Writing in Polish, help ?

One Comment

1. RJF says:

   August 26, 2010 at 1:41 pm

   1. I know the difference isn’t very clear for a non-native speaker, since these sounds do not exist in most other languages… but it is quite distinct.
   "Cz" is hard, while "ć" is soft.

   And there is no simple rule I’m afraid, one just has to learn words the way they are spelled, and the grammar.

   2. Some rules of thumb anyway:

   => "ć" will never appear before a vowel. If a vowel follows, use "cz".
   E.g. "czar", "czas", "czytelnia" etc.

   => verbs – in their infinitive form – end with "ć", never with "cz".

   => If "ś" stands next to it – then it cannot be "cz".
   "ścz" looks like a mismatch – and it is a mismatch; it does not exist.
   "ść" is quite common.

   3. I checked on a couple of Polish e-books, out of curiosity, and "cz" occurs about 2 times more often than "ć"

   So when in doubt, you have 2/3 chance of success if you go with "cz"
   And if you take into consideration the rules I gave you above, it’ll be even better.

   That’s what we can do on our own here, and now for the computer-aided part.

   4. Here’s an on-line Polish dictionary: http://sjp.pwn.pl/
   (Type the word you are looking for into the "znajdź słowa" textbox.)

   5. Last but not least – I’m sure you can get a Polish spellchecker for, be it MS Word, or an internet browser for that matter.

   For example if you use Firefox under Windows (as I do), then you can add another language pack => [Tools] / [Options] / [Content] / [Languages] / [Choose] and add Polish.

   …[Options] / [Advanced] / [Browsing] – [Check my spelling as I type] should be checked on.

   I haven’t tested it, to be honest, but it should work for all I know