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polski · English

Learn Polish with short stories

Read Polish books with English alongside, or English books with Polish alongside: the original and the translation side by side, paragraph by paragraph.

Free Polish–English stories and ebooks

Stories to read in Polish, with the English beside each paragraph. They open in the browser, with no account needed, and each one is also a free Polish–English ebook for Kindle, Kobo or any e-reader: downloading needs a free account, no payment (which file to pick).

Open the Polish–English library, where you can search the stories and filter them by level.

By level:

Free graded readers in Polish

Every story here carries its level on the Common European Framework, from A1 for beginners to C1 and beyond, so the library works as a set of free Polish graded readers: start at the level where you understand most of a page, and move up when the English beside it is something you check only now and then.

Want a book that isn’t here? Make your own Polish–English parallel text from any EPUB or PDF: free preview, and 50 free pages when you sign up.

Reading Polish with English alongside

Polish looks harder on the page than it is to read: once you know that sz, cz, rz and the letters ą, ę, ł, ś, ź, ż each stand for one sound, the spelling is regular and every word can be read aloud.

The real work is the grammar: seven cases change the end of nouns and adjectives, and verbs come in pairs (robić and zrobić, to be doing and to get done). With the English beside each paragraph, you can follow a story long before the endings are second nature.

Reading English books with Polish alongside

For Polish speakers, a parallel text makes English books quicker going: read the English and look across to the Polish when an idiom, a phrasal verb or an English tense doesn’t land.

It works for families abroad too: one book, two languages on the same page, so children growing up with English can keep reading Polish with their parents and grandparents.

192 English stories in the library have Polish alongside: Nauka angielskiego z krótkich opowiadań.

Where a parallel text helps most in Polish

Seven cases

Kot, kota, kotu, kotem: the same cat changes its ending with its role in the sentence. The English beside it shows which role each ending marks, without stopping for a grammar table.

Verb pairs

Polish verbs come in pairs, one for an action in progress, one for an action completed (pisał, he was writing; napisał, he wrote it). Reading them beside their English makes the difference felt.

Free word order

Because the endings carry the meaning, Polish can move words around for emphasis. The translation shows who did what to whom, whatever comes first.

Polish classics to read in parallel

Long out of copyright and easy to find as EPUBs. Any of them makes a good first Polish–English parallel text:

  • Lalka, Bolesław Prus
  • Quo vadis, Henryk Sienkiewicz
  • Pan Tadeusz, Adam Mickiewicz
  • Chłopi, Władysław Reymont

Or use a book you already own: the method works best with something you actually want to read. See how to read a parallel text to get the most from it.

Questions about Polish–English stories

Where can I read Polish stories with English side by side for free?

Right here: 192 Polish–English stories open in the browser with no account, the English beside every paragraph, from A1 to C2.

What is a Polish–English parallel text?

A Polish text placed beside its English translation, paragraph by paragraph, so you can read in one language and glance across to the other whenever you need to.

Which Polish story should I start with?

Pick the level where you understand most of a page: the beginner stories use short sentences and common words, and the levels above them add longer sentences and richer vocabulary. Each story shows its level on the Common European Framework.

Can I read Polish–English stories on a Kindle or Kobo?

Yes. Every story is also a bilingual ebook; downloading needs a free account, no payment.