Polish ą and ę - nasal vowels

During this lesson you will learn how to pronounce the two most difficult vowels in Polish - ą and ę. You will understand that sometimes ą and ę may represent more than one sound.

Although ą looks like an a with a tail it has nothing to do with an a sound - it is actually a nasal o. Polish is the only Slavic language which still has nasal vowels (apart from Kashubian which is often considered as a dialect only). The tricky thing about ą and ę (nasal e) is that most of the time they represent two sounds - the exact pronunciation depends on the letter which follows it. Here are the rules:



1. Before w, f, s, sz, z, ż, ch

If ą or ę is placed before these sounds it is pronounced as ąu or ęu, e.g.

Wąs (moustache) - pronounced as 'wąus'

Mąż (husband) - mąusz

Wąchać (to smell) - wąuchać

Męski (manly) - męuski

Potężny (powerful) - pręużny

2. Before p, b, m

If ą or ę is placed before these sounds it is pronounced as ąm or ęm, e.g.

Sęp (vulture) - sęmp

Dąb (oak) - dąmbrowa

3. Before d, t, dz, c, cz

If ą or ę is placed before these sounds it is pronounced as ąn or ęn, e.g.

Wątły (frail) - wąntły

Męczyć (to torture, to worry) - męnczyć
Sądzenie (judging) - sąncenie

Sąd - (court/judgment) - sąnt

4. Before ć, dź

If ą or ę is placed before these sounds it is pronounced as ąń or ęń, e.g.

Wędzić (to smoak [food]) - węńdzić

Mącić (to stir) - mąńcić

5. Before k, g

If ą or ę is placed before these sounds it is pronounced as ąŋ or ęŋ. The ŋ sound is the same as the English ng (e.g. swimming).

Mąka (flour) - mąŋka

Ręka (hand) - ręŋka
Potęga (power) - potęŋga

6. Before l and ł

If ą or ę is placed before these sounds it becomes denasalised and is pronounced just as a or e.

Wzięli (they took) - wzieli
Ciął (he was cutting) - cioł

7. End of the word

If ą is placed at the end of the word it is always pronounced as ą. If the last letter of a word is ę it is often pronounced as e. In a careful pronunciation, however, final ę should be pronounced with a slight nasality.

Myślę (I think) - myśle
Myślą (They think) myślą

No more rules about nasal vowels! You already know the whole alphabet, all digraphs, you understand desonorization and now you can also use nasal vowels! If you want to hear some words with ą and ę watch the following video, and don't forget to subscribe!