Polish/Polish pronunciation
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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 | Like a in father. |  praca (work, job) brać (to take) bałałajka (balalaika)
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| c | ts | Like ts in cats. Equivalent to German z in Zeit. |
a co więcej (what else? / anything else/more?) Brodnica (name of a town) Cypr (Cyprus) Wąchock (name of a town) Słowacja (Slovakia)
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| e | ɛ | Like in met. | epidemia (epidemic) następnie (next) jeszcze (still)
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| g | g | Always hard like in game, never like gene. | gips (plaster) Zgierz (name of a town)
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| 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" | ulica (street) całkiem (completely) biały (white) świnia (pig)
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| j | j | Like y in yes. | jeden (one) jej (her) Chojnice (name of a town)
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| l | l | Must be a clear L sound. Avoid dark L. | ból (pain, ache) żal (sorrow, pity) daleko (far) dlaczego (why)
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| o | ɔ | author or cord, but shorter. | dobry (good) co to jest (what is this?) Wołomin (name of a town) blisko (near) |
| r | r | Rolled r. ɾ is also acceptable. |
krok (step) gorąco (hot) Wrocław (name of a city) srebro (silver)
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| s | s | Always voiceless as in silk. It is never pronounced voiced as z. |
syn (son) pisać (to write) jasno (clear, bright) czasami (sometimes)
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| u | u | moose or soup, but shorter. | usta (lips) cudownie (wonderfully) ani be, ani me, ani kukuryku (phrase)
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| w | v | Pronounced like v. Before voiceless consonants, it may be pronounced devoiced, as f. |
wyspa (island) - pronounced like v pierwszy (first) - pronounced like f
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| y | ɘ | Somewhat similar to sit or myth. Compare the verbs być (to be) and bić (to beat, hit). The first sounds somewhat like the English word bitch, while the second is closer to beach. Make the vowel in "it" but move your tongue slightly backwards and downwards, a bit above the schwa sound.
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syn (son) ty (you) święty (holy, blessed) cytryna (lemon) jedyny (only)
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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. |
dokąd (To where?) dotąd (up to now/here) ciągle (still) wąż (snake) Zagłębie Dąbrowskie (name of a region) brązowawy (bronze-ish, brownish)
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| ć ci |
tɕ | Soft tch. Similar to but clearly softer than cz.
c followed by i is pronounced just like ć.
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ćma (moth) podnieść (to lift up) płacić (to pay) pociąg (train) całkowicie (completely)
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| 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. |
chętnie ("gladly") głęboki ("deep") węże (snakes) błękitnawy (sky blue-ish) poręba (clearing in forest) mogę (I can, am able to)
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| Ł ł | w | Pronounced like an English w as in water. (L with stroke was originally a special type of l. This is still acceptable and understood by most Poles.) |
łosoś (salmon) mgła (fog, mist) bawełna (cotton) pomyłka (mistake)
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| ń ni |
ɲ | Pronounced like soft n in onion. Equivalent to Spanish ñ, Portuguese nh, French/Italian gn, Latvian ņ, and Czech/Slovak ň. |
kwiecień (April) gubiński (from Gubin) południe (south, noon) gnieźnianin (man from Gniezno)
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| ó | u | Exactly the same as u (like tool or soup, but shorter). Comes from a redundant medieval vowel roughly inbetween O and U, only distinguished and pronounced in the mountains and some parts of the countryside. | dopóki (until) móc (to be able to) góra (mountain, hill)
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| ś si |
ɕ | Soft sh. Similar to but clearly softer than sz.
s followed by i is pronounced just like ś.
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coś (something) śmiech (laughter) iść(to go) Siedlce (name of a town) sierpień (August) siostra (sister)
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| ź zi |
ʑ | Soft zh. Similar to but clearly softer than ż and rz.
z followed by i is pronounced just like ź. |
źle (wrongly, badly) zima (winter) ziemia (earth, ground) jezioro (lake) październik (October)
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| ż | ʐ | Hard zh. Sounds exactly the same as rz. Fairly similar to Zhivago, vision, measure, treasure, leisure, and French je suis. |
żona (wife) że (that {conjunction}) żółty (yellow) dużo (a lot, many, much) narożny (angular)
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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. | chomik (hamster) brzuch (stomach) Wąchock (name of a town) Lech (personal name)
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| cz | tʂ | Hard tch. Fairly similar to chip. | czas (time) początek (beginning) cześć (hi, hello!)
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| dz | dz | cads | jedzenie (food) dzwon (bell, ringing) bardzo (very) pomiędzy (between)
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| dź dzi |
dʑ | Somewhat similar to gene. Similar to but softer than dż.
dz followed by i is pronounced just like dź.
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dźwięk (sound) źdźbło (blade of grass) dzisiaj (today) dziewczyna (girl, girlfriend) beznadziejny (hopeless)
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| dż | dʐ | John. This is an uncommon sound and usually appears in loanwords. | dojeżdżać (to arrive {by vehicle, not on foot}) dżem (jam)
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| rz | ʐ | Hard zh. Sounds exactly the same as ż. Fairly similar to Zhivago, vision, measure, treasure, leisure, and French je suis. |
rzeka (river) Rzym (Rome) marzec (March) narzeczona (fiancee)
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| sz | ʂ | Hard sh. Fairly similar to ship. | dusza (soul) nasz (our) obszar (area, territory) płaszcz (coat, cloak)
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- In most cases, vowels are pronounced separately, for example, stoi, moi, twoi, nauczyć, zaufać,
doić (to milk),
- 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. Devoicing is not something you need to focus on at the beginning, but you should definitely be aware of it. 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) :
Notes
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 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.[1]
- words with a conditional ending. Here you need to momentarily ignore the ending (which always starts with by), then find the penult:
Further reading
[edit | edit source]- Sadowska, Iwona (2012). Polish: A Comprehensive Grammar. Oxford; New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-47541-9.