⁨Gramatyka dla praktyka 1–3⁩ review — Polish grammar practice from A1 to B1

What this book is

Gramatyka dla praktyka ("Grammar for practitioners") is a series of three grammar workbooks written by teachers of international groups at a Polish language school in Potsdam and sold in Poland by START Polish. Each volume covers one area of grammar and contains exercises for all three levels — A1, A2 and B1 — marked with colours (red, yellow, green), so the same book grows with you.

• Volume 1 — Fleksja i słowotwórstwo (inflection and word formation): 296 pages.
• Volume 2 — Czasownik (the verb).
• Volume 3 — Składnia (syntax): 204 pages.

The books are A4, written in Polish, with no audio. The ISBN shown above is for the current printing of volume 1.

Who it suits best

• Learners at A2 who want to close their grammar gaps before B1 — the exam has a separate grammar module and you need a pass in it.
• People who learn better from exercises with a key than from explanations alone.
• Teachers and tutors looking for graded practice for mixed groups.

Who should pick something else

• Complete beginners studying alone: the instructions are in Polish only.
• Anyone who needs listening or speaking practice — there is no audio.
• Learners on a tight budget: each volume is a large, fairly expensive book. Choose one volume rather than the set.

What's inside

• Volume 1: all the cases and declension, plus word formation — adjectives, adverbs, verbal nouns, feminine job titles, comparison.
• Volume 2: conjugation, present, past and future, aspect, conditional and imperative, modal verbs, verbs of motion, irregular verbs.
• Volume 3: building sentences from simple to complex, "Do you remember?" revision sections, and cultural texts about Polish customs and history.
• A short explanation with a table next to each set of exercises, an answer key, and an index of grammar terms in several languages.

Exercises are organised by what you want to say — a communicative function — rather than by grammar chapter only.

What learners and teachers say

Opinions come mostly from teachers and academics. In a review in the University of Warsaw's journal Kwartalnik Polonicum (Święcka, 2018), the series is called "a must-have on the shelf" of Polish-as-a-foreign-language textbooks that "allows a thorough review of the material before the B1 certificate exams". An academic review in a University of Łódź journal (Dembowska-Wosik, 2022) says it is "of the highest standard", while noting small errors and a few tasks without instructions. Academics quoted on the authors' website praise the functional approach, the colour-coded levels, the cultural content and the variety of exercises; Prof. Bernhard Brehmer adds that the Polish-only grammar terminology "is certainly a hindrance" for a learner at A1, and would like fewer gap-fill exercises. An early complaint about a missing answer key no longer applies — every volume now has one.

On Empik the three volumes have only a handful of star ratings (4.7–5.0, October 2026) and no written learner reviews, so we cannot tell you how it works for people studying alone.

(For transparency: the author of this review later co-wrote Zdaj się na polski! for START Polish, which also sells this book.)

Our verdict

The most complete grammar practice set on our list for anyone aiming at B1. Do not buy all three at once: start with volume 2 (verbs) or volume 1 (cases), whichever is your weaker area. Pair it with a coursebook or with our B1 practice tests, where the grammar module shows quickly which forms still need work.