Script guide › Latin
How to recognize Polish
Polish is one of 35 languages in Grafle's Latin group. Here's what it looks like, where you'll see it on signs, and how to tell it apart from its lookalikes.
Spot it fast
- The barred ł is uniquely Polish; the nasal hooks ą/ę it shares only with Lithuanian.
- Heavy consonant clusters: sz, cz, rz, prz — and w, y and z everywhere.
What Polish looks like
Wszyscy ludzie rodzą się wolni i równi w godności.
Cześć, miłego dnia! Jak się dzisiaj masz?
Bez pracy nie ma kołaczy.
Latin scripts: The alphabet you're reading now. Each language gives itself away by its own special letters and accent marks.
Where you'll see it on signs
- Poland
Easy to confuse with
- Czech — Polish uses barred ł, nasal ą/ę and clusters like sz/cz; Czech uses háčeks (š, ě, ř) and ů.
- Slovak — Polish: ł, ą, ę and sz/cz clusters. Slovak: háčeks plus ľ and ô.
- Hungarian — Hungarian's double-acute ő/ű and gy/sz clusters vs Polish's ł, ą, ę — different worlds despite being neighbors.