The Polish Alphabet

For what concerns the pronounciation, Polish language have its own IPA alphabet. However, we will try to adapt Polish pronounciation to English alphabet.

In Polish there is all English alphabet, except for those 3 letters, which may appear only in Polish words which are taken from other languages:

 

- "v": polish language tends to use "w" instead

- "q"

- "x"

 

Except for English alphabet, we find 9 more letters, whose pronounciation is written between /.../:

ą = /oum/ or /om/ or also /on/; luckily Polish speakers, just like anybody else, do not like to spend too much time when writing sms. Thus, they keep forgetting tha small "worm" under "a". As a cosequence, even the pronounciation of ą tends to be more and more similar to a simple "a" as we would pronounce it in "attack".

Polish speaker pronounce more clearly the sound /oum/ when they are speaking in a formal context, for example during an academical speech.

It is preferrable to try always to pronounce even just a small "-aum" when we read "ą", so that we will remember how we should write it.

ę = /eum/ or /em/ or also /en/; also in this case the "worm" under "e" is slowly disappearing in the informal speech and in the everyday language. In those cases polish people tend to pronounce a simple "e" as we would pronunce it in "end".

Still, it is always better to keep in mind which words are to be written with "e" and which with "ę".

ć = /ts/..The consonant "ć" and the group "ci" are pronounced in the same way, eg. być is pronounced /bəts/ and cicho is pronounced /tsiho/

ń = /ɲ/. The consonant "ń" and the group "ni" are pronounced in the same way: koń.

ó = /u/

ł = /u/, as a matter of fact, there are three "u" in Polish: "u", "ó" and "ł". The letter "ł", differently from the other two, is shorter. Let us remember how the Polish Pope's name is pronounced: Wojtyła is pronounced "Woitiua", with a very short "u" attached to the "a"

ś = /sh/. The consonant "ś" and the group "si" are pronounced in the same way.

ź = /з/ like in "garage". The consonant "ź" and the group "zi" are pronounced in the same way.

ż = /з/ like in "garage" with the tongue closer to the palate. The consonant "ż" and the group "rz" are pronounced in the same way. 

Resuming, some consonants with the accent are egual to the consonant followed by "i": ź = zi, ś = si, ć = ci, ń = ni.

Let us listen now this video about pronounciation: mowicpopolsku.

Let us remember that "ch" in Polish is pronounced "h", and the consonants at the end of the word are aphonic (eg. the letter "b" is pronounced "p", the "d" is pronounced "t" etc.), but this will come out from you spontaneously with some practice.

Actually the pronounciation of Polish language is not so hard, it is just a matter of practice. And since practice is better than grammar here you are a website with a software which reads Polish words: Iwona