Polish Grammar
Polish Grammar
Polish Grammar
Introduction
Nouns in nominative
Singular
Plural
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Adjectives in nominative
Adjective endings in nominative
This article is under development. It may still contain presentational or spelling
errors that will be resolved shortly.
Introduction
Nominative, called mianownik in the Polish language, is the first of the seven
Polish cases. It describes people, objects and facts, and answers to the
questions
kto? who?
co? what?
The nominatives main function is the subject.
Example sentences:
1. Kto pomaga dziecku? Mama pomaga dziecku.
(Who does help the kid? Mother helps the kid.)
2. Co jest interesujce? Ta nowa ksika jest bardzo interesujca.
(What is interesting? This new book is very interesting.)
Questions of nominative: kto? (who?) and co? (what?)
Noun in nominative
Singular
Since there is no specific article in the Polish language, noun endings have an
important role in the distinction of grammatical genders. Generally
speaking, for all nominative singular nouns the basic rule is:
Nouns ending with consonant are masculine, with the vowel -a or -
i feminine, and those ending with -o , -e or -um are neuters.
However, in Polish grammar one can findmany exceptions to the above rule.
The subject has been extensively described in the chapter grammatical genders
in the Polish language
Plural
Many Polish nouns in their plural form have the endings y, -i or e. However,
there are many exceptions and phonetic changes, especially for the masculine,
so this is not a perfect rule and the proper plural form of many nouns has
just to be memorized.
Below well will give you an overview of some possible forms and the
process of their creation:
Masculine (rodzaj mski)
Plural
Example Usage
endings
1. lekarz
lekarze
(doctor doctors)
2. nauczyciel
nauczyciele
(teacher Masculine nous with the stem ending with so
-(i)e teachers) consonants (-, -d, -, -, -) as well as
3. gob with -c, -dz, -cz, -d, -sz, -, -rz, -l, -j.
gobie*
(pigeon
pigeons)
4. klucz klucze
(key keys)
2. mie mieci
(litter)
3. ssiad
ssiedzi*
(neighbour
neighbours)
4. ogrek
ogrki
(cucumber
cucumbers)
1. dom domy
(house houses)
2. kierownik
kierownicy
(manager
managers)
3. dyrektor
Many masculine nouns with stem ending with
dyrektorzy
-y k, -g, -or, -ec, -er, but not only them. In this
(director
case k to c, gto dz and r to rzchange occur.
directors)
4. st stoy
(table tables)
5. Niemiec
Niemcy
(German
Germans)
Rosjanie
(Russian
Russians)
1. syn synowie
(son sons)
2. ojciec
Masculine nouns referring topeople, family
-owie ojcowie
relations, titles and rarely nationality.
(father fathers)
3. pan panowie
(man men)
1. brat bracia
(brother
brothers)
2. czowiek
Particularit
ies
ludzie
(human
humans)
3. ksidz ksia
(priest priests)
1. mae dziecko
(small kid)
2. due okno
Neuter
(large window)
3. trudne zadanie
(hard task)
In plural there are two possible adjective endings, which follow rules
for personal masculine (y ending) and the so-called mixed masculine (-
ee ending) is applied. After consonants -g and -k the masculine form has
i ending instead of -y.