< Polish
^ Polish ^ < Some useful expressions >
Polish pronunciation is rather regular. Once you learn the rules, you should be able to guess how a word is pronounced and get it more or less right even if you've never heard it before (unlike English which is rather unpredictable).
Vowels are pronounced similarly to their counterparts in most other European languages (not English though) but note, there are no long vowels.
Stress is almost always on the penultimate (next-to-last) syllable.[1]
(b d f h k l m n p t z are pronounced as you'd expect them to be.)
| IPA | Comments/Roughly... | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | a |  | |
| c | ts | Like ts in cats. Equivalent to German z in Zeit. |
|
| e | ɛ | Like in met. | |
| g | g | Always hard like in game, never like gene. | |
| i | i | feet but shorter. "Softens" the consonants it follows, palatalizing them (k, g, p) usually, or changing n to the sound of Spanish ñ or French gn, or the sound in "onion" | |
| j | j | Like y in yes. | |
| l | l | Must be a clear L sound. Avoid dark L. | |
| o | ɔ | author or cord. | |
| r | r | Rolled r. ɾ is also acceptable. |
|
| s | s | Always voiceless as in silk. It is never pronounced voiced as z. |
|
| u | u | moose or soup. | |
| w | v | Pronounced like v. Before voiceless consonants, it may be pronounced devoiced, as f. |
|
| y | ɘ | Somewhat similar to sit or myth. Compare the verbs |
|
Special letters are:
| IPA | Comments/Roughly... | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ą | ɔn ɔm ɔw̃ |
"Nasal o" Pronounced like on or om (when followed by b or p) or [ɔw̃]. See ą for details. When ą is followed by ł, Poles will pronounce it as o. |
|
| ć ci |
tɕ | Soft tch. Similar to but clearly softer than cz.
c followed by i is pronounced just like ć.
|
|
| ę | ɛn ɛm ɛw̃ ɛ |
"Nasal e" Pronounced like en or em (when followed by b or p) or [ɛw̃]. See ę for details. When ę is the last letter of a word, or when followed by l or ł, most Poles will pronounce it like a regular Polish e, slightly lengthened. |
|
| Ł ł | w | Pronounced like an English w as in will. (L with stroke was originally a special type of l. This is still acceptable and understood by most Poles.) |
|
| ń ni |
ɲ | Pronounced like soft n in onion. Equivalent to Spanish ñ and French/Italian gn. |
|
| ó | u | Exactly the same as u, like tool or soup. Comes from a redundant medieval vowel roughly inbetween O and U, only distinguished and pronounced in the mountains and some parts of the countryside. | |
| ś si |
ɕ | Soft sh. Similar to but clearly softer than sz.
s followed by i is pronounced just like ś.
|
|
| ź zi |
ʑ | Soft zh. Similar to but clearly softer than ż and rz.
z followed by i is pronounced just like ź. |
|
| ż | ʐ | Hard zh. Sounds exactly the same as rz. Fairly similar to Zhivago, vision, measure, treasure, leisure, and French je suis. |
|
Special letter combos are:
| IPA | Comments/Roughly... | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ch | x | Sounds like "ch" in German 'lachen', Spanish 'j' in 'Javier', or (Scottish) 'Loch Ness'. Most Poles pronounce ch and h identically. | |
| cz | tʂ | Hard tch. Fairly similar to chip. | |
| dz | dz | cads | |
| dź dzi |
dʑ | Somewhat similar to gene. Similar to but softer than dż.
dz followed by i is pronounced just like dź.
|
|
| dż | dʐ | John. This is an uncommon sound and usually appears in loanwords. | |
| rz | ʐ | Hard zh. Sounds exactly the same as ż. Fairly similar to Zhivago, vision, measure, treasure, leisure, and French je suis. (Even Poles may have problems with pronounciation "rz" after k, ch, p, or t. Pronouncing it as "sh" is fine in those cases). |
|
| sz | ʂ | Hard sh. Fairly similar to ship. | |
- In most cases, vowels are pronounced separately, for example, stoi, moi, twoi, nauczyć, zaufać,
- If you don't know how to pronounce hard/soft pairs (
- Doubled consonants are pronounced individually or lengthened, for example,
- You may also notice something called final devoicing, for example:
- chodź (come!) sounds like choć (although) :
- final ż sounds more like sz :
- final b → p :
- final g → k :
- final d → t :
- final w → f :
- final z → s :
- chodź (come!) sounds like choć (although) :
Devoicing is not something you need to focus on but you should be aware of it.
Notes
- ↑ As noted above, stress is almost always on the penultimate (next-to-last) syllable. The exceptions are:
- words with a conditional ending. Here you need to momentarily ignore the ending (which always starts with by), then find the penult:
- verbs: chciałabym, robilibyśmy
- other words: żebyście
- a very small number of foreign loanwords: matematyka, gramatyka. However, most loanwords have stress on the penult.
- verbs in the past tense using the endings -śmy or -ście (1st and 2nd person plural). Here ante-penultimate stress is more correct. However, some Poles have a tendency to put stress on the penult.
- words with a conditional ending. Here you need to momentarily ignore the ending (which always starts with by), then find the penult:
Further reading
- Sadowska, Iwona (2012). Polish: A Comprehensive Grammar. Oxford; New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-47541-9.
External links
See also
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