Bits of Polish

Polish pronunciation is easy – at least when you consider the letter-to-sound relationships. After you’ve learned how the specific sounds are articulated, you’ll be able to pronounce every word you come across. That’s the good news. The bad news is, well, that some sounds are more difficult than others. Most of those traps, I think, crop up in the consonant department; the vowel system is relatively easy, but the sounds still differ from their English counterparts. The best way to get used to them is through listening, so lower down you’ll find a little sample of the vowels and example words they appear in.

Some notes on the vowels:

All the vowels are of the same length – Polish doesn’t make a distinction between long and short vowels.

The nasal sounds ą and ę never appear in the beginning of a word. Remember that while the letter ę represents a nasal e, the letter ą is in fact pronounced as a nasal o (it used to be a nasal a sound at earlier stages of the development of the language). The hook under the letters is called an ogonek, literally a “small tail”.

The letters u and ó represent the same sound, thus being the bane of primary school students exploring the fantastic world of Polish spelling. Get used to such letter pairs, there’ll be more of them coming when we get to consonants.

Listen to the sounds:

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A – ananas, alkohol
pineapple, alcohol

Ą– mąka, książka
flour, book

E – Europa, echo
Europe, echo

Ę – ręka, gęś
hand, goose

I – igła, imigracja
needle, immigration

O – osa, owoc
wasp, fruit

Ó – córka, chór
daughter, choir

U – ucho, udo
ear, thigh

Y – mysz, ryż
mouse, rice