^ ابپتٹثجچحخThe letter ‹i›, when followed by a vowel, either 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, so for example zima, ci and dzisiaj are pronounced as if spelled ‹źima›, ‹ći›, ‹dźiśaj›.
^ ابپتٹثAffricates 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 does contrast affricates with stop + fricative clusters, like czysta[ˈt͡ʂɨsta] "clean" versus trzysta[ˈtʂɨsta] "three hundred".
^ ابپتٹث Polish 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, whereas the alveolo-palatal sounds are "soft", realized with the middle of the tongue raised, adding a bit of a ‹y› or ‹ee› sound to them.
^ ابپتٹثThe letters ‹ą› and ‹ę› represent the nasal vowels /ɔ̃, ɛ̃/, except when followed by a stop or affricate, where they represent oral vowels /ɔ, ɛ/ followed by a nasal consonanthomorganic with the following stop or affricate (e.g. kąt[ˈkɔnt], gęba[ˈɡɛmba], ręka[ˈrɛŋka], piszący[piˈʂɔnt͡sɨ], pieniądze[pjɛˈɲɔnd͡zɛ], pięć[ˈpjɛɲt͡ɕ], jęczy[ˈjɛnt͡ʂɨ]).
