The vocative człowieku used to call someone informally, with tones ranging from friendly urgency to irritation.
Examples
Człowieku, uspokój się i posłuchaj.
Man, calm down and listen.
Słuchaj, człowieku, to naprawdę ważne.
Listen, man, this is really important.
Daj spokój, człowieku, już wystarczy.
Come on, dude, that is enough.
Ej, człowieku, zostawiłeś telefon.
Hey, man, you left your phone.
No człowieku, naprawdę tego nie widzisz?
Come on, man, do you really not see it?
Similar words
kolego
chłopie
stary
ziom
gościu
bracie
Etymology
Inherited from Old Polish człowiek, from Proto-Slavic čьlověkъ. The modern plural is suppletive: ludzie rather than a regular plural from człowiek.
FAQ
Comments & contributions
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Brisk Narwhal
Jul 15
dobry człowiek is such a warm phrase. good person feels flatter somehow
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Dapper Pika
Jul 14
po czesku člověk, po słowacku človek, so this one felt friendly when I started Polish
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Plucky Zebra
Jul 5
The ł still kills me in this word, I hear it now but saying czło in one go took ages
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Perky Heron
Jun 28
moja babcia says człowiek wraca zmęczony about herself all the time. she is not talking about some random person
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Sleek Kudu
Jun 25
Człowiek człowiekowi wilkiem is the first Polish quote I managed to remember, dramatic but useful lol
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Oaken Sparrow
Jun 23
i always read człowieku as a Polish mannnn, depends on tone but it can be pretty sharp
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Maple Bobcat
Jun 21
In rights language it is almost frozen as prawa człowieka. Prawa osoby sounds like a specific person's rights or legal wording, not the big human rights phrase.
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Velvet Marten
Jun 20
Człowiek orkiestra is worth knowing. It means one person doing a bunch of jobs, like the organiser who also drives, fixes the projector and answers the emails.
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Proud Raven
Jun 20
osoba is the safer office word. On forms and privacy notices I would expect osoba, but in a sentence like on jest dobrym człowiekiem, swapping in osobą makes it colder.
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Copper Gopher
Jun 19
As a self-reference, człowiek stays third person. Człowiek się stara is fine, but człowiek się staram is the learner error my Polish teacher kept circling.
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Fluffy Snail
Jun 18
One small collocation: człowiek z klasą is a classy or decent person, not a person with a class. Same pattern with człowiek z zasadami.
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Amber Walrus
Jun 18
człowiecze exists, but it sounds like a Bible translation or someone jokingly being grand. If you shout it at a friend it reads old-timey, not normal street Polish.
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Rapid Raccoon
Jun 17
For learners, the number forms are where this word bites. You do not say dwa ludzie. It is dwóch ludzi, trzech ludzi, pięciu ludzi, with ludzie behaving like a plural word of its own.