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The Polish alphabet
All 32 letters with an example word each. Tap any letter to hear it — then meet the special sounds below.
Good news — Polish is almost perfectly phonetic. Once you know these letters and the digraphs below, you can read just about any word. Note there's no native q, v or x.
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The special sounds — dwuznaki
These letter pairs each make one sound. They're the key to reading Polish.
| ch | like English “h” — chleb (bread) | |
| cz | like “ch” in church — czekolada (chocolate) | |
| sz | like “sh” — szkoła (school) | |
| rz | like “zh” (s in measure) — rzeka (river) | |
| dz | like “ds” in beds — dzwon (bell) | |
| dź | soft “j” — dźwig (crane) | |
| dż | like “j” in jam — dżem (jam) |
Three sounds to watch — w is pronounced like English “v” (woda = VO-da), ł is like English “w” (łyżka = WYZH-ka), and j is like English “y” (jajko = YAY-ko).
Keep going
Now put the sounds to work: try the pronunciation practice, start the pronunciation lesson, or learn your first words in greetings & phrases.