Image by Małgorzata i Tomasz Bogdanowiczowie, Wikimedia Commons license 🙏
Andrzej Zaucha’s song ‘Byłaś serca biciem’ (which means “You were the beating heart”) includes one of the first phrases we meet as Polish learners: Jak się masz?
The chorus starts like this:
| Ktoś pytał, “jak się masz?”, “jak się czujesz?” | Somebody asked, “how are you?”, “how are you feeling?” |
Check it out:
Two things to know about jak się masz
First of all, I’ve met several Polish people who say they hardly ever use this phrase. One Polish colleague said he only asks non-Polish speakers jak się masz, because he knows we understand it 😆
Still, I hear it once in a while, even between Poles. But there are so many other ways to say “how are you”, there’s simply a lot of competition. Check out some alternatives below 👇
Secondly, be aware that if you ask someone jak się masz (or any of the other phrases below), you’ll probably get an honest answer. Or at least you’ll likely get something more than a polite “fine, and you?” (dobrze, a ty?) back!
About Andrzej Zaucha
Zaucha was born in 1949 in Kraków. He became a musician in the late 1960s and early 1970s, drumming and singing for the jazzy rock groups Dżamble and Anawa. His solo career took off in the 1980s, after his wife Elżbieta died of cancer 😢
Zaucha’s tragic death
In 1991, Andrzej Zaucha was shot to death in Kraków alongside the Polish actress Zuzanna Leśniak. The killer was Zuzanna’s husband, a French film director named Yves Goulais. Goulais suspected that Zaucha and Leśniak were having an affair.
Zaucha died on the spot. Leśniak was seriously injured and died later at the hospital. Goulais did not deny the act. He turned himself in and claimed it was a crime of passion. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
If you want more Polish practice, you can read about this shocking event in this article.
Other ways to say “how are you” in Polish
- Co słychać? Literally “what can be heard?”
- Co u ciebie? Literally “what [is up] at yours?”
- Jak leci? Literally “how is it flying?”
- Jak tam? Literally “how [is it] over there?”
- Co nowego? Literally “what’s new?”
Which ones did I miss? Leave a comment!
More songs with “jak się masz”
Happy End’s “Jak się masz, kochanie” from 1977 sounds like it could win the Eurovision any time!
For something more contemporary, listen to Sobel and Sanah’s “Cześć, jak się masz?”.
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