How close is the Polish and Czech language?

If I know Polish can I understand Czech such as how the Italians can understand Spanish

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 28th, 2010 at 6:48 am and is filed under Polish Language. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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5 Responses to “How close is the Polish and Czech language?”

  1. -MathCounts- Says:
    June 28th, 2010 at 6:48 am

    Relatively close.

  2. HabsFan-in LoneStarSt8 Says:
    June 28th, 2010 at 6:48 am

    It varies from person to person.
    I know someone who speaks Polish and when I spoke to them in Czech they seemed to understand but would reply in English (which was easier for both of us) though they seemed to appreciate the effort.

  3. polskajason Says:
    June 28th, 2010 at 6:48 am

    I’ve found Czech is a little too different. Slovak is considerably easier for a Polish-speaker to understand, as is Ukrainian.

  4. nemeczek Says:
    June 28th, 2010 at 6:48 am

    You could understand some Czech if you knew Polish. Besides, the sound of the Czech language makes Poles smile. Do not ask why.

  5. moravianhawk Says:
    June 28th, 2010 at 6:48 am

    Both languages are relatively close, but hearing it for the first time, it is rather misunderstood at first encounter. If I need to read about Polish affairs, and have to go to polish websites, I need to look for English version of the article. I cannot understand written Polish language. When I lived in Ostrava, which is near Polish borders with significant Polish minority, I could not understand at all anything in Polish for the first months of my life there. Over the time, I could pick up some sense of their language. The same problem I see for the Poles, when they are in Czech lands. The biggest fun is using a verb szukać which in English look for, but in Czech it mean to fuck. Now use it in common language when your mind must translate to their meaning… Either way, both nations do not feel much closeness, and there is no mutual desire to comprehend each other on any level. This translates to mutual dislike to understand spoken languages.

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