Polish Letters: All 32 Letters of the Polish Alphabet

Polish letters number 32 in the standard alphabet, and every one of them is a full letter with its own place in dictionary order. Twenty-three look exactly like English letters. Nine carry a diacritic mark. Three more, Q, V and X, turn up only in borrowed words.

The chart above lets you click any letter to hear it. This page explains how the set is built, what each group does, and what each letter is called in Polish.

The 32 Polish letters in order

The PWN language advice service lists the modern alphabet as these 32 letters, in this order (PWN Poradnia Językowa):

A Ą B C Ć D E Ę F G H I J K L Ł M N Ń O Ó P R S Ś T U W Y Z Ź Ż

Each marked letter follows its base letter. Ą comes right after A, Ł right after L, and the alphabet ends with Z, Ź and Ż. This matters when you look up a word: a dictionary lists every word starting with Ł after the last word starting with L. It also means być (to be) is filed after bycie (being), because ć counts as a letter after c.

Polish letters shared with English

These 23 letters look the same as in English: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y Z. The shapes match, but several sounds do not.

• C is always [ts], like the “ts” in “cats”: noc (night).
• J is [j], like the “y” in “yes”: jajko (egg).
• W is [v]: woda (water) sounds like “voda”.
• H is a rough [x], like the “ch” in Scottish “loch”.
• Y is always a vowel [ɨ], never a consonant as in “yes”.
• R is tapped or rolled with the tip of the tongue.

The rest (b, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, z) are close to English. G is always hard as in “go”, and S is always the “s” in “see”, never a “z” sound. For the full sound list, see the Polish alphabet pronunciation guide.

The 9 Polish letters with diacritics

Nine Polish letters carry a mark: a tail (ogonek), an acute stroke (kreska), a dot (kropka) or a bar through the L. Each one is a separate letter, not an accented version of another. Our page on Polish accents covers the marks themselves.

Letter	Polish name	Sound	Example
Ą ą	ą	[ɔw̃] nasal “on”	mąka ▶ flour
Ć ć	cie	[tɕ] soft “ch”	być ▶ to be
Ę ę	ę	[ɛw̃] nasal “en”	ręka ▶ hand
Ł ł	eł	[w] as in “wet”	mały ▶ small
Ń ń	eń	[ɲ] “ny” in “canyon”	koń ▶ horse
Ó ó	ó, o z kreską	[u] same as u	góra ▶ mountain
Ś ś	eś	[ɕ] soft “sh”	ktoś ▶ someone
Ź ź	ziet	[ʑ] soft “zh”	źle ▶ badly
Ż ż	żet	[ʐ] like “s” in “pleasure”	żaba ▶ frog

The marks change meaning, not only sound. Kat is an executioner, but kąt is an angle. Leaving a mark off is a spelling error, so learn to type Polish characters early.

Q, V and X: letters outside the set

Q, V and X are not among the 32 Polish letters. No native Polish word uses them. They appear in foreign words that keep their original spelling, in brand names and in some personal names.

When a word is fully adopted, the spelling changes: Q becomes k or kw, V becomes w, and X becomes ks. That is why “taxi” is taksówka and “visa” is wiza. Linguist Mirosław Bańko notes that the three still need a fixed place in alphabetical order, since real Polish texts contain them (PWN). Q sits after P, and V and X fall either side of W. Their names are ku, fał and iks.

What Polish letters are called

Polish letter names are short. Vowels are named by their sound, and most consonants add an “e” before or after:

a, ą, be, ce, cie, de, e, ę, ef, gie, ha, i, jot, ka, el, eł, em, en, eń, o, ó, pe, er, es, eś, te, u, wu, igrek, zet, ziet, żet

Three names surprise English speakers: J is jot, W is wu, and Y is igrek. Letter names have never been fixed by an official standard, so you will hear variants (PWN). When spelling out a word, Poles often name a digraph as a pair, such as “ce ha” for ch.

Letters versus sounds

Seven two-letter combinations spell single sounds: ch, cz, dz, dź, dż, rz and sz. These Polish digraphs are not letters. They do not appear in the alphabet and are sorted as two letters. A Polish school exercise makes the point well: chusteczka (handkerchief) has 10 letters but only 8 sounds (ZPE).

The reverse also happens. Some sounds have two spellings: ó and u both say [u], ż and rz both say [ʐ], and h and ch both say [x]. That is why Polish is easy to read aloud but harder to spell. The page on how many letters are in the Polish alphabet goes into the count in more detail.

Capital Polish letters

Every Polish letter has a capital form, but some capitals are rare. Ą, Ę and Ń never begin a Polish word, so their capitals appear mainly in text set in all caps, such as signs or headlines (powroty.gov.pl). Capital Y is also uncommon, since few words start with y.

Capital Ł and Ż, by contrast, are everywhere: Łódź, Żywiec, Łukasz.

Common mistakes with Polish letters

• Treating ł as l. Ł sounds like English w. Łódź is roughly “wooch”, not “lodz”.
• Reading w as English w. Polish w is always v.
• Dropping diacritics. Without them, words change meaning or become misspellings.
• Counting digraphs as letters. Cz and sz are pairs of letters, not extra letters.
• Adding Q, V and X to the 32. They are extra letters for foreign words only.
• Using English letter names. Say jot, wu and igrek, not “jay”, “double-u” and “why”.

Frequently asked questions

How many Polish letters are there?

There are 32 letters in the standard Polish alphabet. Q, V and X are used in foreign words, which brings the total to 35 if you include them.

Which Polish letters are not in English?

Nine: ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź and ż. Each has a diacritic mark and counts as a separate letter.

What are the Polish letters with accents called?

The marks are the ogonek (tail) on ą and ę, the kreska (stroke) on ć, ń, ó, ś and ź, the kropka (dot) on ż, and the bar through ł.

Does Polish use the letters Q, V and X?

Only in foreign words and names that keep their original spelling. In adapted words they become k or kw, w, and ks.

What is the Polish name for the letter Y?

Y is called igrek. J is jot and W is wu.

Sources

• PWN Poradnia Językowa: Współczesny polski alfabet
• PWN Poradnia Językowa: Q, V, X
• PWN Poradnia Językowa: nazwy liter
• Zintegrowana Platforma Edukacyjna: Słyszymy głoski, piszemy litery
• Wikipedia: Polish alphabet

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