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Polish numbers from 0 to 100

Numbers are the first thing you need outside a classroom: a price, a platform, an age, a phone number. Polish numbers are regular once you have the first twelve, and they hide exactly one surprise.

0 to 12: learn these by heart

Everything else is built from these, so they are the only part that is pure memorisation.

NumberPolishNumberPolish
0zero7siedem
1jeden8osiem
2dwa9dziewięć
3trzy10dziesięć
4cztery11jedenaście
5pięć12dwanaście
6sześć

13 to 19 and the tens

From thirteen on, the pattern is mechanical: take the unit and add -naście. trzy → trzynaście, cztery → czternaście, pięć → piętnaście. The tens add -dziesiąt: dwadzieścia, trzydzieści, czterdzieści, pięćdziesiąt.

Compound numbers are simply said in order, with no word in between: dwadzieścia jeden, trzydzieści pięć, dziewięćdziesiąt dziewięć.

dwadzieścia jeden

21

sto

100

The surprise: dwa or dwie

'Two' is the one number that changes with the gender of what you are counting. Use dwie with feminine nouns and dwa with everything else. This is not optional or bookish — Poles hear it immediately.

dwa domy

two houses — masculine

dwie kawy

two coffees — feminine

dwa okna

two windows — neuter

Saying your age

The question is 'Ile masz lat?' — literally 'how many years do you have?'. The answer is 'Mam ... lat', and the word for 'years' changes with the number: lata after 2, 3 and 4, lat after everything else. Twenty-two takes lata again, because the last digit decides.

Mam dwadzieścia lat.

I am twenty.

Mam dwadzieścia dwa lata.

I am twenty-two.

Mistakes people make

dwa kawy  →  dwie kawy

Kawa is feminine, so 'two' is dwie. This is the one number where gender shows.

Mam dwadzieścia dwa lat.  →  Mam dwadzieścia dwa lata.

The last digit decides: 2, 3 and 4 take lata, everything else takes lat.

Check yourself

How do you say 15?
Answer: piętnaście
Two coffees, please — in Polish?
Answer: Dwie kawy, proszę.

Kawa is feminine: dwie.

Say: I am 31.
Answer: Mam trzydzieści jeden lat.

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Questions people ask

How do Poles say phone numbers?

Usually in pairs or threes rather than digit by digit, the same way as in Ukraine or Russia — 501 234 567 is read as three groups. Digit-by-digit is perfectly understandable, and it is what you should use until the groups come naturally.


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