The Polish alphabet and sounds (ą, ę, ł, ó, sz, cz, ch, rz)

Mama. Dom. Szkoła. Książka. Cześć!Mum. House. School. Book. Hi!

Polish spelling looks intimidating at first (szczęście, chrząszcz), but it is one of the more regular systems in Europe: a letter or letter pair almost always gives the same sound, and once you know them you can read almost any word aloud. This lesson is your sound map.

Quick shortcut: ł = English w · w = English v · ch = h = a rough h · sz / cz / ż (rz) = sh / ch / zh · ą ę are nasal vowels · ó = u · stress is on the second-to-last syllable.

The alphabet

Polish uses the Latin alphabet with 32 letters. Nine of them carry a mark:

a ą b c ć d e ę f g h i j k l ł m n ń o ó p r s ś t u w y z ź ż

• The marked letters are ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ź ż. They are separate letters, and they are alphabetized after their plain partners (ł comes after l).
• q, v and x are not part of the alphabet; they appear only in foreign words (quiz, video, taxi).
• Several sounds are written with two letters: ch, cz, dz, dź, dż, rz, sz. Read each pair as one sound.

Vowels

Two points make this table shorter than it looks:

• ó and u sound exactly the same. The difference is only in spelling, so you learn it with the word: góra (mountain) and stół (table) are written with ó, ulica (street) and ruch (movement) with u.
• y and i are different sounds. y is a flatter sound made further back in the mouth than i. English has no exact match, so remember that y is a vowel here and is not read like the English consonant y.

Nasal vowels: ą and ę

ą and ę are nasal vowels (the air goes through the nose too). They only ever appear in some positions, and their sound depends on what follows:

• Before most consonants they sound like a vowel plus a soft n or m: ą ≈ on / om (dąb "oak" ≈ domp, mąż "husband" ≈ monzh), ę ≈ en / em (ręka "hand" ≈ renka, zęby "teeth" ≈ zemby).
• Before ł and l the nasal part disappears: wziął ("he took") is read with a plain o, wzięli with a plain e.
• ę at the end of a word is very often read like a plain e in everyday speech (careful speech may keep a light nasal touch): Dziękuję (thank you), się, proszę.

Consonants that are easy

Most consonants are close to English: b, d, f, k, m, n, p, s, t, z and h, g (always as in go, never as in gem). A few small differences matter:

• c is always ts as in cats: co (what), ulica. It is never k or s.
• j is English y as in yes: jak (how), Jan. It is never English j.
• r is a rolled / tapped r, as in Spanish or Italian.
• w is English v, not w: woda (water) ≈ voda.
• ł is English w: łóżko (bed) ≈ wooshko, mały (small) ≈ mawy. Plain l is a light, clear l ✅ lampa, ❌ wampa.
• ch and h are the same sound, a rough h like loch or Scottish ch, made at the back of the mouth: chleb (bread), herbata (tea). Spelling is again learned with the word.
• Voiced consonants lose their voice at the end of a word: chleb ends in a p sound, ząb in p, kod ends in a t sound. Just read the word the way a Polish speaker says it.

The hissing sounds: sz, cz, ż / rz

Polish has two sets of sh / ch / zh sounds. The hard set is written with letter pairs:

• ż and rz sound exactly the same, just like ó and u. It is spelling that you learn with the word. After a voiceless consonant rz is read sh: trzy (three) ≈ tshy, przy ≈ pshy.
• rz is one sound, not r plus z: ✅ rzeka ≈ zheka.

The soft sounds: ś, ć, ź, ń and the letter i

Polish also has a softer set. The tongue is pushed up and forward, so the sound is a lighter sh, ch, zh:

Soft sounds are hard to hear at first; sz and ś sound similar to an English ear. A useful rule: sz is heavier, with the lips rounded; ś is lighter, with the lips spread.

How i softens a consonant

Before a vowel, the letter i often does not make a vowel sound of its own. It only softens the consonant before it and the whole group is read as one syllable:

Before a consonant or at the end of a word, the same sound is written with the accent mark: ś in środa, ć in pięć, ń in koń. So ci → ć is the same sound, written in a different position.

Stress

Polish word stress is almost always on the second-to-last syllable (the penultimate): MA-ma, SZKO-ła, KSIĄŻ-ka, u-LI-ca, bi-bli-o-TE-ka. Treat this as your default. A few words, often foreign ones, are stressed differently, and some grammatical forms shift the stress too (for example the past robiliśmy "we did" is stressed ro-BI-li-śmy, on the third syllable from the end).

Common mistakes

• ❌ Reading ł as l: mały as maly → ✅ ł is English w, so mały ≈ mawy.
• ❌ Reading w as English w: woda as woh-da → ✅ w is English v, so woda ≈ voda.
• ❌ Reading ch as English ch: chleb with the ch of cheese → ✅ ch is a rough h, and cz is the ch.
• ❌ Reading rz as r + z: rzeka → ✅ zheka.
• ❌ Stressing the first syllable by habit: U-li-ca → ✅ u-LI-ca.
• ❌ Dropping the nasal ą / ę entirely, or pronouncing it as a plain a / e: ręka as reka → ✅ ręka ≈ renka.
• ❌ Reading c as k or s: cena → ✅ tsena.

Quick check

1. How do you read ł in mały?
2. What sound is w in woda?
3. Which letters in góra and morze sound the same as u and ż?
4. How do you read ci in ciasto?
5. Where is the stress in ulica?

Key takeaways

• Polish spelling is very regular: a letter or letter pair almost always gives the same sound.
• ł is English w, w is English v, ch and h are a rough h.
• sz, cz, ż / rz are the hard sh, ch, zh; ś, ć, ź, ń are their softer partners.
• A vowel after ci, si, zi, ni, dzi makes the soft sound, and the i is not a separate syllable.
• ą and ę are nasal vowels; ó = u and rz = ż are spelling choices you learn with the word.
• Stress usually falls on the second-to-last syllable.