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A0–A1 · First steps · Lesson 01
Alphabet & pronunciation
Polish is phonetic — learn about ten special sounds and you can read anything.
Unlike English, a Polish letter almost always makes the same sound every time, so once you know the alphabet there are no surprises. The only hurdles are nine letters with little marks (ą, ę, ó, ł, ś, ć, ż, ź, ń) and a few two-letter teams like sz and cz.
| Letter | Sounds like | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ł | English w | mały — MA-wy |
| ą | nasal 'on' | mąż — monzh |
| ę | nasal 'en' | ręka — REN-ka |
| ó | oo (= u) | góra — GOO-ra |
| sz | sh | szkoła |
| cz | ch | czas |
| rz / ż | zh (as in measure) | rzeka, żona |
| ch | h | chleb |
- •ć, ś, ź, ń are 'soft' — say them with the tongue near the teeth.
- •w sounds like English v; ł sounds like English w.
- •Stress almost always lands on the second-to-last syllable.
Quick check
Which letter sounds like English 'w'?
ł = English w; mały sounds like MA-wy.
Where does Polish stress usually fall?
Almost always the second-to-last syllable.
Practice
Now produce the answers yourself — type them, choose the form, or build the sentence.
Which letter sounds like English 'w'?
ł = English w; mały = MA-wy.
How is 'w' said in 'woda'?
Polish w = English v.
Stress in 'kawiarnia' falls on…
Second-to-last syllable: ka-WIAR-nia.
'sz' sounds like…
sz = English sh.
Which letter is the 'oo' sound (= u)?
ó sounds exactly like u.
What this lesson covered
Polish is a phonetic language, which is the best news a beginner can hear: once you know the sounds, you can read almost any word correctly even before you understand it. This lesson introduced the alphabet's special letters — the nasal vowels ą and ę, the barred ł that sounds like an English “w,” and the accented ć, ń, ś, ź — along with the digraphs sz, cz, rz and ż that pair two letters into a single sound. The one rule to carry forward is consistency: each letter and cluster is pronounced the same way nearly every time. Practise the trickier words slowly, sound by sound (szczęście is simply sz-cz-ę-ś-ć-e), and always say them aloud rather than reading silently. Master this page and every later lesson becomes easier, because you will be reading real Polish from the very first day.