# Forum Other Languages Slavic languages Polish  Polish language learning links

## MasterAdmin

Please, post the links to Polish learning sites that _you_ think are the best. Also mention why people should go (or _not_ go  ::  ) and see the site.

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## Mile-O-Phile

The best place to start with is the Polish Alphabet.

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## al

This one seems like a good site for beginners:  http://golem.umcs.lublin.pl/users/pp...ns/lessidx.htm

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## pookie123

i always wanted to learn a lil polish!

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## maati

> i always wanted to learn a lil polish!

 So you've got your chance now!
BTW It was a great idea to create all these lounges! But how can I find the time to start learning the languages. I'm desperate  ::

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## Mile-O-Phile

> i always wanted to learn a lil polish!

 A few years ago I sailed with a Polish crew for 4 months and had the opportunity to visit Gdynia every week. 
On board we just played darts non-stop (I hadn't really played before) but by the end of the 4 months I was playing darts in Polish. Even now, if I play darts, I confuse most people because I still shout out my scores in Polish and then have to translate. 
I wish I could write in Polish through...   ::

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I can't seem to get the polish alphabet to work on my computer either((

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## pookie123

> I can't seem to get the polish alphabet to work on my computer either((

   i thought the polish language had letters like english...i guess im wrong...i learned something new ttoday!   ::   ::   ::

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## Pravit

Polish uses a modified form of the Roman alphabet(which is letters like English). So in other words, we share most of our letters, but they have some we don't which they use to express the sounds of their language.

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Hello  :: 
I'm from Poland  ::  I can try to answer to some of your quiestons. My e-mail jilseponie@o2.pl
About Polish letters: well most of them are like in English, but there are also some which are only in Polish (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?). Besides that in Polish are some dubble-letters, u write 2 letters but u read them like one: for example "sz" is like "sh" in mushroom.
Ok, as I wrote, if u want write to me: jilseponie@o2.pl 
Good luck in learning Polish  ::  
Aggie

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## PsiLord

> About Polish letters: well most of them are like in English, but there are also some which are only in Polish (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?). Besides that in Polish are some dubble-letters, u write 2 letters but u read them like one: for example "sz" is like "sh" in mushroom.

 The encoding was broken — at least for me. But then, in case someone's wondering, here's the Polish alphabet: 
[i]a, ą, b, c, ć, d, e, ę, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ł, m, n, ń, o,

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## translationsnmru

> According to a Polish friend of mine, some relationships might be paralled between Polish and Russian as follows:   
> c' = _ць_
> s' = _сь_
> z' = _зь_
> cz = _ч_

 Your friend is mostly correct, but in these sounds, he is a bit off. 
"c'"  sounds very much like Russian "ч"
"cz" has no exact match in Russian; there is a similar sounds in Bielorussian, though - this is "hard" (not palatalized) "ч" (For those who heard Lukashenko speaking on TV, imagine him pronouncing "чай"). 
s'  is softened "ш" - it sounds very much like a short "щ"
z' is a voiced ("звонкий") counterpart of "s'" 
I can't insert Polish characters here, so I used c' instead of c with an "accent mark" above etc.

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## al

And ł is roughly pronounced as 'wh' in 'where', 'what', etc. 
Now ą and ę... First one in most cases sounds like French 'on', as in 'bon', a nasal sound. Second is like French 'in', as in 'fin', again nasal. There are exceptions, and here is a little table:  

```
Pronuciation of ą and ę before certain consonants
Spelling 	Pronunciation 	Before
ą, ę        om, em           b, p
ą, ę        on, en           d, t, dz, c, dż, cz
ą, ę        oń, eń           dź (dzi), ć (ci)
ą, ę        o, e             ł, l
```

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## PsiLord

> And ł is roughly pronounced as 'wh' in 'where', 'what', etc.

 One might say I'm being picky here, but, since there are English speakers who pronounce those with an aspiration, I thought it might be useful to point they shouldn't in Polish — like 'w' in 'window'.

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## al

Yeah right, sound in 'window' is closer to it. Btw, does anyone know why English speakers like to change ł into l and drop accents when transliterating city names, for example? I.e. Ł

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## translationsnmru

> And ? is roughly pronounced as 'wh' in 'where', 'what', etc.

 Sorry for nitpicking  ::  
But from what I know, part of Poles  (about 30% or so) pronounce it as Russian hard "л".  I am not sure about the figures, though, since I don't have that book anymore. 
I actually heard a record of a Pole (an actor of a Warsaw theater) who pronounced it this way.

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> Originally Posted by aggie  About Polish letters: well most of them are like in English, but there are also some which are only in Polish (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?). Besides that in Polish are some dubble-letters, u write 2 letters but u read them like one: for example "sz" is like "sh" in mushroom.

 The encoding was broken — at least for me. But then, in case someone's wondering, here's the Polish alphabet:  _a, ?, b, c, ?, d, e, ?, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ?, m, n, ?, o, ?, p, r, s, ?, t, u, w, y, z, ?, ?_ 
And the double-letter combinations *aggie* mentioned:  _ch, cz, dz, d?, d?, rz, sz_  
Yes, I also see only "?", I don't know why, some problems with encoding.
Yes, this alphabet is good  ::  and this double-letter too  :: 
And ? is like w in window. I dont know how to explain a pronounce dz, d?, d?. I think that that sounds have only Poland. hmm.. maybe "d?" is like "j" in "jar" but say it harder.

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## aggie

I was searching for webs which links I could add here. And I find that: http://eleaston.com/polish.html
There are many useful link. I hope someone finds this site is good for him  ::

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## translationsnmru

Aggie = Agnieszka?

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## aggie

Yes, my name is Agnieszka  :: 
And yours? Coz i can't think any sensible one only from your nickname  ::

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## Pathfinder

Sorry for posting in an old thread, but since this thread is for posting links to Polish learning websites, I thought it may be ok for me to post this. 
The University of Pittsburg has a first year Polish online course. Normally people don't see this site, and I think the this is the best online course availible for free. (That I've seen.) You get 12 lessons, the audio doesn't work for some reason, but the movies do. The lessons are quite big; they are full of detail that beginners need to know. Each lesson is broken down into different sections. Each Section has a introduction conversation with translations, a grammar section and excersises.  
I have been using this course for a few weeks now, and I understand just about everything in lesson 1, which is not small. The lessons don't cram too much information into my head at once, so I feel at ease learning Polish. The course has little in terms of pronounciation practice, so you might need to fine yet another site with audio to practice. I have the Transparent Language Polish course, which provides plently of audio for someone to practice.  
The link to the site is: http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/

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## Angel_of_Death-NZ

AHHHH OLD THREAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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## Pravit

It's cool, he actually posted something fairly useful. And since all of the threads in the Polish lounge are kind of dead, it's OK to add on to them.

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## vos

Here is a good link with lots of information concerning grammar and an extensive vocabulary.   http://grzegorj.w.interia.pl/kurs/

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## vos

A good link were you can learn to count in polish:  http://www.polish-translators.com/liczby.html

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## Comedy_Watcher

Sorry to add to an old thread but I have some links. 
This one has adds but contains useful information:  http://www.101languages.net/polish/classification.html 
Detailed PDF file:  http://seelrc.org:8080/grammar/pdf/c...mar_polish.pdf 
Here is a user on youtube with videos on pronunciation and vocabulary:  http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=magauchsein&p=r 
Enjoy.

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