Cześć, co słychać?

A natural pronunciation is roughly:

cheshch, tso SWIH-hach

More carefully:

• Cześć ≈ cheshch
• co ≈ tso
• słychać ≈ SWIH-hach

A few sound notes:

• cz sounds like ch in chocolate
• ś / ć are softer consonants than standard English sh / ch
• ł sounds like English w
• ch sounds like a throaty h, like in Scottish loch or German Bach

You do not pronounce it exactly like English spelling, so it helps to hear it from a native speaker a few times.

Cześć is an informal greeting meaning hi or hello.

It can also mean bye in informal speech, so depending on context it can work both when arriving and leaving.

Examples:

• Cześć! = Hi!
• Pa, cześć! = Bye!

Because it is informal, you use it with:

• friends
• family
• classmates
• coworkers you know well
• children

Not usually with:

• strangers in formal situations
• teachers, bosses, or older people if the situation is formal

Literally, co słychać means something like what is heard?

But in real usage, it means:

• what’s up?
• how are things?
• how’s it going?

So this is one of those expressions where the literal meaning is less important than the everyday meaning.

Słychać is an impersonal verb form meaning one can hear / it is heard.

In co słychać?, Polish uses an idiomatic structure, not a direct word-for-word equivalent of English How are you?

So instead of asking you hear, Polish says something more like:

• what can be heard? which has developed into:
• what’s going on?
• how are things?

This is just a fixed everyday expression, so it is best learned as a whole phrase.

It is informal.

Use it with people you know in relaxed situations.

If you want to be more formal, you could say:

• Dzień dobry, co słychać? — polite but still fairly warm
• Jak się Pan ma? / Jak się Pani ma? — more formal, though this can sound a bit stiff or old-fashioned in some situations

For everyday conversation with friends, Cześć, co słychać? is very natural.

Yes. Cześć, co słychać? can be used when talking to:

• one person
• more than one person

That is because co słychać? does not directly include you in the sentence. It is more general, like what’s up?

If you want to be more clearly plural, people may also say:

• Cześć, co u was? = Hi, how are things with you all?

But co słychać? works very well on its own in both cases.

Polish often leaves out subjects when they are not needed, and in this case the expression is not built around you anyway.

English often says:

• How are you?

Polish here uses a different pattern:

• Co słychać? = What’s up? / How are things?

So there is no missing ty that needs to be added. The phrase is complete as it is.

Yes, the comma is normal and correct here.

That is because:

• Cześć is the greeting
• co słychać? is the actual question

So the comma separates the greeting from the rest of the sentence, just like in English:

• Hi, what’s up?

In casual texting, people sometimes skip punctuation, but in correct writing the comma should be there.

Very common replies include:

• Dobrze, dzięki. — Good, thanks.
• W porządku. — All right / Fine.
• Nic nowego. — Nothing new.
• Wszystko dobrze. — Everything’s good.
• Jakoś leci. — Getting by / It’s going somehow.
• A u ciebie? — And you?

A very natural short exchange is:

• Cześć, co słychać?
• Dobrze, dzięki. A u ciebie?

Yes, absolutely.

Co słychać? works perfectly well on its own as:

• What’s up?
• How’s it going?

Adding Cześć just makes it:

• Hi, what’s up?

So both are natural:

• Cześć, co słychać?
• Co słychać?

Yes. Cześć is friendly and common, but it is not the best choice in formal situations.

Use something like Dzień dobry instead when:

• meeting a stranger
• speaking to a professor or boss
• entering a shop, office, or formal setting
• talking to someone much older when you want to be respectful

So:

• Cześć, co słychać? = good with friends
• Dzień dobry = safer in formal situations

Both can relate to How are you?, but they are used a bit differently.

• Co słychać? = What’s up? / How are things?
  This feels broad, casual, and very natural in conversation.

• Jak się masz? = How are you?
  This is also understandable and correct, but in everyday speech it can sound a bit more direct, textbook-like, or sometimes less common than learners expect.

With friends, many native speakers will often prefer:

• Co słychać?
• Co tam?
• Jak leci?

So Co słychać? is a very useful phrase to know.

This sentence contains several letters that matter for pronunciation:

• ś in cześć and słychać
  A soft sh-like sound

• ć in cześć and słychać
  A soft ch-like sound

• ł in słychać
  Pronounced like English w

These marks are not optional. They change the sound and sometimes the meaning, so it is important to learn them as part of the word.

For example:

• l and ł are different letters in Polish
• c, cz, ć are also different sounds

Not exactly.

In English, How are you? is often just a routine greeting and may not expect a detailed answer.

In Polish, Co słychać? is also often casual and light, but it can feel a bit more like What’s new? or What’s going on? than a purely automatic greeting.

So the best English matches are often:

• What’s up?
• How’s it going?
• How are things?

It can still be brief and routine, but it slightly invites actual news or conversation more than a fixed formal greeting would.