To meet the needs of the complex sounds comprising the Polish language, the Latin alphabet was altered and a number of consonant clusters and diacritical marks applied. A phonetic language, Polish has a consistent relationship between pronunciation and spelling so that a group of letters are always pronounced in the same way. Polish has seven vowel sounds and 35 consonant sounds. The grammar is complicated with word endings changing depending on the case, number and gender. Of the original singular, dual and plural, the dual has disappeared.
Verbs are inflected according to gender as well as person and number.
Word order is highly flexible. Until the political changes in 1990, Russian was a compulsory language in primary and secondary schools along with the native language. This situation ended with the demise of Polish communism although many Poles retain a working knowledge of the language. English and German are the best understood foreign languages. In the case of English, until comparatively recently its usage was confined to the better educated and in larger urban centres.