Polish Alphabet

The people of Poland create beautiful and intricate artwork. The Polish alphabet proves to be no exception to this. There are 32 letters found in the Polish alphabet, however there are three additional letters that you will find only in foreign words which are commonly found in everyday Polish speech. These letters are q, v, and x. The Polish alphabet is derived from the Latin alphabet. The Polish language itself is the second most common Slavic language.

The Polish Alphabet

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

Ź

Ż

Z

While Polish is not taught in most Western schools and universities, it is quite similar to Russian, and anyone who has spoken Russian will find the language fairly easy to learn. Despite the differences between the Polish alphabet and the English alphabet, once you learn how the letters and accents work, you’ll find the language is simply structured.

Over the centuries, the geographically based dialects, along with the letters of the Polish alphabet have been streamlined, so no matter who you are listening to, and no matter which region of Poland you visit, you will be able to understand what is being said, and people will understand what you are saying.

Students learning Polish as a second language are nearly always glad to discover that Polish is a phonetic language for the most part. This means that Polish words are read and sound as they are spelled, and to understand how to say these words, you simply need to master Poland’s alphabet. Those who learn Polish by listening find learning Polish writing later on is not difficult, so long as they learn the alphabet before learning to write words in Polish.

As with English and many other languages, when two letters appear at the same time, a change in pronunciation is indicated. In your Polish lessons you will learn that there are few variations to this rule, and with minimal practice, you’ll have no problems spotting these irregularities.

Polish letters use a specific accent system. This means that certain indicators within words dictate how they should be pronounced. Polish accents might seem complicated at first, but are easily learned with the right tools.