Home › Lessons › Alphabet & pronunciation
A0–A1 · First steps · Lesson 01
Alphabet & pronunciation
Polish is phonetic — learn about ten special sounds and you can read anything.
Unlike English, a Polish letter almost always makes the same sound every time, so once you know the alphabet there are no surprises. The only hurdles are nine letters with little marks (ą, ę, ó, ł, ś, ć, ż, ź, ń) and a few two-letter teams like sz and cz.
| Letter | Sounds like | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ł | English w | mały — MA-wy |
| ą | nasal 'on' | mąż — monzh |
| ę | nasal 'en' | ręka — REN-ka |
| ó | oo (= u) | góra — GOO-ra |
| sz | sh | szkoła |
| cz | ch | czas |
| rz / ż | zh (as in measure) | rzeka, żona |
| ch | h | chleb |
- •ć, ś, ź, ń are 'soft' — say them with the tongue near the teeth.
- •w sounds like English v; ł sounds like English w.
- •Stress almost always lands on the second-to-last syllable.
Quick check
Which letter sounds like English 'w'?
ł = English w; mały sounds like MA-wy.
Where does Polish stress usually fall?
Almost always the second-to-last syllable.
Practice
Now produce the answers yourself — type them, choose the form, or build the sentence.
Which letter sounds like English 'w'?
ł = English w; mały = MA-wy.
How is 'w' said in 'woda'?
Polish w = English v.
Stress in 'kawiarnia' falls on…
Second-to-last syllable: ka-WIAR-nia.
'sz' sounds like…
sz = English sh.
Which letter is the 'oo' sound (= u)?
ó sounds exactly like u.