Get to Know Polish Pronunciation Better
We all know that Polish is one of the most difficult languages in the world. Its pronunciation is quite specific and some letters are strange and funny. Some people find the pronunciation of Polish amusing. You may find it more rewarding to learn this language. You need to arm yourself with a large dose of patience, because sometimes the grammatical, phonetic or spelling rules are very difficult even for us Poles. In Polish, certain vocal combinations are very demanding, e.g. szcz, ższ and tsz.
In the article below, we’ll show you some useful fun with the Polish language, which means we’ll learn about tongue twisters.
One of the most popular Polish tongue twister is: W Szczebrzeszynie, chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie, which means ‘In Szczebrzeszyn (a town in Poland), the cockchafer (a type of beetle) buzzes in the weeds’.
Check Your Pronunciation!
Tongue twisters are known in every language. The Polish ones do not differ in construction from others of their kind. What other tasks do they have in Polish? As well as being fun, they are designed to make our speech apparatus more flexible when practiced over a longer period of time, so that we have better diction. Primary school children have a problem with correct pronunciation and in Polish schools there are no additional pronunciation classes, so they are sent to a speech therapist. There they practise correct pronunciation using, among other things, Polish tongue twisters.
Some of the most well-known and oft-pronounced Polish twister include:
- Czy się Czesi cieszą, że się Czesio czesze?
- Chłop pcha pchłę, pchłę pcha chłop.
- Czarna krowa w kropki bordo żuła trawę, kręcąc mordą.
- Dżdżystym rankiem gżegżółki i piegże, zamiast wziąć się za dżdżownice nażarły się na czczo miąższu rzeżuchy i rzędem rzygały do rozżarzonej brytfanny.
- Leży Jerzy na wieży i nie wierzy, że w tej wieży jest sto jeży i pięćdziesiąt jeżozwierzy.
- Jola lojalna, Jola nielojalna.
- Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego.
- Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami
More difficult Polish pronunciation
The most difficult Polish tongue twisters serve as good training for actors or TV presenters who need to have impeccable diction. If you have managed to read them all, we have another dose for you. In Polish, there is a scale of difficulty in the broken languages. The next category contains sentences that contain words that are no longer used in the current Polish language.
It’s time for part two!
- Na wyścigach wyścigowych wyścigówka wyścigowa wyścignęła wyścigówkę wyścigową numer sześć.
- Czy trzy cytrzystki grają na cytrze, czy jedna gwiżdże, a trzecia łzy trze?
- Wylaminowana i wyemaliowana iluminacja.
- Wyimaginowana gżegżółka zgrzeszyła przeciw gżegżółkowemu Bożkowi Grzegorzowi.
- Czy rak trzyma w szczypcach strzęp szczawiu, czy trzy części trzciny?
- Kurkiem kranu kręci kruk, kroplą tranu brudząc bruk, a przy kranie, robiąc pranie, królik gra na fortepianie.
Practice makes perfect
As you can see, the Polish tongue twisters cause many difficulties in pronunciation. If your speech apparatus is not properly relaxed or you are not prepared for such exercises, the pronunciation of Polish twisters will make it very difficult for you. That’s why we recommend you do some exercises at the beginning. If you do them regularly for a few weeks, your speech apparatus will improve considerably and you will no longer have any difficulty pronouncing the Polish tongue twisters.
Exercises to prepare for Polish reading
Jaw exercises:
- Lower the lower jaw moderately and then maximally.
- Move the lower jaw to the left and then to the right.
- Move the lower jaw forward and back to the “neutral” position (never move backwards, this risks the jaw falling off its hinges!), lips remain parted.
- Make movements with your jaw as if you were chewing gum with your mouth closed.
- Grasp the upper lip with the lower teeth.
Lip exercises:
- Mouth closed, arranged in a beak, rotate right and left.
- “Beak” move left and right, so called “hare”.
- “Fish” make movements reminiscent of catching air.
- Close your teeth and stretch your lips so that your teeth are visible. Repeat this movement several times.
- Exhale to make your mouth move – a snort.
Tongue exercises::
- Licking the upper and lower lips.
- Touching the tip of the tongue alternately to the upper teeth and then to the upper lip.
- Sliding the tongue along the outer surfaces of the upper and lower teeth.
- Extending the tongue, tense, as far out of the mouth as possible and retracting it as deep into the mouth as possible.
- Touching the nose with the tongue and up to the chin.
- Slapping the tongue.
If you’re considering learning Polish or preparing to start a Polish course we invite you to our Polka Dot School. You can learn Polish tongue twisters and many more.
If you know the basics in Polish but don’t know which course would be best for you, we invite you to take a Polish level language test.
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