False friend: means a chemical or medical preparation, not "ready". |
| ewentualnie | eventually | False friend: means "possibly, if need be", not "in the end" — that's w końcu. |
| pretendent | pretender | False friend: means a "contender/candidate" for a title, not someone faking something. |
| informacja | information | Genuine cognate, spelled and used almost identically — safe to use straight away. |
| restauracja | restaurant | Genuine cognate, easy to recognise in speech and writing from day one. |
How it works here
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Sign up and say your level
Two minutes. If you do not know your level, we place you in the first class.
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Pick a class or an exchange
Classes are led by a native teacher. An exchange is with another member: half the time in their language, half in yours.
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Join by video, nothing to install
From your phone or your computer. If you cannot make it, cancel and get your place back.
Questions about this
How long does it actually take an English speaker to hold a conversation in Polish?
Vocabulary from cognates comes fast, but the seven cases and verb aspect take sustained practice over months, not weeks. People who come to a weekly small-group class and add a regular 1:1 exchange tend to move faster simply because they're producing the language, not just recognising it. We don't track or promise a fixed timeline, everyone's starting point is different.
Is the one-to-one exchange with a Polish speaker really free?
Yes. There's no fee for the exchange itself: you spend 30 minutes helping your partner with English and 30 minutes practising Polish with them. The only classes with a cost are the small-group sessions with a native teacher, the exchanges are member-to-member.
What level of Polish do I need before joining an exchange?
You don't need to be fluent, you need enough Polish to get through a basic conversation and enough patience to be corrected. Since the session is split in half, your partner is also relying on your English half, so it works even if your Polish is still shaky.
How exactly is the hour split during an exchange?
Strictly 30 minutes in Polish and 30 minutes in English, with a clear switch halfway through. Most pairs use a timer so neither language eats into the other's time.
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