Read a Free Polish A1 Story

Explore beginner Polish reading passages generated live with line-by-line help.

Try a free A1 Polish story generated live, complete with tap-to-translate words and line-by-line English translations.

Niedziela na targu

Jest ciepła niedziela.

It is a warm Sunday.

Rachela idzie na duży targ w Krakowie.

Rachela goes to a big market in Kraków.

Słońce świeci wysoko na niebie.

The sun shines high in the sky.

Na targu jest bardzo wesoło.

It is very cheerful at the market.

Rachela ogląda ładne i świeże warzywa.

Rachela looks at nice and fresh vegetables.

Widzi zielone ogórki i pachnące pomidory.

She sees green cucumbers and fragrant tomatoes.

Pachnące warzywa wyglądają pięknie.

The fragrant vegetables look beautiful.

Rachela widzi też czerwoną paprykę.

Rachela also sees a red pepper.

Chce kupić coś smacznego.

She wants to buy something tasty.

Oto jest duży stół.

Here is a large table.

Na stole leżą słodkie jabłka.

Sweet apples lie on the table.

Rachela wybiera jabłka i biały ser.

Rachela chooses apples and white cheese.

Biały ser pachnie bardzo dobrze.

The white cheese smells very good.

Rachela mówi: Poproszę ten ser.

Rachela says: I would like this cheese, please.

Sprzedawca uśmiecha się miło.

The seller smiles kindly.

Rachela szybko płaci za zakupy.

Rachela quickly pays for the groceries.

Bierze ciężką torbę w dłoń.

She takes the heavy bag in her hand.

Nagle mały kot dotyka torby.

Suddenly a small cat touches the bag.

Kot wącha świeży ser.

The cat sniffs the fresh cheese.

Rachela śmieje się głośno.

Rachela laughs aloud.

Mówi do kota miłe słowo.

She speaks a kind word to the cat.

Macha do niego ręką.

She waves her hand at him.

Zadowolona Rachela wraca do domu.

Content, Rachela returns home.

Będzie jeść smaczny ser.

She will eat the tasty cheese.

Quick facts about Polish

Speakers

About 40 million people speak Polish as a first language and about 2.1 million as a second language (2021).1

Did you know?

Polish keeps three similar-sounding series of hissing sounds apart: sz and cz, the softer ś and ć, and plain s and c.1

The main challenge

Seven grammatical cases, and a plural that treats groups of men differently from everything else: mężczyźni biegali (the men ran) but kobiety biegały (the women ran) and psy biegały (the dogs ran).2

Sources

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_language
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_grammar

About the Polish language

Language familyIndo-European → Slavic → West Slavic (Lechitic)1
SpeakersAbout 40 million native speakers (2021), most of them in Poland, plus about 2.1 million second-language speakers.1
Primary scriptLatin script: the 32-letter Polish alphabet, nine of whose letters carry diacritics (ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź, ż).2
Word order & typologySubject–verb–object is the dominant order, but word order is relatively free because endings mark each word’s role. Synthetic and highly inflected, with seven grammatical cases and three main genders.3
Official statusOfficial language of Poland and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union (since 2004); a recognised minority language in several countries, including Lithuania, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.1,4
  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_language
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_alphabet
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_grammar
  4. https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/languages_en

Polish reading proficiency benchmarks (CEFR & Certyfikat Polski)

Stichos levelApproximate framework equivalentReader profile
A0Pre-A1Early Beginner
A1CEFR A1Beginner
A2CEFR A2Elementary
B1CEFR B1Intermediate
B2CEFR B2Upper Intermediate

The framework column uses CEFR levels only. Poland’s state certificate exams in Polish as a foreign language (Certyfikat Polski) are set at the same levels, A1 to C2, but Stichos levels describe reading difficulty and are not exam preparation.

Reference corpora

Word-frequency research on Polish draws on the national reference corpus.1

  • National Corpus of Polish: The Narodowy Korpus Języka Polskiego (NKJP) holds more than 1.5 billion words of classic literature, daily and specialist press, recorded conversations and internet texts. It was built between 2007 and 2012 by two institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the publisher PWN and the University of Łódź.1
  • Register: Stichos writes standard, dialect-neutral Polish at every level and avoids archaic words, regionalisms and slang.
  1. https://nkjp.pl/

Readability design principles

Polish readability measures raise the bar for a “hard” word: because Polish words are longer on average, they count words of four or more syllables as difficult, where English formulas count three.1

  • Pisarek’s formula: Walery Pisarek (1969, Zeszyty Prasoznawcze) rated text difficulty from average sentence length and the share of words with four or more syllables. Charzyńska and Dębowski (2015) tested it with 1,309 readers on 15 texts and found it relatively accurate.1
  • Jasnopis: Developed by SWPS University and the Institute of Computer Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences under Włodzimierz Gruszczyński, Jasnopis rates Polish texts on a scale of 1 to 7, from texts any reader understands to texts for specialists, and flags long sentences and difficult words.2
  • Stichos: Stichos sets difficulty with level-by-level grammar rules and sentence-length limits. A0 sentences have at most five words and no conjunctions; connectives then open in a fixed order, from i at A1 to a, ale and bo at A2 and ponieważ, chociaż and natomiast at B1.
  1. https://journals.ispan.edu.pl/index.php/cs-ec/en/article/view/cs.2015.010
  2. https://english.swps.pl/science-and-research/review-our-research-output/projects-and-implementations/33742-jasnopis-app-that-rates-the-clarity-of-official-documents

Script & grammar scaffolding

  • Tenses and aspect: A0 uses only the present tense (czas teraźniejszy). A1 adds the compound future with być, as in będę czytać. The past tense (czas przeszły), the simple future of perfective verbs (czas przyszły prosty) and basic aspect contrasts arrive at A2, and the full use of both aspects at B1.
  • Moods and participles: The conditional (tryb przypuszczający), the basic passive and simple participles start at B1; the full range of active and passive participles (imiesłowy) is open from B2.
  • Requests: At A0 a request is the formula Poproszę plus a noun (Poproszę kawę), and imperatives appear only in fixed phrases such as Proszę. A1 adds five informal imperatives: patrz, chodź, weź, poczekaj and usiądź.
  • Forms of address: Friends and family use ty; strangers are addressed as Pan or Pani with a third-person verb. Subject pronouns are dropped when the verb ending already shows the subject.

Related academic & framework resources

Frequently asked questions

What writing system does Polish use?
Latin script: the 32-letter Polish alphabet, nine of whose letters carry diacritics (ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź, ż).
Is Stichos suitable for complete beginners with zero prior knowledge (A0)?
Yes. A0 is a primary focus, designed for readers with no prior knowledge. A1 then adds basic everyday vocabulary and simple connected clauses as your foundation grows.
Are Stichos levels the same as CEFR levels?
Not exactly. Stichos levels use the familiar CEFR names, from A0 to B2, and are modelled on the CEFR (the Common European Framework of Reference), so a Stichos B1 is meant to feel close to a B1 in your course book. They aren't an official CEFR rating, and different books and exams draw the lines in slightly different places. A0 is Stichos's own addition, just below the framework's first level.
Are the stories written by AI, and how accurate are they?
Yes. Stories are generated by AI and then checked by further automated steps against the grammar and vocabulary rules for your level. That catches most problems, but it isn't a human editor, so an occasional unnatural phrase or slip can get through. Treat Stichos as practice material, and check anything you're unsure of with a teacher or a reference.
Can I read stories with explanations in my native language?
Yes. Stichos allows you to pair any target language with any native support language. You can read a Croatian story with French glosses, or a German story with Spanish explanations.
How does word lookup work while reading?
Tap or click any word for its meaning in that sentence, explained in your own language. In the full version, you can save any word to your Vocab Bank for later review.
Is the preview free, and what happens to my email?
Yes. The preview is free and needs no account. If you join the Reading List, we use your email to send your 3 free sample stories (PDF, after you confirm your address) and to let you know when we fully open. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle it.
Do stories include audio or narration?
Story narration isn't part of the preview. At launch, the Premium Audio add-on reads every story aloud in a natural-sounding AI voice, in 39 of our 40 languages (Esperanto doesn't have audio support yet).

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