Polish pronunciation generator: hear sz, ś, cz and rz said right

Type Polish and hear it read aloud, consonant clusters and all. Free, no sign-up.

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How to pronounce Polish words

For longer Polish audio and more voices, see Polish text to speech. To spell out an English word by sound, use the phonetic spelling generator.

Type Polish

Type or paste up to 500 characters of Polish, or pick a sample. Keep the Polish letters, such as ą, ę, ł, ś and ż: each is its own sound.

Press play

Listen to the whole phrase, then pick a sample to hear one hard sound on its own.

Compare voices

Pick another voice from the menu and press play again to hear the same Polish from a different speaker.

Polish sounds that trip up English speakers

Polish spelling is consistent once you know which letters pair up. Most of the trouble is two kinds of sh and ch.

Sz and ś

Sz is a hard sh with the tongue pulled back. Ś, also spelled si, is a soft sh with the tongue raised toward the palate. Szum (noise) and środa (Wednesday) start differently.

szum [ʂum] · środa [ˈɕrɔ.da]

Cz and ć

The same pair for ch: cz is hard, ć (or ci) is soft. Cześć has one of each.

cześć [t͡ʂɛɕt͡ɕ] · ciocia [ˈt͡ɕɔ.t͡ɕa]

Rz and ż

Rz and ż are one sound, like the s in pleasure with the tongue pulled back.

rzeka [ˈʐɛ.ka] · żaba [ˈʐa.ba]

Ł

Ł is an English w.

Łódź [wut͡ɕ] · ładny [ˈwad.nɨ]

Ą and ę

Ą and ę are nasal vowels before most consonants. Before k or g, ę becomes en, and at the end of a word it is usually a plain e.

są [sɔ̃] · dziękuję [d͡ʑɛŋˈku.jɛ]

Stress

Stress almost always falls on the second-to-last syllable.

Warszawa [varˈʂa.va] · dziękuję [d͡ʑɛŋˈku.jɛ]

Custom Polish pronunciation for developers

Polish speakers say many English terms the Polish way, Wi-Fi as łifi among them. A pronunciation dictionary pins the reading your callers expect in every request.

A pronunciation dictionary is a list of words and how to say each one. Cartesia swaps every match for its sounds-like spelling before the text is read, on sonic-3 and newer.

Get an API key Read the pronunciation guide

pronunciation-dictionary.json

// Create the dictionary once, through the API or the Playground.
[
  { "text": "Wi-Fi", "pronunciation": "łifi" }
]

// Then pass its ID with each text-to-speech request.
{
  "model_id": "sonic-3",
  "language": "pl",
  "pronunciation_dict_id": "<your dictionary ID>"
}

Pronunciation in other languages

All languages

Arabic pronunciation

ع and ح, the heavy consonants and long vowels, read aloud from Arabic script.

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Chinese pronunciation

The four tones, tone changes and retroflex sounds, in a Mandarin voice.

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French pronunciation

Nasal vowels, liaison and the French r, in a Parisian or Canadian French voice.

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German pronunciation

Umlauts, ich and ach, and z, in a Standard German voice.

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Italian pronunciation

Double consonants, gli and gn, read by an Italian voice.

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Japanese pronunciation

Kanji and kana read aloud, with long vowels and small tsu, in Standard Japanese.

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Korean pronunciation

Plain, tense and aspirated consonants and the sound changes between syllables.

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Portuguese pronunciation

Nasal ão, the Brazilian t and d, and the r, in a Brazilian voice.

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Spanish pronunciation

Rolled r, ñ and the jota, in a voice from Mexico or Spain.

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Polish pronunciation FAQs

How do you pronounce Polish letters?

Learn the pairs first: sz and ś, cz and ć, rz and ż. Then ł, which is a w, and the nasal ą and ę. Type a word into the generator above to hear each one.

Is there a free Polish pronunciation tool?

Yes. The generator on this page reads any Polish text up to 500 characters aloud, free and with no account.

How do you pronounce Szczebrzeszyn?

[ʂt͡ʂɛˈbʐɛ.ʂɨn], roughly shcheh-BZHEH-shin. It is the town in the tongue twister W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie, which the generator above opens with.

How do you say thank you in Polish?

Dziękuję, said [d͡ʑɛŋˈku.jɛ], jen-KOO-yeh. The ę before k becomes en, and the stress is on ku. Press the Dziękuję sample above to hear it.

Can I download the Polish audio?

Yes, with a free Cartesia account. Make an MP3 or WAV of the same text in the Cartesia Playground, or request it from the text-to-speech API.

Can Cartesia read longer Polish text?

Yes. Cartesia's text-to-speech model speaks 44 languages. For Polish voiceovers and apps, see the Polish text to speech page.

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