"Czy twoja mama robi ciasto?"

Translation: Is your mom making a cake?

[LizBaran1]

We would never say this in British English. We would say 'Is your mum making a cake?' or 'Is your mum making cakes?'.

[Jellei]

'a cake' will be the default version now.

[polec2]

Is it bad if I pronouce the i in ciasto ("ć-i-asto" instead of "ćasto")?

[Jellei]

If I am imagining correctly - well, you'd be understood, but that would sound a bit weird.

[magpie_gir]

It is bad :)

I is a special letter in Polish:

1. The letter "I" can inform about the SOFTNESS of preceding consonant (C, DZ, N, S, Z) and mark the SOUND [ I ] (e.g.) - it is before consonant

   siła (r: śiła) not as "s-iła" or "śła"

   wozić (r: woźić) not as "wo-z-ić" or "woźć"

2. The letter "I" can inform about the SOFTNESS of preceding consonant (P, B, G, K, W, F, CH, M, N, L) and mark the SOUND [ J ] - it is before vowel
   -- there is a different arrangement of the tongue with the pronunciation of softened sounds [ '] (with an additional movement of the tongue towards the hard palate) than with hard ones [without] (e.g.)

   radio (r: radjo) as rad'jo but: radość

   wiara (r: wjara) as w'jara but: wara

   piasek (r: pjasek) as p'jasek but: pasek

3. The letter "I" can be only a graphical sign of SOFTNESS of the preceding consonant (but it does not mean a separate sound) - it is in fact the equivalent of a diacritic mark (a line that appears in the letters: ć, dź, ś, ź, ń) - it is before vowel (e.g.)

   zioła (r: źoła)

   w wodzie (r: w-wodźe)

4. The letter "I" can be only the SOUND [ I ] - when the letter appears after a vowel or a pause - it is before consonant (e.g)

   igła

   poigrać

[JanKLinde]

I suppose that quite a lot of non-Polish people don't even realize the difference between ć/ci and cz, which makes it difficult for them to pronounce it correctly. It may be helpful to insert a slight j, like 'ćjasto', to get close to it.

It's the same thing with ś/si and sz, also ź/zi and ż.

[Jellei]

Some Czech letter hid in your post, that was supposed to be ź/zi ;)

[JanKLinde]

Corrected, dzięki!

A bit strange because I haven't activated Czech on my keyboard...

[John977713]

Mam is how we say it in Ireland. Mom is American, Mum is British. All equally valid, so shouldn't mark it as wrong.

[Stewart156051]

Just a point of interest, "to bake" a cake is common usage in English, is the Polish verb "piec" used in the same way?

[Jellei]

Yes, of course.