Pronouncing your first Polish words

Polish king Kazimierz was desonorized.
To find out why, keep reading!

During this lesson you will learn how to pronounce Polish words. You will learn why you sometimes need to pronounce Polish voiced letters as voiceless sounds and what desonorization process is.

If you want to learn Polish it is very important that you distinguish between voiced and voiceless consonants. The simple difference between voiced and voiceless consonants is the use of vocal cords. If you use them, the consonant is voiced and if you do not, it is voiceless. Compare English words tea and dad (what I mean by compare is - say them out loud!). The only difference between t and d is that when you pronounce t in tea you do not use your vocal cords and when you say d in dad you use your vocal cords. If you still do not hear the difference, you can try to feel it - pronounce t and d while touching your neck near the throat. When you pronounce d it vibrates, when you pronounce t it does not.

But why is it so important in Polish? First of all, there are some voiced and voiceless consonants which do not exist in English so you need to learn how to pronounce them. What is much more important, however, is that letters which represent voiced sounds in Polish are sometimes pronounced voicelessly. Please look at the Polish consonants below - on the left side you have voiced consonants and on the right side you have their voiceless equivalents. Some of these pairs are exactly the same as in English (e.g. d and t).

b - p

d - t

dz - c

dź - ć

dż - cz

g - k

rz - sz

w - f

z - s

ź - ś

ż - sz

Try pronouncing them. If you have any doubts please play the following video:

There are three reasons why you need to pronounce voiced consonants as their voiceless equivalents (this process is called desonorization - ubezdźwięcznienie). The first reason is:

1. The end of a word

If a word ends with a voiced letter (b, g, z etc.) that letter is pronounced as its voiceless equivalent (p, k, s), e.g.:

Bez (without) - pronounced as bes

Nóż (knife) - pronounced as nósz

Róg (corner) - pronounced as rók

Chleb (bread) - pronounced as chlep

Wódz (leader) - pronounced as wóc

etc.

2. After a voiceless consonant

If a voiced consonant is placed before a voiceless consonant it becomes voiceless too, e.g.

Trzy (three) - pronounced as tszy

Chwała (glory) - pronounced as chfała

Przecena (discount) - pronounced as pszecena

Please note that although there is no voiced equivalent of the consonant ch it is still a voiceless consonant which changes the following consonant to its voiceless equivalent.

3. Before a voiceless consonant

If a voiced consonant is placed before a voiceless consonant it becomes voiceless too, e.g.

Łyżka (spoon) - pronounced as łyszka

Łódka (small boat) - pronounced as łótka

Wtorek (Tuesday) - pronounced as ftorek

Obviously, sometimes one word incorporates more than one desonorization rule, e.g:

Przez (through) - pronounced as pszes (Rule 1 and 2)

Prządka (female spinner) - pronounced as psząntka (Rule 2 and 3)

Remember that in some words desonorization can cause a 'chain reaction', e.g.

Gwiazdka (little star) - pronounced as gwiastka

D is desonorized by a following k and then the desonorized d desonorizes z to s, creating a group of three voiceless consonants - stk.

After this lesson we are almost done with pronunciation. You already know the alphabet, digraphs, desonorization... We just need to take a closer look at nasal vowels and then you will be able to construct your first Polish sentences! See you soon!