Image by Wojciech Pędzich, Wikimedia Commons license 🙏
The group Czerwone Gitary is known as “Poland’s Beatles”. But unlike the Beatles, they’re still going strong and are even on tour this year (2025).
“Ciągle pada” is one of their most well-known tracks, and the title happens to be a pretty useful phrase: It’s still raining. Let’s break it down a bit:
Ciągle means “still” but also “constantly, non-stop”. “I’m constantly learning Polish” = Ciągle uczę się Polskiego”. In this sense it’s similar to “zawsze” (“always”).
Pada = it’s raining, but you should know that the literal meaning of “pada” is “falls” or “is falling”. “Rain” is “deszcz” and the phrase “pada deszcz” is also common.
Listen to Ciągle pada
You’ll also find it in my Sing Polish playlists on Spotify and YouTube.
About the band
Czerwone Gitary means The Red Guitars. Apparently the name simply comes from the actual colour of their guitars, and is not meant to hint at any political standpoint. Still, they (or at least their promoters) were clearly aware of a potential political association – they changed the name to Purpurowe Gitary (The Purple Guitars) when touring in America!
Fun fact: Early Polish rock bands like Czerwone Gitary were called “big beat” rather than “rock”, to avoid tension with the authorities (who did not approve of rock as a genre).
Pad(a): related phrases
The base (infinite) form of “pada” is “padać”, which means “to fall”. Loads of useful words and phrases that contain “pad” have something to do with falling. Good to know that many of these words have several meanings and I have probably not covered all of them in this list:
- Listopad = November. It’s made up of the word “liść” (leaf) and “pad” (fall). In other words, it’s the month when leaves are falling off the trees.
- Spadam = I’m falling
- Muszę spadać = I’m off, I gotta go
- Przepadać = To disappear/to be lost, to fail an exam (either because you didn’t show up or because you didn’t pass) and also to fall in love 🤯
- Przypadek = Chance (as in coincidence) and also case (either as in grammatical cases or medical/legal cases)
- Padaka = Facepalm situation (well that’s how a Polish friend described it)
- Wypadła mi nazwa = I can’t remember the name
- Dopadła go choroba morska = He fell seasick
- Wpadnij do mnie = Come and see me
- Wodospad = Waterfall
- Wypadek = Accident
- Wpadka = Blunder, mistake
Do you know any others?
Sing Polish 
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