Polish Verbs & Essentials of Grammar, Second Edition

1. The Polish Alphabet and Sounds

The Polish alphabet has 32 letters:

Sound Values of the Letters

The sound is pronounced like om, except that the lips and tongue are not completely closed to pronounce the m, leaving a nasal resonance instead.

The sound ch is much raspier and noisier than English h.

The letter and letter combination ci are pronounced the same. The combination ci is used before a vowel. The letter c before i is pronounced like /ci. The sound of /ci, pronounced with the mouth in the position for English y, is different from that of cz, which is pronounced with the mouth in the position for English r.

The letter d and letter combination dzi are pronounced the same. The combination dzi is used before a vowel. The letter combination dz before i is pronounced like d /dzi. The sound of d /dzi, pronounced with the mouth in the position for English y, is different from that of d , which is pronounced with the mouth in the position for English r.

The sound is pronounced like em, except that the lips and tongue are not completely closed to pronounce the m, leaving a nasal resonance instead. At the end of a word, the sound is normally pronounced the same as e: naprawd naprawde.

The letter h is pronounced the same as ch; it appears mainly in words of foreign origin.

The letter and letter combination ni are pronounced the same. The combination ni is used before a vowel. The letter n before i is pronounced like /ni.

The letter ó is pronounced the same as u.

The letter r is pronounced by trilling the tip of the tongue, as in Spanish, Italian, and Russian. However, it is less strongly trilled than in these other languages.

The letter combination rz is pronounced the same as , more or less as in pleasure; see below.

The letter and letter combination si are pronounced the same. The combination si is used before a vowel. The letter s before i is pronounced like /si. The sound of /si, pronounced with the mouth in the position for English y, is different from that of sz, which is pronounced with the mouth in the position for English r.

The letter and letter combination zi are pronounced the same. The combination zi is used before a vowel. The letter z before i is pronounced like /zi. The sound of /zi, pronounced with the mouth in the position for English y, is different from that of /rz, which is pronounced with the mouth in the position for English r.

Notes on Spelling and Pronunciation

1. The Polish alphabet has no q, v, or x, although these letters may be found in transcriptions of foreign names and in a few borrowed words, for example, status quo, video, and pan X Mr. X iks.

2. The Polish oral (non-nasal) vowels, a, e, i, o, u/ó, y, are pronounced with exactly the same short length, achieved by not moving the tongue or lips after the onset of the vowel—unlike, for example, the English vowel sounds ee (knee), oe (toe), and oo (boot). Only the nasal vowels, and , are pronounced long, the length being due to rounding the lips and pronouncing the glide w at the end: S is pronounced sow, except that the glide is nasalized.

3. Polish consonants may be pronounced slightly differently, according to their position in a word. Most importantly, voiced consonants b, d, dz, g, rz, w, z, , are pronounced as unvoiced consonants (p, t, c, k, sz, f, s, , sz, respectively) in final position. For example, paw is pronounced paf, and chod is pronounced cho .

4. The letters and are usually pronounced like on/om and en/em, respectively, before consonants. For example, l d is pronounced lont, d b is pronounced domp, t py is pronounced tempy, and d ty is pronounced denty. Before and d , and are pronounced as o and e , respectively: l dzie lo dzie, ch che . Before k and g, and may be pronounced as o and e, respectively, plus the English ng sound: m ka mongka, pot ga potenga. The vowels and are usually denasalized before l and ł: zdj ł zdjoł, zdj li zdjeli.

5. The stress in a Polish word falls on the next-to-last syllable: sprawa (SPRA-wa), Warszawa (War-SZA-wa), gospodarka (go-spo-DAR-ka), zadowolony (za-do-wo-LO-ny). As these examples show, Polish syllables tend to divide after a vowel. Words that end in -yka take stress on the preceding syllable (matematyka (ma-te-MA-ty-ka), muzyka (MU-zy-ka)), as does uniwersytet (u-ni-WER-sy-tet). The past tense endings -y my/-i my and -y cie/-i cie do not cause a shift in stress: były my (BY-ły -my).

Spelling Rules

1. So-called kreska consonants ( , d , , , ) are spelled with an acute mark only at the end of words and before consonants; otherwise, they are spelled c, dz, n, s, z plus i: dzie (d e ), nie ( e). Before the vowel i itself, no extra i is used: ci ( i,to you).

2. Certain instances of b, p, w, f, m are latently soft (b’, p’, w’, f’, m’), meaning that they