Polish is a Slavic language, so at first it looks nothing like English. The good news: it is highly regular and almost perfectly phonetic. Learn a handful of rules and you can read and pronounce words you have never seen. Here are the five differences that matter most.
1. There is no 'a' or 'the'
Polish has no articles. 'Kot' means both 'a cat' and 'the cat'; context tells you which. One less thing to worry about.
2. Word endings change, not word order
English leans on word order and small words (to, of, with). Polish changes the END of the noun instead. 'Kawa' (coffee) becomes 'kawę' when it is the thing you want: 'Poproszę kawę' (I'll have a coffee). These endings are called cases.
3. Every noun has a gender
Masculine, feminine, or neuter. You can usually guess it from the ending. Gender decides how adjectives and past-tense verbs look.
4. Stress is predictable
Almost every Polish word is stressed on the second-to-last syllable. 'Dziękuję' = jen-KOO-yeh. Know this and you sound right immediately.
5. You drop 'I / you / he'
The verb ending already shows who is doing the action, so pronouns are usually left out. 'Mówię' on its own means 'I speak'.
Tip: You will make ending mistakes for months and Poles will still understand you perfectly. Communication first, polish later.
Nie mam czasu
/ nyeh mahm CHAH-soo /
I don't have time
literally: not I-have time