w ogóle

Polish

Alternative forms

Etymology

Literally, “in general”.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /vɔˈɡu.lɛ/, (unstressed, colloquial) /ˈvɔɡ.lɛ/
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -ulɛ, -ɔɡlɛ

Particle

w ogóle

  1. (idiomatic) by the way
    Synonym: swoją drogą
  2. (idiomatic) in general, generally
    Synonyms: ogólnie, w ogólności
  3. (idiomatic, chiefly in the negative) at all, even
    W ogóle nie wiem, o czym mówisz. ― I don't know at all what you are talking about.
    Czy on w ogóle to zrobił? ― Did he even do this?

Trivia

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), w ogóle is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 21 times in scientific texts, 2 times in news, 36 times in essays, 39 times in fiction, and 58 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 156 times, making it the 370th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[1]

References
  1. Ida Kurcz (1990) “w ogóle”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language]‎ (in Polish), volume 2, Kraków, Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 650

Further reading
  • w ogóle in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • w ogóle in Polish dictionaries at PWN
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