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.