You just have to internalize the sound patterns — after all, in English, you don’t have to stop and think that the “-s” of a plural is pronounced /s/ after a voiceless consonant and pronounced /z/ after a vowel or voiced consonant! :)
yes! I have great fun repeating to my Polish friends how Polish is actually simpler than English in pronounciation -- how it's spelt is ALWAYS how it is pronounced.
While in English you have
BOUGH
TOUGH
COUGH
All pronounced differently! And then why does mass have two 's" and Christmas only one? Ditto for full and joyful?
;-P
Oh and talking about plurals -- polish is insane in that respect (as in many!) -- in English, noun plurals are simple -- mostly "s". In Polish, not so simple.
For neuter, always "a" except for dziecko (child) = dzieci, ucho = uczy, oko = oczy (ear and eye resp.)
In Feminine and Masuline non-personal it is "e" for soft stems (hotel = hotele, ulica = ulice), y for hard consonants (dziewczieny,kobiety)
for Masculine personal, it goes crazy.
Polak = Polacy
Niemiec (German)=Niemcy
Pan = Panowie (Mr.)
Lekarz = Lekarze (doctor)
Okulist = okuliści
Student = studenci
it's crazy i tell you!
And I know French, Spanish, Italian and some German and Farsi and a smattering of Arabic and Hindi— and while each has it’s craziness (the French with it’s pluperfect subjunctive used only in literature and the German with it’s changes depending on third person gender — ok, Spanish and Italian are easy) Polish is challenging — and I love it for being that one, one get’s a sense of accomplishment!