Polish has soft consonants. These are denoted either by a ' sign above the letter (as in ć, ź, ś, ń) or by an i (before a vowel).
The pronunciation of Polish consonants:
b – as in English
c – like English ts
ch – like Scottish ch in “Loch Ness”
ć - soft ts
ci - before a consonant is pronounced as a soft ts + i (cichy), before a vowel - as a soft ts (ciało, cielę)
cz - pronounced like tsh
d - as in English
f, g – as in English
h – same as Scottish ch in “Loch Ness”
j - as English y in "yellow"
k - like in English
l - like l in "law" or "let" (never dark l in "wall")
ł – like English w in “woman”
m, n – as in English
ń - soft n
ni – before a consonant is pronounced as a soft n + i (nigdy), before a vowel – as a soft ń (nie, niekiedy)
p – as in English
r – articulated as an alveolar
rz – like s in pleasure, leisure - voiced ; after p, t, k becomes like sh : przemysł, przeczyć
s – pronounced like s in “set”
ś - soft s
si – before a consonant, it is pronounced as a soft s + i (siła), before a vowel – as a soft s (się, sianie)
sz – like in English sh
t – as in English
w - like English v in "vowel" z – like English z in “zone”
ź - soft z
zi – before a consonant is pronounced as a soft z + i (zima), before a vowel – as a soft z (ziarno)
ż – like sh but voiced - like s in "pleasure, leisure".