EN
The article aims at the confrontational presentation of the formulas that initiate and end contacts. The material that is being analysed comes from TV and Radio broadcasts, Internet, survey conducted among students and observations of Polish and Slovak official and unofficial language practices. The author pinpoints several rules of using the analysed formulas. These rules are determined by such factors as time, biology (age and sex), social context (views of the world and social roles). The article concludes itself with a proposal of the politeness model in Poland and Slovakia.