All voicedobstruents/b, d, ɡ, v, z, ʐ, ʑ, dʐ, dʑ/ are devoiced (so /d/ becomes [t], etc.) at the ends of words and in clusters ending in any unvoiced obstruents /p, t, k, f, s, x, ʂ, ɕ, tʂ, tɕ/. Voiceless obstruents are voiced (/x/ becoming [ɣ], etc.) in clusters ending in any voiced obstruent except /v, ʐ/, which are then themselves devoiced.
See Polish phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Polish.
^ abcdefghijThe letter ‹i›, when it is followed by a vowel, represents a pronunciation like a ‹j› or a "soft" pronunciation of the preceding consonant (so pies is pronounced as if it were spelt ‹pjes›). It has the same effect as an acute accent on alveolar consonants (‹s›, ‹z›, ‹c›, ‹dz›, ‹n›) so się, cios and niania are pronounced as if they were spelt ‹śę›, ‹ćos›, ‹ńańa›. A following ‹i› also softens consonants when it is itself pronounced as a vowel: zima, ci and dzisiaj are pronounced as if they were spelled ‹źima›, ‹ći›, ‹dźiśaj›.
^ abcdefAffricates such as /ts/ and /dʐ/) are correctly written with tie-bars: /t͡s/, /d͡ʐ/. The tie-bars are omitted in the above chart, as they do not display correctly in all browsers. Nonetheless, Polish contrasts affricates with stop + fricative clusters like czysta[ˈt͡ʂɨsta] "clean" versus trzysta[ˈtʂɨsta] "three hundred".
^ abcdefPolish makes contrasts between retroflex and alveolo-palatal consonants, both of which sound like the English postalveolars /ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/. The retroflex sounds are pronounced "hard", with the tip of the tongue approaching the alveolar ridge and the blade of the tongue somewhat lowered, and the alveolo-palatal sounds are "soft", realized with the middle of the tongue raised, adding a bit of an ‹ee› sound to them.
^ abcdefThe letters ‹ą› and ‹ę› represent the nasal vowels/ɔ̃, ɛ̃/ except when they are followed by a stop or affricate, when they represent oral vowels /ɔ, ɛ/ followed by a nasal consonanthomorganic with the following stop or affricate: kąt[ˈkɔnt], gęba[ˈɡɛmba], ręka[ˈrɛŋka], piszący[piˈʂɔnt͡sɨ], pieniądze[pjɛˈɲɔnd͡zɛ], pięć[ˈpjɛɲt͡ɕ], jęczy[ˈjɛnt͡ʂɨ ].