POLISH classes

Cześć! Hi!

Welcome to the Polish lesson thread! Here I’ll try to teach you some basics as well as I can, and I’ll hope to be able to shape the course to your wishes. Therefore, don’t hesitate to tell me if you have any ideas and wishes for future lessons or a certain vocabulary you might want to find out about! :D

I’m not a native speaker myself but I’m learning it since 1 year and a half. I have a very good grasp of the basics (well more than the basics now) and I’m also learning on while this course is advancing.
If you may find Polish a bit difficult at the begining, don’t let that scare you off - it's not anymore once you do the first step and the more you advance, the easier and more fun to learn it gets! So have fun!

All these said, let’s get started, shall we?

First of all, the alphabet. Once you know this, it will be easy to read virtually anything because the pronounciation is just like the spelling, so you only need to remember how a few letters and groups of letters are pronounced!

A - father
Ą – like a nasal “o”, similar to something like “garçon” in French
B – bar
C – [tz] like brats – when with a, e,o, u after it; but like Ć when with an “i” after it
Ć – chin
D – dance
E – friend
Ę – nasal “e”, but in everyday use, a normal "e" is sometimes said at the end of words (it's quicker to pronounce)
F – forget
G – give
H – hug
I – inspire
J – just like “I”
K – car
L – large
Ł – wet
M – melt
N – noon
Ń – similar to the Spanish ñ, like a soft n with an “i”
O – claw
P – park
R – vibrant r, always heard, rolled
S – snake
Ś – similar to the English “sh”: shadow
T – tent
U – put
Ó – same pronounciation as “U”
W – very (do not confoud with the English “w”! It’s pronounced like “V” and there is no “V” in the Polish alphabet)
Y – that’s a particularily difficult one to explain, since there is nothing comparable in English or in many other widely spoken languages. It is not the equivalent of the english “y”! Nevertheless, you can learn it. Try for example pronouncing “mill” without touching the gums with the tongue. The sound just after “m” should be the “y”.
Z – Zorro
Ź – measure, pleasure
Ż – similar, but softer: vision

Special sound groups:

ci – like ći
cz – like ć
ch – the same as “h”
dź – just
dzi - gin
rz – spoken like ż
sz – like ś
zi – like żi

This was a small guide to pronounciation – and it can probably still sound a bit confusing, the best is to listen to it spoken, I will record something.


If you've got any questions, post them here or PM!

Lesson 2:

Hey again! Today, we’re gonna practise a bit more of pronounciation! You’re going to see a video – actually, you’re going to hear how some words are spoken and you’re going to see how they are spelled. I’ll also give you the words here, so that you are prepared beforehand on what’s coming and can practise afterwards. J

Here’s the link to the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RVbpO50lJ0

and here are the words:

Cześć – hi
Dzień dobry – hello (litteraly: “Good day”)
Dobry wieczór – good evening
Do widzenia – good bye (litteraly: “See you”)
Tak – yes
Nie – no
Dziękuję – thank you
Dziecko – child
Żona – wife
Mąż – husband
Dźwięk – sound
Ręka – hand
Mieszkam – I live (in the sense of “reside”!)
Chleb – bread
Cień – shadow
Jajko – egg
Samochód – car
Córka – daughter
Myć – to wash
Syn – son
Czysty – clean
Bułka – roll, bun (of bread)
Ładny – pretty
Stoł – table


Now it’s time for some homework:
you will listen to a couple of words (and their translation on english), and you have to try to figure out how they are written. I’ll give you the solutions in our next lesson! And don't worry if you don't get the exact writing - as you've noticed, there are a lot of possible ways of writing the same sound, learning those is something that takes time to get used to.
Click here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK9naGP34Ng


PS: I'd love some feedback - is the homework too difficult, am I going too fast, or is this ok? And don't worry, we'll move on from pronounciation to actual phrases and speaking quite soon! - but you'll probably still get one or two more pronounciation exercises along with other things.

woah this is hard..now I know why my grandfather did not choose to study this this language..long story..anyway..I'm trying..