Polish grammar

Consonants.

Polish has soft consonants. These are denoted either by a ' sign above the letter (as in ć, ź, ś, ń) or by an i (before a vowel).

The pronunciation of Polish consonants:

b – as in English

c – like English ts

ch – like Scottish ch in “Loch Ness”

ć - soft ts

ci - before a consonant is pronounced as a soft ts + i (cichy), before a vowel - as a soft ts (ciało, cielę)

cz - pronounced like tsh

d - as in English

f, g – as in English

h – same as Scottish ch in “Loch Ness”

j - as English y in "yellow"

k - like in English

l - like l in "law" or "let" (never dark l in "wall")

ł – like English w in “woman”

m, n – as in English

ń - soft n

ni – before a consonant is pronounced as a soft n + i (nigdy), before a vowel – as a soft ń (nie, niekiedy)

p – as in English

r – articulated as an alveolar

rz – like s in pleasure, leisure - voiced ; after p, t, k becomes like sh : przemysł, przeczyć

s – pronounced like s in “set”

ś - soft s

si – before a consonant, it is pronounced as a soft s + i (siła), before a vowel – as a soft s (się, sianie)

sz – like in English sh

t – as in English

w - like English v in "vowel" z – like English z in “zone”

ź - soft z

zi – before a consonant is pronounced as a soft z + i (zima), before a vowel – as a soft z (ziarno)

ż – like sh but voiced - like s in "pleasure, leisure".

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