Polish Alphabet

When you go to a foreign country you usually need to know the language of that country and English. Poland is no different in this respect: You need to know English or Polish.

You must know at least the basic words! There is also a necessary alphabet. Surely when you started going to any class at a young age, did you learn the alphabet and counting, right? Do not worry! In Poland, children also learned such things at the beginning.

In this post, I will introduce you to the Polish alphabet and other interesting information on this topic.

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Polish Alphabet -

- is the script of the Polish language, the basis for the Polish system of orthography. It is based on the Latin alphabet but includes certain letters with diacritics: the kreska or acute accent (ć, ń, ó, ś, ź); the overdot or kropka (ż); the tail or ogonek (ą, ę); and the stroke (ł). The letters q, v and x, which are used only in foreign words, are frequently not considered part of the Polish alphabet. However, prior to the standardization of the Polish language, the letter "x" was sometimes used in place of "ks".

Modified variations of the Polish alphabet are used for writing Silesian and Kashubian, whereas the Sorbian languages use a mixture of the Polish and Czech orthographies.

Upper Case	Lower Case	Polish Name	Rough English (or other) equivalent
A	a	a	l-a-rge
B	b	be	b-ed
C	c	ce	pi-ts
D	d	de	d-og
E	e	e	b-e-d
F	f	ef	f-ingers
G	g	gie	g-o
H	h	ha	Scots lo-ch
I	i	i	m-ee-t
J	j	jot	y-es
K	k	ka	k-ing
L	l	el	l-ight
M	m	em	m-en
N	n	en	n-ot
O	o	o	British English l-o-ng
P	p	pe	s-p-ot
R	r	er	trilled r
S	s	es	s-ea
T	t	te	s-t-art
U	u	u	p-u-t
W	w	wu	v-ow
Y	y	y or igrek	short/as in b-i-t
Z	z	zet	z-oo

As you can see, several letters of the Polish alphabet are pronounced differently - than for example, in English.

"j" - in English "y"

"i" - in English "ee"

etc.

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Other letters in the Polish alphabet

Upper Case	Lower Case	Polish Name	Rough English (or other) equivalent
Ą	ą	ą	nasal o as own or French an in français or en in rendez-vous, or Portuguese ão in coração
Ć	ć	cie	ch-eap
Ę	ę	ę	nasal e
Ł	ł	eł	w-ill
Ń	ń	eń	ca-ny-on
Ó	ó	u - this is "o", called "u" with a dash	----
Ś	ś	eś	sh-eep
Ź	ź	ziet	vi-si-on
Ż	ż	żet - "zet" with a dot	vi-si-on

I didn't give an example word of the letter "ó" because is read in the same way "u". However, this letter is used in words other than "u".

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Q, V and X

You must have noticed lack the letters "q", "v" and "x". This is because we do not use these letters in Polish. However, sometimes they occur - this is rare. Of course, there are these signs on every phone and computer keyboard, because Poles sometimes also write in English.

Below is a table in which I will place, when the letters - q, v and x appear. These are mainly borrowings from other languages ​​- usually English.

Q, q	V, v	X, x
quasi	varsaviana	xenia
qui pro quo	vel	Unknown objects, people, sizes: x axis, 5x, xy, Mr. X, planet X
quad	verso	Surnames: Axentowicz, Axer
quiz	via	The abbreviation for "prince" or "priest"
aquapark	vide	Names: Xymena, Xawery
	villanella	Native abbreviation, mainly being the names of export-related companies: Budimex, Hortex, Rolimpex, Stalexport
	Virtuti Militari	Medicines Names: Oxeladin, Madroxin, Hydroxizin, Maalox
	van
	Vanuatu
	velostrada
	vlog

V also appears in various abbreviations - also borrowed:

*TV

*VAT - value added tax

*VIN

*VIP

*HIV

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DIGRAPH

Digraph is used Polish speling:

*ch
*cz
*dz
*dź
*dż
*rz
*sz

Not every situation of the occurrence of the statement of letters "rz" is a situation of the occurrence of the double digits "rz", because in words such as "marzenie" ("dream"), "mierzi" ("disgust") or "Tarzan" we are dealing with pairs of sounds r+z/r+ź. Similarly, in the case of the combination of letters "dz", the first of them may be part of the prefix "z", e.g. "odznaczyć" ("deselect").

The "i" ("and") sign softens some of the preceding consonants or consonant groups. It is usually not read before the vowel and is only used to record softening. In Polish spelling there is also a trigraph "dzi" and softening: ci, ni, si, zi.

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Alphabetical Order

Polish alphabetical ordering uses the order of letters as in the table under Letters above. Q, V and X, if present, take their usual positions in the Latin alphabet (after P, U and W respectively).

Note that (unlike in languages such as French and Spanish) Polish letters with diacritics are treated as fully independent letters in alphabetical ordering. For example, być comes after bycie. The diacritic letters also have their own sections in dictionaries (words beginning with ć are not usually listed under c).

Digraphs are not given any special treatment in alphabetical ordering. For example, ch is treated simply as c followed by h, and not as a single letter as in Czech.

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If you want to listen to Polish words, you can use Google Translate

I think that's all, about the Polish alphabet. However, if you have any questions, it write in a comment