Polish B1 Exam for Ukrainians: Format, False Friends and Common Mistakes
Exam Guide
Key takeaways
- Ukrainians take the same B1 state exam as other foreigners: 5 parts and at least 50% in each.
- Closeness to Ukrainian helps in reading and listening but causes calques in writing and grammar.
- Watch out for false friends: owoce, dywan, lustro, pensja, kraj, pokój.
- Polite forms: Pan/Pani with a third-person verb, not “Wy”.
Ukrainians take the same state exam in Polish as a foreign language as other foreigners. At adult B1 level the exam has five parts — listening, reading, grammar, writing and speaking — and you need at least 50% in each.
A B1 certificate is required for, among other things, the EU long-term resident card and recognition as a Polish citizen. The stay of Ukrainian citizens is also governed by separate laws that change, so always confirm the requirements for your case with the voivodeship office.
Ukrainian and Polish are closely related, so many people understand texts and recordings quickly. That is a real advantage in reading and listening. The same closeness is a trap in writing and speaking: familiar-sounding words often mean something else, and Ukrainian sentence patterns creep into Polish.
Ukrainians lose most points on grammar and the formal letter: case endings, the masculine-personal plural (oni byli, one były), polite forms and spelling (ó, rz, ż, ch). The board does not expect perfection, but a mistake repeated in every sentence lowers the score under several criteria at once.
The second common trap is register. In a formal letter and at an office, Poles use Pan/Pani with a third-person verb (Czy mógłby Pan…?), not Wy as in the Ukrainian polite Ви. The same applies in the oral exam.
If you finished school or studies in Polish, check on certyfikatpolski.pl whether you can get the certificate without the exam. Everyone else sits the exam in person at a centre — you can only prepare online.
Which Polish words confuse Ukrainians?
False friends look like Ukrainian words but mean something else. In the exam they change the meaning of a sentence, so it pays to know the common ones.
- owoce — fruit (фрукти); warzywa — vegetables (овочі)
- dywan — carpet (килим); kanapa — sofa (диван)
- lustro — mirror (дзеркало); żyrandol — chandelier (люстра)
- pensja — salary (зарплата); emerytura — pension (пенсія)
- kraj — country (країна), not край
- pokój — room (кімната), and also peace
What grammar mistakes do Ukrainians make in the B1 exam?
Most mistakes are calques from Ukrainian that sound natural but are wrong in Polish.
- Masculine-personal plural: oni byli, one były — Ukrainian has one form (вони були).
- Instrumental after być: Jestem nauczycielem, not “Jestem nauczyciel”.
- A preposition instead of the dative: dzwonić do mamy, not “dzwonić mamie” (дзвонити мамі).
- Stress almost always on the second-to-last syllable: miesz-KA-nie, u-ni-wer-SY-tet.
- The nasal vowels ą and ę and the letter ł change a word’s form (idę, idą), so do not replace them with o, e, l.
- Spelling ó/u, rz/ż, ch/h — same sound, different letters; in a letter every mistake shows.
What is easy for Ukrainians in the B1 exam?
Listening and reading usually go faster for Ukrainians than for other candidates because much of the vocabulary is shared. That does not guarantee 50% in each part: tasks test details such as dates, numbers and the speaker’s intention, not just the gist.
So flip your study plan: less time on texts, more on grammar, handwriting and scored speaking.
How can a Ukrainian prepare for B1?
A plan for the last weeks before the session:
- Take an official sample test from certyfikatpolski.pl under exam timing and score each part.
- Practise your weakest part every day for two to three weeks.
- Write letters by hand and check polite forms and spelling.
- Record spoken answers and listen for Ukrainian words and stress slipping in.
- Retake a full sample test two to three weeks before the exam.
Ukrainians’ questions about the B1 exam
Do Ukrainians take a different Polish B1 exam?
No. Ukrainian citizens take the same state exam in Polish as a foreign language as other foreigners, at the same centres and sessions.
Is it easy for a Ukrainian to pass Polish B1?
Easier than for non-Slavic speakers in reading and listening, but grammar and writing still need study, because calques from Ukrainian are marked as mistakes.
How much does the B1 exam cost for Ukrainian citizens?
The same as for other adults: the centre sets the fee, at most €150 for B1, and issuing the certificate costs the PLN equivalent of €20.
Where can I prepare for B1 with a Ukrainian interface?
PolishReady has a Ukrainian interface: you read instructions in Ukrainian and do the exam tasks in Polish.