Pronunciation and Spelling

The alphabet

In Polish there are sounds, letters and combinations of letters that are non-existent in other languages. Some of them are similar to English sounds and may easily be compared. The closest counterparts are presented in the last column of the table below:

Polish letter	Polish example	Comparable to: (mostly English words)
POLISH ALPHABET
a	arbuz	father
ą	kąt	bon (French word)
b	brama	ben
c	cena	cats (when pronounced fast) pizza (in Italian)
ć	ćma	cheese
d	dom	dog
e	ekran	egg
ę	kęs	fin (French word)
f	film	face
g	gnu	guitar
h	hak	home
i	iglo	eat
j	jak	yellow
k	kto	kick
l	las	lamp
ł	łan	widow
m	moc	make
n	noga	neck
ń	koń	onion piñata (Spanish word)
o	okno	walk
ó	lód	blue
p	pan	pen
q	Quo vadis? (only in foreign words)	queen
r	rak	perro (Spanish word)
s	sen	snake
ś	śnieg	sheep
t	tak	ten
u	ul	blue
v	vice versa	van
x	taxi (only in foreign words)	taxi
y	syn	tin
z	znak	zebra
ź	źle	Asia
ż	żona	pleasure
LETTER COMBINATIONS:
cz	czar	chop
ć=ci	ćma, cień (ć before a consonant, ci before a vowel)	cheese
sz	szafa	shop
ś=si	śnieg siny (ś before a consonant, si before a vowel)	sheep
dz	dzwon	pads (when pronounced fast)
dż	dżungla	jungle
dź=dzi	dźwig dzień (dź before a consonant, dzi before a vowel)	jeans
ń=ni	kończyć niebo (ń before a consonant, ni before a vowel)	onion piñata (Spanish word)
ź=zi	źle ziemia (ź before a consonant, zi before a vowel)	Asia
h=ch	hak chory	home
ż=rz	żona rzeka	pleasure
u=ó	ul	blue

One important rule about pronunciation concerns the position of stress in a Polish word. It mostly falls on the penultimate syllable (the last but one), eg.:

praw-do-po-do-bnie (prawdopodobnie - probably)
na-u-czy-ciel-ka (nauczycielka - a teacher)
te-le-wi-zor (telewizor - a TV set)
kie-ro-wni-ca (kierownica - a steering wheel)
dru-kar-ka (drukarka - a printer)
le-kar-ka (lekarka - a doctor)
o-kno (okno - a window)
ta-ta (tata - dad)
dom (dom - house)

This means that we always have to ‘count’ from the end of the word if there are three or more syllables. If the word has two syllables, the stress falls on the first one; if it is a one-syllable word, obviously it is stressed.

There are some exceptions to the above rule:

• French words: me-’nu
• Acronyms: AGD [a-gie-’de]
• Latin words: ma-te-’ma-ty-ka
• Compound numerals: ‘dzie-więć-set
• Plural past tense verb forms: ku-’pi-liś-cie
• Subjunctive mood: przy-’je-chał-by, po-je-’cha-li-byś-cie

Spelling rules

No matter if a consonant has a ‘dash’ above it (ć, ń, ś, ź) or it is followed by the vowel ‘i’, it makes the same sound, only the spelling is different (ć, ń, ś, ź before consonants; ci, ni, si, zi before vowels).

When consonants appear at the end of the word, there is a slight difference, eg. koń - koni, nić - nici; in each of the pairs the ‘i’ sound is much longer in the second word and we can easily hear it as it makes a separate vowel of the word (ko-ni, ni-ci).

You might have noticed that between some letters there is an equals sign. This doesn’t mean that there is no difference between which one we use, here only the pronunciation is identical. It is not a common situation, but sometimes changing the letter may change the meaning, eg. morze / może (sea / perhaps), hart / chart (fortitude / greyhound), etc. In other cases it might be difficult to remember which one should be used but there are some rules, too, eg.:

h/ch:

• We use ‘ch’ after the letter ‘s’.
• We use ‘ch’ at the end of the words (exception: druh).
• We use ‘ch’ when in other forms of the same word we have ‘sz’, eg. mucha-muszka.
• We use ‘h’ when in another form of the same word or in a word from the same family we have ‘g, ż, z, d’ ,eg. druh - drużyna.

ż/rz:

• We use ‘rz’ after b, p, d, t, g, k, ch, j, w, eg. brzask, drzewo, trzask, grzać, krzak, chrzan, wrzeć (exceptions: pszczoła, pszenica, bukszpan; exceptions are also comparative and superlative adjectives: lepszy, najpiękniejszy, etc.).
• We use ‘rz’ when in other forms of the same word we have ‘r’, eg. lekarz - lekarka, rowerzysta - rower, dworzec - dworca, etc.
• We use ‘rz’ in some word endings: -arz, -erz, -mierz, -mistrz, eg. piłkarz, szermierz, ciśnieniomierz, zegarmistrz, etc.
• We use ‘ż’ when in other forms of the same word we have ‘g, dz, h, z, ź, s’, eg. każę - kazać, niżej - nisko.
• We use ‘ż’ after ‘l, ł, r, n’ eg. lżej, oranżada, etc.

ó/u:

• We use ‘u’ at the beginning of words: ulica, ugryźć, usterka (exceptions: ósmy, ówdzie).
• We use ‘u’ in the following word endings: -un, -unek, -uchna, -uszka, -uszek, -uch, -us, -usia (eg. opiekun, szacunek, fartuszek, córusia)
• We use ‘u’ in verbs ending in -uję, -ujesz, etc., eg. pracuję, kupują (the infinitive forms end in -ować, eg. kupować, pracować).
• We use ‘ó’ when in other forms of the same word we have ‘o, e, a’, eg. róg - rogi, wiózł - wiezie, powtórzyć - powtarzać.
• We use ‘ó’ in words ending in -ów, -ówka, -ówna, eg. studentów, pocztówka, Nowakówna (exceptions: skuwka, zasuwka).