The Polish alphabet and special characters
I can identify all 32 Polish letters and 7 digraphs
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Daj mi proszę mąkę.
Give me the flour, please.
Łódka jest mała.
The boat is small.
Żaba jest zielona.
The frog is green.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Polish uses the Latin alphabet with 32 letters. Nine special characters: ą, ć, ę, ń, ó, ś, ź, ż, ł. Seven digraphs: sz, cz, rz, dz, dź, dż, ch.
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises
Practice ExercisesLearners confuse the three sibilant series: hard (sz, cz, ż/rz), soft (ś, ć, ź), and plain (s, c, z).
Daj mi proszę mąkę.
Give me the flour, please.
mąka (flour) — before k, ą decomposes to [ɔŋ]: [ˈmɔŋka]. It stays a nasal vowel before a fricative and word-finally: wąsy, są.
Łódka jest mała.
The boat is small.
łódka (boat) — ł sounds like English 'w', not like 'l'. Ó sounds like 'u'.
Żaba jest zielona.
The frog is green.
żaba (frog) — ż is the hard /ʐ/ (same sound as rz). Don't confuse with soft ź.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A1 course exercises