L l — el
«el» is a consonant of the Polish script, read as “light l”. A light l — thinner than the dark l at the end of English "full", close to the l at the start of "light". The old hard l that slid into a w is written as a separate letter, ł. For example, in the word “lato” — summer. The Polish alphabet has 32 letters in total. It appears, for example, in the word “źle” — badly.
In short
| Character | L l |
| Name | el |
| Sound | light l |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 15th of 32, its neighbours in the course are k and ł, appears in 787 words of this site.
How it sounds
A light l — thinner than the dark l at the end of English "full", close to the l at the start of "light". The old hard l that slid into a w is written as a separate letter, ł
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.
- latosummer
The character in the “familiar at a glance, foreign to the ear” group
Six letters where trusting the eye costs you: the shape is familiar, but the sound behind it is a different one.
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 «el» it is “light l”, as in the word “lato”), 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 l read?
As “light l” — it is a consonant of the Polish script. A light l — thinner than the dark l at the end of English "full", close to the l at the start of "light". The old hard l that slid into a w is written as a separate letter, ł. For example, in the word “lato” — summer.
What is the letter l called?
El. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Polish script: it is called “el” and reads as “light l”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.