No. 7 in Polish
a
The Polish word "a" means "and," "but," or "whereas," depending on the context.
In a sentence
Ona lubi jabłka, a on woli gruszki.
She likes apples, and he prefers pears.
In this sentence, 'a' is used as a conjunction indicating a contrast between the preferences of two people.
Anna szuka książki, a zeszytu nie może znaleźć.
Anna is looking for a book, but cannot find her notebook.
Here, 'a' serves to contrast two actions, highlighting one that is successfully done versus another that isn't.
Piotr mieszka w Warszawie, a to oznacza, że często odwiedza rodzinę w okolicy.
Piotr lives in Warsaw, which means he often visits family nearby.
In this case, 'a' introduces a clause that provides reasoning or explanation for the first clause.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “a” in actual Polish podcasts.
Find “a” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Polish podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into polski, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Polish books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).