Ń ń — eń
«eń» is a consonant of the Polish script, read as “ny (as in "canyon")”. A soft ny, one fused sound like the middle of "canyon": koń is "kohny". For example, in the word “koń” — horse. The Polish alphabet has 32 letters in total. The same acute stroke of softness as on ć and ś. Before a vowel the spelling usually switches to ni: koń and konia are one softness written two ways. It appears, for example, in the word “dzień dobry” — good day.
In short
| Character | Ń ń |
| Name | eń |
| Sound | ny (as in "canyon") |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 19th of 32, its neighbours in the course are n and o, appears in 69 words of this site.
How to type Ń ń
- On a phone: press and hold n on the keyboard, and ń appears among the variants. If it does not, add the Polish keyboard in the keyboard settings.
- In Word on Windows: type U+0144 and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 0144.
- Unicode code points: ń — U+0144, Ń — U+0143. With them, the characters can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
A soft ny, one fused sound like the middle of "canyon": koń is "kohny"
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.
- końhorse
The character in the “polish tails and strokes” group
Nine signs: two nasals (ą, ę), three soft ones (ć, ś, ź — with ń), ó, ł, and their dots and tails. A tail marks a nasal sound, a stroke marks softness, a dot is history.
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 «eń» it is “ny (as in "canyon")”, as in the word “koń”), 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 ń read?
As “ny (as in "canyon")” — it is a consonant of the Polish script. A soft ny, one fused sound like the middle of "canyon": koń is "kohny". For example, in the word “koń” — horse.
What is the letter ń called?
Eń. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Polish script: it is called “eń” and reads as “ny (as in "canyon")”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.