G g — gie
«gie» is a consonant of the Polish script, read as “hard g (always)”. Always a hard g, the g of "go". Before i and e it never softens and never turns into a j sound. For example, in the word “godzina” — hour. The Polish alphabet has 32 letters in total. It appears, for example, in the word “czy mówisz po angielsku?” — do you speak English?
In short
| Character | G g |
| Name | gie |
| Sound | hard g (always) |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 10th of 32, its neighbours in the course are f and h, appears in 450 words of this site.
How it sounds
Always a hard g, the g of "go". Before i and e it never softens and never turns into a j sound
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- godzinahour
The character in the “sound matches sight” group
Seventeen letters with nothing to learn: the sound is exactly the one you expect.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «gie» it is “hard g (always)”, as in the word “godzina”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 32 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Polish character g read?
As “hard g (always)” — it is a consonant of the Polish script. Always a hard g, the g of "go". Before i and e it never softens and never turns into a j sound. For example, in the word “godzina” — hour.
What is the letter g called?
Gie. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Polish script: it is called “gie” and reads as “hard g (always)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.