Polish alphabet

Q, V, and X do not belong to the 32-letter basic Polish alphabet. They appear mainly in loanwords, foreign names, brands, and abbreviations.

When spelling, say Q as ku, V as fał, and X as iks. Inside a borrowed word, pronunciation may follow the source language, so learn the whole word together with its sound.

X often represents the sound ks in foreign names and brands, as in Hortex. In regular Polish spelling, this sound is usually written with the two letters ks, as in tekst and taksówka.

In standard Polish, rz and ż, ó and u, and ch and h are pronounced the same. Hearing the sound is not always enough to know the spelling.

A related word can sometimes give you a clue. When there is no clear clue, learn the spelling together with the whole word.

Use Jak to się pisze? to ask how something is written. Use Proszę przeliterować. when you want the other person to spell it letter by letter.

First say the Polish name of the letter: a, en, wu, igrek. If a letter is still unclear, add jak and a familiar name or word: A jak Anna, M jak Maria, K jak Kraków. You do not need to give a helper word for every letter immediately.

Start a sentence and proper names with a capital letter: Anna Kowalska, Warszawa, Polska. Nationality nouns also begin with a capital letter: Polak, Brazylijka. Write common words, weekdays, months, language names, and adjectives with a lowercase letter: dom, poniedziałek, styczeń, polski, brazylijski.

Do not put a space before a full stop, comma, question mark, exclamation mark, or colon. Put one space after it when the sentence continues.

Word stress identifies the syllable pronounced more clearly. In most Polish words, it falls on the second-to-last syllable: POL-ska, ko-BIE-ta, te-LE-fon, War-SZA-wa. A one-syllable word stresses its only syllable: DOM, TAK.

Stress is not normally marked in Polish spelling. Signs in letters such as ó, ć, and ń are not stress marks; they form a different letter or change its sound. The bold type and capital letters below are only pronunciation aids.

There are exceptions. In many words ending in -ika or -yka, stress falls on the third-to-last syllable: gra-MA-ty-ka, ma-te-MA-ty-ka, MU-zy-ka. It also falls there in past-tense forms ending in -śmy or -ście: ro-BI-liś-my, BY-liś-cie. Apply the second-to-last-syllable rule first and learn frequent exceptions together with the sound of the whole word.

Polish has pairs of voiced and voiceless consonants. When a word is pronounced on its own or before a pause, a voiced consonant at the end normally loses its voicing and sounds like its voiceless partner. This is called final devoicing: b → p, d → t, g → k, w → f, z → s, ź → ś, ż/rz → sz, dz → c, dź → ć, dż → cz.

The spelling does not change. Write chleb with b even though by itself it sounds like [chlep]. A related form can reveal the written consonant: chleb – chleba, kod – kodu, Bóg – Boga. The pronunciation in square brackets below is simplified and serves only as a listening guide.

Do not omit final ę. In careful pronunciation it sounds like e with very light nasal resonance; in everyday speech it may sound like a plain e: idę, robię, proszę, dziękuję. A strong fully nasal ę sounds unnatural. Do not add m or ł: not [idem] and not [ideł].

Final ą keeps audible nasal resonance in standard pronunciation. It may be slightly weaker than inside a word, but it does not become plain o, om, or oł: idą, robią, proszą, czekają. Use this rule consistently whenever ą occurs at the end of a word.