how do you read the letter ę in polish?

Question

well it says that "at the end of a word the letter ę is pronounced as e, for example piszę.
but what about potrzebuję (I need...)? it's still pronounced like -en..
i'm confused. help?

Answer 1

The pronunciation is difficult to explain in text. Think of "eng" but with a somewhat watery O sound mixed with the E. Like, "eh-ohw-ng", only blend it to make it one sound.

When you hear it pronounced as just "e", it's because it is just shortened for conversational purposes. So piszę sound technically be pronounced "PI-sheoung", although it's acceptable to say "PI-she"

Potrzebuję should be pronounced like "poht-zhe-BOO-yeoung".

It takes some practice to get it right. When I lived in Poland (native American, here), people teased me for a good three months before I started to get the hang of it.

Hope that helps. That's the best I can explain it in text without resorting to dictionary pronunciation symbols. Try to find someone who can pronounce it for you, if possible.

Answer 2

I don't speak Polish, but I looked this up over at Wikipedia. The letter can be pronounced as a short e, en, em, eng, and a couple of other ways. The article below talks about the pronunciation, but not why it has various pronunciations.

Answer 3

If it's at the end of a word, you just pronounce it like "-e". Spoken normally (as in, not emphasized for difference) potrzebuje and potrzebuję sound the same.

When it's in the middle of a work, like ręka or tępy, it is pronounced like -en- or -em-, like renka or tempy.

Otherwise, it does have a nasal sound to it. If you were to speak potrzebuję slowly, to emphasize its sound, it would sound like "po-tshe-BU-yeu" with the -yeu having a strong nasal tone to it.