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Polish Language Course

Basic Information About Polish

IMPORTANT: Polish contains some special characters. You should set your browser to read 'ISO-8859-2' documents. A Windows-1250 version is also available.

Contents

1. Polish Alphabet
2. Pronunciation (I)
3. Pronunciation (II)
4. Syllable division
5. Stress
6. Changing of pronunciaton
7. Some remarks about nouns, verbs and other parts of speech

1. Polish Alphabet

In the Polish alphabet there are 32 letters, 9 for vowels and 23 consonants:

Each letter corresponds to a single sound. There are also two-letter combinations, each of them representing a single sound:

and

Letters q, v, x are not normally used in Polish, but can be found in some words taken from other languages, e.g., fax, xero.

2. Pronunciation (I)

Study the following tables carefully because the pronunciation is quite difficult, especially for Americans and Englishmen. If you have any questions please mail me.

Vowel	Description
a	as u in buy
ą	nasal o, similar to on in French bon
e	as e in bed
ę	nasal e, similar to in in French fin
i	as ee in see
o	as o in got
ó	as oo in foot, the same as u below
u	as oo in foot
y	similar to i in this

Notes:

1. Every Polish vowel has the same length. There are neither short nor long ones.
2. Letters ó and u denote the same vowel.
3. Nasals ą and ę alter its pronunciation before certain consonants. This is a natural process and will be considered later.

Consonants with the same pronunciation as in English
Consonant	Description	Voice
b	as b in bed	voiced
d	as d in bed	voiced
f	as f in for	voiceless
g	as g in got	voiced
h	as h in hut	voiceless
k	as k in keep	voiceless
l	as l in let	voiced
m	as m in man	voiced
n	as n in not	voiced
p	as p in put	voiceless
r	as r in run	voiced
s	as s in set	voiceless
t	as t in set	voiceless
z	as z in zone	voiced

Notes:

1. Polish consonants d, t, s, z and n are not alveolar but dental. This means that they are articulated by putting the tongue at the front teeth, not the palate. But in the case of d, t and n the difference between these alveolar and dental consonants is unimportant.

Consonants which are pronounced differently than in English
Consonant	Description	Voice	Example
c	as ts (t immediately followed by s), or as z in German Zeit	voiceless	cena
j	as y in yes	voiced
w	as v in vote	voiced

Now you are able to pronounce simple Polish words. Please spend some time practising the pronunciation of those vowels and consonants which, in your opinion, are difficult. I have also prepared exercises for you.

3. Pronunciation (II)

In this section we deal with palatalized (soft) consonants and sounds corresponding with two-letter combinations.

Let us compare two words: now and new. When you are saying now the middle part of your tongue lies flat (not raised). While saying new it is raised. In the latter case you articulated a soft (palatalized) n. In the same way you can produce other palatalized consonants.

There are two ways of denoting palatalization: put an acute accent over a consonant or write a letter i after the palatalized consonant. Only c, n, s, z can have an acute accent; other consonants must take i.

In written texts, soft c, n, s, z are denoted by ć, ń, ś, ź before a consonant, and ci, ni, si, zi appear before a vowel.

Normally you should not have any problems with soft consonants because most of them appear in English and other languages. Only ć, ś and ź may be difficult.

Palatalized (soft) consonants expressed by one letter
Consonant	Description	Voice	Example
ć	palatalized c	voiceless	pić
ń	palatalized n	voiced	koń
ś	palatalized s	voiceless	kość
ź	palatalized z	voiced	późno

Notes:

1. Since i is used to denote palatalization it sometimes plays a double role in a word. Look at the word nikt. Here i not only shows that n is soft but also it is a normal vowel. Some more examples: pik, wilk, ci.
2. If a soft consonant precedes a vowel then palatalization must be denoted by i and this i is not pronounced, e.g., nie, cię, się, wie.

Other consonants expressed by one letter and two-letter combinations
Consonant	Description	Voice	Example
ł	as w in window	voiced	łamać
ż	as s in treasure	voiced	życie
ch	as h in hut, the same as h above	voiceless	chyba
cz	as ch in choose	voiceless	cześć
dz	as dz (d immediately followed by z)	voiced	dzwon
dź	as dź (d immediately followed by ź)	voiced	dźwięk
dż	as g in general	voiced	dżem
rz	as s in measure, the same as ż above	voiced	rzut
sz	as sh in show	voiceless	sześć

Notes:

1. ch and h denote the same consonant.
2. rz and ż denote the same consonant.
3. Sound denoted by dż can be obtained saying d followed immediately by ż.

Articulation of consonants
		bilabial	labio-dental	dental	alveolar	palato-alveolar	velar
stop
	voiced	b, bi		d			g, gi
	voiceless	p, pi		t			k, ki
fricative
	voiced		w, wi	z	ż	ź (zi)
	voiceless		f, fi	s	sz	ś (si)	ch, h, chi, hi
stop-fricative
	voiced			dz	dż	dź (dzi)
	voiceless			c	cz	ć (ci)
semivowels
	voiced	ł		ł	l, li, r	j
	voiceless
nasals
	voiced	m, mi		n		ń (ni)
	voiceless

Notes:

1. ł can be articulated as a bilabial (common) or as a dental (variant usual in Lithuania and Belorus) semivowel.
2. Palatalized b, p, w, f, etc. are denoted as bi, pi, wi, fi, etc. I will use this notion in the following sections and later in the lessons. However, in phonetic transcriptions given in brackets [] palatalization will be indicated by accents (e.g., [m' i ś]) or a letter i (e.g., [wi e] or equivalently [w' e]).

Remember, you will never have success without practice, so it is time to do exercises.

4. Syllable division

Let us have a rest from pronunciation and consider an easier part of the Polish language, i.e., the rules of dividing words into syllables. While dividing a word into syllables you have to separate:

• a prefix from a stem (od-pi-sać, not o-dpi-sać, od is a prefix)
• double consonants (mięk-ki)
• a group of consonants before a consonant (wa-lka or wal-ka)

• two-letter combinations denoting one consonant: ch, cz, dz, dź, dż, rz, sz (pi-sze, not pis-ze)
• a group: consonant+i+vowel (bia-ły)

5. Stress (accent)

The next to the last syllable is stressed. Stressed syllables are pronounced louder than others. In words which have four or more syllables a secondary stress on the first syllable appears.

Exceptions:

1. Words taken from foreign languages which end with -ika or -yka. These have the third syllable from the end stressed, e.g., botanika, fizyka, muzyka.
2. Some past tense and conditional forms are stressed on the third or fourth syllable from the end, but this case will be considered later.

6. Changing of pronunciation

This is a rather advanced section, so do not worry if you cannot remember all these things after reading them once.

• Probably you have already noticed that it is very difficult to pronounce properly a group of consonants containing voiced and voiceless ones. In Polish, to make it easier, the whole group is pronounced as it consists of either voiced or voiceless consonants only. It is the last consonant in a group that make it voiced or voiceless. However w or rz cannot make the group voiced, so in this case the previous consonant must be taken into account. Examples [pronunciation in brackets]: wstać [f s t a ć], babka [b a p k a], trawka [t r a f k a], prośba [p r o ź b a], grzać [g rz a ć], sprzed [s p sz e t], drzwi [d rz w i].
• If a word ends with a voiced consonant which has a voiceless equivalent then it changes to a voiceless one. So b, d, g, w, z, ż, ź, dz, dż, dź are pronounced as p, t, k, f, s, sz, ś, c, cz, ć respectively and ł, l, r, j, m, n, ń remain voiced, because they do not have voiceless equivalents (see table above). Examples: grab [g r a p], ryż [r y sz], wóz [w ó s].
• z, s, dz, c (dental) change to ź, ś, dź, ć (palato-alveolar) if preceding ź, zi, ś, si, dź, dzi, ć, ci (palato-alveolar). Example: zdziwienie [ź dź i wi e ni e].
• Nasal vowels ą and ę change pronunciation before certain consonants. See table below:

  Pronuciation of ą and ę before certain consonants
  Spelling	Pronunciation	Before
  ą, ę	om, em	b, p
  ą, ę	on, en	d, t, dz, c, dż, cz
  ą, ę	oń, eń	dź (dzi), ć (ci)
  ą, ę	o, e	ł, l

• At the end of a word nasal vowels ą and ę are pronounced as o and e, respectively.
• The letter i between one of the letters d, t, r, l and a vowel is pronounced as j. For example: studiowac [s t u d j o w a ć], tiosiarczan [t j o si a r cz a n], Maria [m a r j a], liana [l j a n a].

Before you read the last section please do the exercises.

7. Some remarks about nouns, verbs and other parts of speech

Below there is some information about parts of speech. I put it here to give you a sense of Polish grammar and so that you can have time, before starting learning, to get used to a few gramatical facts which may be very strange for you.

• Nouns decline for case and number and can be either masculine, feminine or neuter.
• Adjectives, pronouns and numerals decline for case, number and gender.
• Verbs have personal and impersonal forms. Personal forms conjugate for person, number, tense, voice and mood. Some forms can be masculine, feminine or neuter. Impersonal forms either decline for case, number and gender or do not inflect.
• Fortunately, adverbs, preposition, conjunctions and particles do not inflect.
• And finally, in Polish there is no article.

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NOTE: If you have found a mistake or anything that does not work properly please send me an e-mail.

Last updated: May 13th, 2001