Polish › Pronunciation › Alphabet
In short: the Polish alphabet has 32 letters — your familiar ABC plus nine special ones (ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ź ż) that give Polish its music. Every letter below is spoken aloud with an example word. The best news first: ł sounds exactly like English “w” — you already know it. 👇
Ł ł
the friendliest surprise in Polish — it simply says “w”, like łóżko (WOOSH-koh)
All 32 letters, spoken aloud
| Letter | Its name / sound | Example | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | ah | ananas — pineapple | |
| Ą | nasal “on” (ą) | mąka — flour | |
| B | beh | babcia — grandma | |
| C | tseh — like “ts” | cebula — onion | |
| Ć | cie — soft “ch” | ćma — moth | |
| D | deh | dom — house | |
| E | eh | echo — echo | |
| Ę | nasal “e” (ę) | gęś — goose | |
| F | ef | fala — wave | |
| G | gie — hard g | góra — mountain | |
| H | ha | herbata — tea | |
| I | ee | igła — needle | |
| J | jot — says “y” | jabłko — apple | |
| K | kah | kot — cat | |
| L | el | lampa — lamp | |
| Ł | eł — says “w”! ⭐ | łóżko — bed | |
| M | em | mama — mom | |
| N | en | noc — night | |
| Ń | eń — soft “ny” | koń — horse | |
| O | oh | oko — eye | |
| Ó | o z kreską — says “oo”, same as U ⭐ | ósmy — eighth | |
| P | peh | pies — dog | |
| R | er — lightly rolled | ryba — fish | |
| S | es | sok — juice | |
| Ś | eś — soft “sh” | śnieg — snow | |
| T | teh | tata — dad | |
| U | u — says “oo” | ulica — street | |
| W | wu — says “v”! ⭐ | woda — water | |
| Y | igrek — “ih” | syn — son | |
| Z | zet | zima — winter | |
| Ź | ziet — soft “zh” | źrebak — foal | |
| Ż | żet — hard “zh” | żaba — frog |
💡 The famous swap: Polish w says “v” (woda = VOH-dah), and Polish ł says “w” (łóżko = WOOSH-koh). One swap, half the confusion gone. ⭐ marks the surprises in the table.
The nine special letters, demystified
The tails and accents aren’t decoration — each changes the sound in ONE consistent way. The tails (ą, ę) add a gentle nasal hum. The acute accents (ć, ń, ś, ź) soften the consonant, as if adding a tiny “y”. The dot on ż makes it buzz hard like “pleasure”. And ó is simply a second way to write “oo” — identical to u, a spelling leftover from old Polish that even Polish schoolchildren grumble about.
🇵🇱 Missing letters: Polish has no q, v or x — they appear only in borrowed words like “quiz”. When Poles need the v-sound, w does the job. That’s why your Polish relatives spell Warszawa with a W and pronounce it “Varshava”.
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Practice: quick check
1. How would you pronounce “Łódź” (the city)?
“Wooch” — ł says w , ó says oo , and the dź hardens at the end to the ch of watch — so it rhymes with watch, not dodge. Poles adore watching foreigners attempt this one — now you’ll ace it.
2. Why does “dziękuję” start with a “j” sound?
It doesn’t — it starts with dzi, a soft “j-like” cluster. But the j INSIDE Polish words always says “y” — jabłko is YAHP-koh. J = y, always.
3. What’s the difference between ś and sz?
Both are “sh”, but ś is soft and smiling (śnieg), while sz is harder, like English “shop”. Polish famously puts them side by side in tongue twisters — that’s a future lesson.
Frequently asked questions
How many letters are in the Polish alphabet?
32 letters — the familiar Latin base plus nine special ones: ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź, ż. Three English letters are missing: q, v and x appear only in foreign words.
What is the hardest Polish letter to pronounce?
Most learners vote for the nasal vowels ą and ę — sounds English simply doesn’t have. The friendliest surprise is ł, which sounds exactly like English “w” — one you already know how to say.
Are w and ł really swapped in Polish?
It feels that way! Polish w sounds like English “v”, and Polish ł sounds like English “w”. Learn this one swap and suddenly half of Polish spelling makes sense.