Mission—Team—FAQ—Privacy—Terms—Sponsors—Grammar—Typing Course—Donate

© 2026 Elon Automation B.V.

Learn Hardcore Polish: Ona mówi głośno przez telefon. - She speaks loudly on the phone.

Hardcore Polish
/Lesson 42
/Ona mówi głośno przez telefon.

Ona mówi głośno przez telefon.

Ona mówi głośno przez telefon.

She speaks loudly on the phone.

Breakdown of Ona mówi głośno przez telefon.

Questions & Answers about Ona mówi głośno przez telefon.

Why is ona used here? Can Polish leave it out?

Yes. Polish often drops subject pronouns when the verb already makes the subject clear.

So:

Ona mówi głośno przez telefon.
Mówi głośno przez telefon.

Both can mean the same thing.

Using ona often adds one of these effects:

emphasis: She is speaking loudly
contrast: She is speaking loudly, not someone else
clarity in context, if several people are being discussed

So in everyday Polish, leaving out ona is very common.

What exactly is mówi?

Mówi is the 3rd person singular present tense form of mówić.

That means it is used with:

on = he
ona = she
ono = it

Examples:

On mówi. = He speaks / He is speaking.
Ona mówi. = She speaks / She is speaking.

Notice that in the present tense, Polish verbs usually do not change for gender in the 3rd person singular. So on mówi and ona mówi both use mówi.

Why is it głośno and not głośna or głośny?

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Polish grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Polish now

Because głośno is an adverb, and here it describes how she speaks.

głośny / głośna / głośne = loud, as an adjective
głośno = loudly, as an adverb

In this sentence, we are describing the manner of speaking, so the adverb is needed:

mówi głośno = speaks loudly

If you used an adjective, it would need to describe a noun, not the verb.

Why does Polish use przez telefon for on the phone?

This is the normal Polish expression for talking by phone or over the phone.

Literally, przez often means through, so przez telefon is close to through/by means of the telephone.

In natural English we say:

on the phone
over the phone

But Polish usually says:

przez telefon

So this is something to learn as a fixed expression.

What case is telefon in after przez?

After przez, Polish normally uses the accusative.

So in przez telefon, telefon is accusative.

The reason it looks unchanged is that telefon is an inanimate masculine noun, and for many such nouns, the accusative singular is the same as the nominative singular.

So:

nominative: telefon
accusative: telefon

Even though the form looks the same, the case is still accusative.

Can the word order change?

Yes. Polish word order is more flexible than English word order.

The neutral order here is:

Ona mówi głośno przez telefon.

But you could also hear:

Ona przez telefon mówi głośno.
Głośno mówi przez telefon.
Przez telefon mówi głośno.

These versions may sound more marked, depending on what the speaker wants to emphasize.

Very roughly:

głośno near the front can emphasize loudly
przez telefon near the front can emphasize that it is happening on the phone

So the sentence can be rearranged, but the most natural basic version is the original one.

Does mówi mean speaks or is speaking?

It can mean either, depending on context.

Polish present tense often covers both:

She speaks loudly on the phone
She is speaking loudly on the phone

If you need to know which one is meant, context decides.

So:

general habit: Ona mówi głośno przez telefon = She speaks loudly on the phone
happening now: Ona mówi głośno przez telefon = She is speaking loudly on the phone

Would rozmawia przez telefon be better than mówi przez telefon?

It depends on what you want to say.

mówi = speaks, is speaking, says
rozmawia = talks, is talking, has a conversation

So:

Ona mówi głośno przez telefon. = She is speaking loudly on the phone.
Ona rozmawia przez telefon. = She is talking on the phone.

If the point is simply that she is engaged in a phone conversation, rozmawia przez telefon is often very natural.

If the point is specifically that her speech is loud, mówi głośno przez telefon works well.

Is przez telefon only used with talking, or can it be used with other actions too?

It can be used with other actions too. It means something like by phone or over the phone.

Examples:

Rozmawiam przez telefon. = I am talking on the phone.
Zamówiłem to przez telefon. = I ordered it by phone.
Załatwiliśmy to przez telefon. = We handled it over the phone.

So przez telefon is a broader expression, not only for speaking.

How is głośno pronounced?

A rough pronunciation is:

głośno ≈ gwosh-no

A few helpful points:

ł sounds like English w
ś is a soft sh-like sound
the stress is on the second-to-last syllable: GŁOś-no

So it sounds roughly like GWOHSH-no, with the stress on the first syllable because it is a two-syllable word.

How is mówi pronounced?

A rough pronunciation is:

mówi ≈ MOO-vee

Helpful points:

ó is pronounced like u
w in Polish sounds like English v
stress falls on the second-to-last syllable, so here on mó-

So mówi sounds roughly like MOO-vee.

How is przez pronounced?

A rough pronunciation is:

przez ≈ pshesh or pshehsh

Important details:

rz here sounds like the Polish sound written ż
prz at the beginning is a difficult consonant cluster for English speakers
the final z is pronounced like sh here because of sound changes in normal pronunciation

You do not need a perfect English equivalent, but something close to pshesh is a useful starting point.

Is the sentence natural in everyday Polish?

Yes, it is natural.

It sounds like a normal sentence someone might say when describing another person's behavior.

For example, it could be used in situations like:

complaining that someone is too loud
describing what someone is doing right now
stating a habit

If the context already makes the subject clear, many speakers would more naturally say simply:

Mówi głośno przez telefon.

But the full version with ona is still perfectly correct and natural.

Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io