Y y — igrek
«igrek» is a vowel of the Polish script, read as “dull ih (as in "bit", further back)”. A short ih said with the tongue pulled back: syn sounds like "sihn", my like "mih". For example, in the word “syn” — son. The Polish alphabet has 32 letters in total. The great impostor of the alphabet: it looks like the English consonant y, but it is a vowel. czy is "chih", not "chai". It appears, for example, in the word “dzień dobry” — good day.
In short
| Character | Y y |
| Name | igrek |
| Sound | dull ih (as in "bit", further back) |
| What it is | a vowel |
In our course the character comes 29th of 32, its neighbours in the course are w and z, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How it sounds
A short ih said with the tongue pulled back: syn sounds like "sihn", my like "mih"
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.
- synson
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 «igrek» it is “dull ih (as in "bit", further back)”, as in the word “syn”), 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 y read?
As “dull ih (as in "bit", further back)” — it is a vowel of the Polish script. A short ih said with the tongue pulled back: syn sounds like "sihn", my like "mih". For example, in the word “syn” — son.
What is the letter y called?
Igrek. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Polish script: it is called “igrek” and reads as “dull ih (as in "bit", further back)”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can y be confused with?
The great impostor of the alphabet: it looks like the English consonant y, but it is a vowel. czy is "chih", not "chai". Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.