Learn Polish

Start at the alphabet

The Polish on-ramp is written by hand, not generated, and it is 480 cards long. Every card is spoken in a recorded Polish voice, and what you get right is scheduled for review rather than shown again at random.

• 32letters
• 10digits
• 18pronunciation rules
• 300core words
• 60everyday phrases
• 60sentences

Three of the pronunciation cards, exactly as the course teaches them:

• poniedziałek — stress falls on the SECOND-TO-LAST syllable of every word — the one free gift Polish gives you. The only common exceptions are Greek loanwords ending in -yka or -ika, which keep it one syllable earlier: muzyka, matematyka, gramatykadziękuję — thank you
• ś ć ź dź — the four SOFT hushing sounds — tongue flat and forward, lips relaxed; they come out gentle, almost whisperedciocia — aunt
• sz cz ż dż — the four HARD hushing sounds — tongue pulled back and curled, lips pushed forward; heavier and buzzier than the soft fourczarny — black

Then material that does not run out

Once you are reading, the level is the point. The Text Generator writes Polish at the CEFR level, length, topic and format you ask for, so the step up is a setting rather than a new book. Speaking scores you word by word as you read aloud. The Conversation Partner talks back. The Translator explains a sentence instead of replacing it, and the Corrector marks what you wrote and says why.

Above the on-ramp sits the Path — a station map from A1 to C2 with grammar, vocabulary and checkpoint stations — and Words & Notes, where everything you save comes back on a spaced-repetition schedule in seven quiz styles.

What Polish actually costs a beginner

Stress sits on the second-to-last syllable, near enough always. The work is in the eight hushing sounds, which arrive as two groups of four. The soft ś ć ź dź are made with the tongue flat and forward and come out almost whispered; the hard sz cz ż dż with the tongue pulled back and the lips pushed forward, heavier and buzzier. English has one sound in that whole region and Polish has eight, so the pairs have to be heard rather than described — and they are, on every card, in a recorded Polish voice. The nasal vowels ą and ę are the third cost, and the cases are met in sentences rather than in tables.