Polish Alphabet

Why it’s worth spending a while learning Polish alphabet?
Because Polish phonetics is really easy – that is, in most cases only one sound is connected with a letter or a group of letters, and so once you learn the alphabet you will be able to read any text in Polish you will happen to find (I mean in modern Polish, don’t apply that to 16th century poetry or something). There are some exceptions, but few really. So, why don’t you have a look at the alphabet and learn it (or revise it) quickly.


Polish alphabet
English approximation & Polish example

a	cat, cot or cut (depends on variety of English) kat ('executioner')
b	bus	bas ('bass')
c	pots	co ('what')
cz	kitchen	czas ('time')
ć	what's your	ćma ('moth')
d	dog	dom ('home')
dz	woods	dzwon ('bell')
dź	would you	dźwięk ('sound')
dż	jam	dżem ('jam')
e	ten	ten ('this')
f	phase	futro ('fur')
g	god	gmin ('plebs')
h / ch	loch	hak ('hook'), chór ('choir')
i	seek	miś ('teddy bear')
j	way or yes		jutro ('tomorrow')
k	rocket	kmin ('caraway'), kurczę ('chicken’)
l	lock	pole ('field')
ł	now or way	mały ('small'), ładny ('pretty')
m	man	masa ('mass')
n	not	noga ('leg')
ń	el Niño	koń ('horse')
o	caught	kot ('cat')
p	top	pas ('belt')
r	rolled (vibrating) r as in arriba	krok ('step')
s	some	sala ('hall')
sz	shoe	szum ('rustle')
ś	sheer	śruba ('screw')
t	set	tom ('volume')
u / ó	boom, do, to	bum ('boom')
w	vase	wór ('bag')
y	roses (depending on variety of English)	mysz ('mouse')
z	zero	zero ('zero')
ź	where's your	źle ('badly')
ż / rz	treasure	żona ('wife') rzeka ('river')