Saying hello and goodbye in Polish

The most important rule is to use formal greetings and Pan/Pani forms to:

1. people that you don't know
2. older than you
3. on a higher position.

Of course if you're young you can be informal with people in the same age. But the older you get you should avoid saying "Cześć" to strangers. In shops, restaurants or any kind of services we always use formal versions.

Informal both hello and goodbye:

Cześć - hard to pronounce but a nice word - it also means "honour".
Siema - abbreviation of "Jak się masz?" ("How are you?"), used by young people
Hej

Formal hello:

Dzień dobry - Good day, morning, afternoon
Dobry wieczór - Good evening

Half formal half informal hello:

Witam - I welcome you, only the host uses it, very popular also in e-mails
Witaj - Welcome






Formal goodbye:

Do widzenia

Half formal half informal goodbye:

Do zobaczenia - See you! We assume that we will meet soon.
Do usłyszenia - the same but used only during phone conversation

Informal goodbye:

Na razie - See you
Do zobaczyska - See you
Pa pa
Trzymaj się/Trzym się - Take care

In the night:

Dobranoc/Dobrej nocy - Good night





How do you do? How are you?

Jak się masz? Jak się Pan/Pani ma?
Jak się miewasz? Jak się Pan/Pani miewa?

The most popular answer are:
"dobrze" (well)
"(Wszystko) w porządku" (ok, everything all right).

some options:
świetnie/super,
bardzo dobrze,
tak sobie (so so),
jako tako (tolerably well),
źle (badly), bardzo źle,
fatalnie/okropnie (terrible).





Co u Ciebie? Co u Pana/Pani? Co słychać? Co nowego? - What's up? What's new?

Answer can be the same as above plus:
Nic nowego/Po staremu (nothing new).