Polish language

These pages try to explain the Polish language. Because of the complexity of it's grammar, this cannot cover all details. But nevertheless it should include all of the most important facts. So you should be able to survive in any part of the world where Polish is the language of choice (in case you do have some vocabulary knowledge).

Pronunciation

In Polish, one pronounces every letter (apart from the combinations ch, cz, sz, dź, dż and rz) separately.

ę is pronounced as "en", like the French nasal e.
As with ą, the ę is pronounced as "em" before "b" or "p".
A final ę is pronounced as a usual Polish "e".
 

if a consonant is followed by an "i" it is softened.

Usually the 2nd last syllable is stressed.
But there are also a few cases in which the 3rd last syllable is stressed. Usually these are foreign words.
If a monosyllabic preposition and a monosyllabic pronoun stand together the preposition is stressed. The same happens with the combination nie and verb

Grammar

Verbs

Infinitive  Conjunction groups  Reflexive verbs  Imperative  Passive voice  Negation  Present tense  Past tense  Future tense  Conditional tense  Modal auxiliary verbs

There are two kinds of verbs in the Polish language, perfective and imperfective verbs.
You use the perfective verbs for completed or single actions, single actions in the future and actions which will be completed in the future.
You use the imperfective verbs for actions still in progress, extending over a longer time period, repeated and habitual actions.
Perfective verbs occur only in past tense, simple future and conditional tense.
Imperfective verbs occur in present tense, past tense, composite future and in the conditional tense.

Infinitive:
There are 15 different endings for infinitive verbs in Polish:
ać, ować, ywać, iwać, awać, ąć, nąć, eć, ieć, ić, yć, uć, ść, źś and c.
Some verbs have non-reflexive and reflexive forms, sometimes even with total different meanings.
Function:
    - for impersonal expressions
    - after modal auxiliaries
    - as object for an other verb
    - to express the English gerund
    - as complement for the verb "być" (to be)
    - in passive expressions with verbs (like: czuć, słychać, widać or znać)
    - as a object for an imperative expressions
    - official imperative expressions (without 'proszę')
    - polite imperative expressions (with 'proszę')
    - in noun clauses

Verb conjugation groups:
There are 4 main categories, and some of them do have sub-groups as well.
Only the verb być falls in non of these categories.
Conjugation 1: Nearly all verbs ending in ać (except of ować, ywać, iwać or awać). Mieć belong in it as well.
Conjugation 2: Some verbs ending in ieć belong into this category. The verb jeść belongs to here to.
Conjugation 3a: Verbs ending in awać, iwać, ować or ywać.
Conjugation 3b: Some verbs ending ać, eć, uć or yć.
Conjugation 3c: Verbs in ać, eć, eć, uc, yc and c.
Conjugation 3d: All verbs ending in nąć or ąć belong to this group.
Conjugation 3e: Verbs ending with ść (but not jeść) and źć.
Conjugation 4a: These verbs end in bić, mić, nić, pić or wić.
Conjugation 4b: Most verbs in ić, and a few ending oić, eić or ać.
Conjugation 4c: These usually end in yć and some verbs in eć as well. The verb stem ends usually with cz, szcz, ż, żdż or rz.

Reflexive verbs:
Reflexive verbs have the additionally reflexive pronoun się.
This pronoun stands after the 1st stressed word or close to the reflexive verb. Only in very short sentences it can be at the end.

Imperative:
Both, perfective and imperfective verbs, do have a imperative form. It is used to express 'do now' or 'do always' with imperfect verbs. And with perfective verbs to say 'do once in competition and in the future'.
Usually the imperative is used for negative commands. (do not...)
Formation:
Conjugation 1 + 2: Take the 4rd person plural and remove the ą of the future (imp) or present (per) tense- to get the form for the 2nd person singular. For the 1st person plural just add then my. And cie for the 2nd person singular.
Conjugation 3 + 4:
    a) usually remove the ending e, i or y from the 3rd person singular of the future (imp) or present (per) tense.
    b) verbs ending in cić, nić, sić, zić or dzić lost the iof the 3rd person singular form.
    c) the vowel o if often changed to ó
    d) verbs that end in a consonant cluster add ij or yj
    e) there are some irregular verbs:
        być - bądź
        brać - bierz
        dać - daj
        dawać - dawaj
        mieć - miej
        wysłać - wyślij
        wziąć - weź
    f) some verbs don't have a imperative form at all, these use the additionally word niech.
        boleć, brakować, jeździć, kosztować, lubić, potrzebować, słyszeć, widzieć and woleć
    the two plural forms are created as in the conjugation group 1
The 3rd person singular and plural forms (including polite addresses) use the word niech before the verb. Alternatively you can use proszę for that too.
 

Passive voice:
The passive voice is used to express actions done to a subject (as in English).
Formation:
Perfective verbs:
    Past: został/a/o (singular), zostali/zostały (plural)
    Future: zostanie (singular), zostaną (plural)
    Conditional: został/a/o + by (singular), zostali/zostały + by (plural)
Imperfective verbs:
    Present: jest (singular), są (plural)
    Past: był/a/o (singular), byli/były (plural)
    Future: będzie (singular), będą (plural)
    Conditional: był/a/o + by (singular), byli/były + by (plural)
+ adjectival participle passive

Negation:
The particle nie belongs before the verb.

Present tense:
This tense is only available for imperfective verbs. It expresses action in progress, repeated and habitual actions.
Perfective verbs conjugated this way express the simple future.

być:

Conjugation 1:

Conjugation 2:

Conjugation 3a:

Conjugation 3b:
Here some just the ć is replaced.

Conjugation 3c:

Some consonant changing at the stem end do occur here:
verbs in ać: r -> rz; s ->sz; k->cz; z->ż; m->mi; p->pi; t->cz; w- >wi
all other: g-> ż; r->rz; k->cz

Conjugation 3d:

Verbs in ąć add a "n" or "m" before the ending. Sometimes consonants change then too.

Conjugation 3e:

Here the following changes occur: s->si; n-> ni; z->zi; t->ci; d->dzi

Conjugation 4a:

Conjugation 4b:

Here these consonant changing occur at the stem end: si-> sz; zi -> ż; ści -> szcz; ździ -> żdż
Verbs in ioć, eić and ać add a "j" before the ę and the ą in the endings.

Conjugation 4c:

Past tense:
Unlike as in the present tense, there are different forms for males, females and neuters in singular. And male and non-male in plural.
To form this tense, you cut off the ending ć from the verb and add one of these endings:

But there are some exceptions:
1) verbs in eć change the e to an "a" before ł.
2) verbs in ąć and nąć change the ą to ę except in the masculine singular form.
3) verbs in c, ść and żś:
        imperfective: insert the same consonant as in their present tense before the l or ł
        perfective: insert the same consonant as in the present tense of their imperfective counterpart

Future tense:
There are two ways for formation for imperfect verbs.
1) The future form of być + infinitive of the verb
2) The future form of być + past tense of the verb

For perfective verbs, the future forms are conjugated as they would in present tense.

Irregular forms:
dać : dam, dadz, da, damy, dacie, dadzą
pomóc : pomogę, pomożesz, pomoże, pomożemy, pomożecie, pomogą
pójść : pójdę, pójdziesz, pójdzie, pójdziemy, pójdziecie, pójdą
wejść : wejdę, wejdziesz, wejdzie, wejdziemy, wejdziecie, wejdą
wyjść : wyjdę, wyjdziesz, wyjdzie, wyjdziemy, wyjdziecie, wyjdą
dojść : dojdę, dojdziesz, dojdzie, dojdziemy, dojdziecie, dojdą
przyjść: przyjdę, przyjdziesz, przyjdzie, przyjdziemy, przyjdziecie, przyjdą

Conditional tense:
Function:
    wishes and polite requests
    polite but somewhat aggressive commands
    commands, fears, advice, doubts or wishes in sub-clauses (after żeby)
    hypothetical conditions in present, past or future (possible + impossible)

Formation:
    take the 3rd person singular or plural of the past tense plus these endings:

usually one uses perfective verbs, but for regular desired (etc.) actions you have to use imperfect verbs.

Modal auxiliary verbs:
There are 6 modal auxiliary verbs in the Polish language: chcieć, mieć, móc, musieć, potrafić and powinienem. These are followed by an infinitive verb although chcieć and mieć can be used as normal verbs as well, then they are not followed by an other verb.
chcieć = to want
musieć = to have to, must (negative is "do not have to"!)
móc = to be able/allowed
mieć = to be supposed
potrafić = to know
powinienem = should

Nouns

Diminutives  Gender  Nominative case  Vocative case  Accusative case  Genitive case  Locative case  Instrumental case   Dative case  Irregular nouns

Unlike in the English language, nouns do change in different contexts. A noun depends on it's case which again depends on the gender, number and position of the noun.
The three genders are: masculine, feminine and neuter. There are all together 7 cases in Polish: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, locative, instrumental and dative. Unfortunately there is a number of nouns that are declined irregularly.
 

Diminutives:
This feature denotes the smallness or fondness of a person or object.
For ordinary nouns:
Nouns whose stem is not ending k add "ek" for masculine, "ka" for feminine and "ko" for neuter nouns.
Nouns whose stem is ending in k or c add "czek" for masculine, "eczka" for feminine and "eczko" for neuter nouns while the k or c disappears. These endings can also be used to form the diminutive of a diminutive. In some cases the noun turns out to be not pronounceable, then you use the endings "szek", "szka" and "szko" instead.
Masculine nouns in c, cz, rz, sz add "yk" - for further diminutives use "yczek"
Masculine nouns in d, j, ł and t add "ik" - for further diminutives use "iczek"
For proper names:
Here you add "ątko", "cia", "ina", "la", "unia", "sia" or "zia". Male proper names take usually "ek", "io", "iu" or "uś". The form "ocha" is only used colloquially and pejoratively.
 

Gender:
masculine: these nouns don't have a ending as such, they usually end with a consonant, a few also with a vowel. Some nouns and with an "a", these are declined as feminine in singular but as masculine in plural.
feminine: these end with "a", some also with "i" or "ść" - but there are some others that end with a consonant as well.
neuter: these have the endings: o, e, ię, ę and um
Masculine nouns denoting a profession, relationship or an animal can be changed in a feminine form:
nouns not ending "k" add "ka" or "anka"
nouns ending "k": "ca" or "czka"
But some nationalities' feminine forms are  formed by adding "owa" or "ewna".
Some feminine nouns end also in "yni"
A few nouns can't be changed, so you have to add "pani" to that noun.
 

Nominative case:
The singular is the standard form of the noun.

Plural:
Masculine: (not men!)

these vowel changing occur for the last stem vowel:
ó -> o
ą -> ę
Masculine: (men)

Those consonant alternations occur:
k: cy
g: dzy
r: rzy
t: ci
st: ści
ch: si
d: dzi
z: zi
ł: li
Feminine:

Neuter:

Vocative case:
This case is used to address people, animals or objects. But in case you call someone you use the nominative case. Usually in colloquial language you don't use this case at all - and rather the nominative. In greetings with Pan, Pani or "Państwo" the dative case is used.

Singular:
Masculine:

Changings occur as in the locative case.
Feminine:

Neuter: do not change

Plural: as in nominative plural.
 

Accusative:
The accusative case is used for direct objects (not with negative verbs), in statements about health, after certain prepositions or for the period of an action.

Singular:
Masculine: (objects only!) This form doesn't change except fruits, vegetables, vehicles, units of currency, games, dances and cigarettes, these add an "a".
Masculine: (alive nouns) Those not ending in "a" don't change. Nouns in "a" change the a to "ę".
Feminine:

Neuter: do not change

Plural:
Masculine (not men!): use the nominative plural
Masculine (men and those ending in "a"): use the genitive plural.
Feminine: as in the nominative case
Neuter: as in the nominative case
 

Genitive case:
This is used to denote possession, for a direct object with a negative verb, after certain positive verbs, after number 5 and upwards, to express quantity, to express "some", for vague times and after certain preposition.
These alternations do occur:
o: ó    ę: ą    sometimes an extra "e" is added
when ending with a consonant: ó: o    ą: ę    sometimes a "e" is lost

Singular:
Masculine nouns:

Alternations:
iec, ec-> ca
niec-> ńca
ść -> ścia
ek -> ka
ier, er-> ra
U-List:
abstract nouns, collective nouns, substances, liquids, gases, many foreign words, cities, rivers and mountains plus nouns derived from verbs and days.
A-List:
fruits, vegetables, vehicles, units of currency, games, dances, cigarettes, tools, parts of the body, most Polish towns, units of the day and nouns ending in ek, ik or yk.
Feminine:

Neuter:

Plural:
Masculine:

Feminine:

Neuter:

Some positive nouns require the genitive case instead the accusative. Here is a list:
bać się, brakować, bronić, chcieć, doczekiwać, domagać się, domyślać się, dotykać, dotyczyć, dożyć, najeść się, napić się, oczekiwać, pilnować, potrzebować, pragnąć, próbować, przestrzegać, pytać się, szukać, słuchać, spodziewać się, uczyć się, używać, wstydzić się, wymagać, zapominać, żałować, żądać and życzyć.
 

Locative case:
This case is only used after these prepositions: na, o, po, przy and w.

Singular:
These consonant alternations do occur:

And those vowel alternations as well:

Masculine:

Feminine: This is the same as in the genitive case except for nouns ending in a hard stem + a, they change the a to e or ie.
Neuter:

Plural:

Instrumental case:
You use this case for the predicate of the verbs "to be" and "to call". For the time or duration of an action, for the means, route or tool used to perform this action. Plus it's used after certain verbs in prepositions.

Singular:
Masculine:

Feminine:

Neuter:

Plural:

Verbs that require this case: bawić się, być, cieszyć się, dysponować, interesować się, kierować, martwić się, napełniać, niepokoić, obciążać, obładowywać, ochraniać, obdarzać, ogradzać, opiekować się, otaczać, pachnąć, pokrywać, posługiwać się, smucić się, stawać się, sterować, władać, zajmować się, zasłaniać, zasnuwać and zostać.
 

Dative case:
This case is used for the indirect object and after certain verbs, impersonal expressions and prepositions.

Singular:
Masculine:

Feminine: same as locative singular.
Neuter:

Plural:

These verbs require this case: być do twarzy, darować, dawać, dawać znać, docinać, dokuczać, dziękować, dziwić się, grozić, kazać, meldować, mówić, nadawać się, odpowiadać, opowiadać, pisać, płacić, podobać się, pokazywać, pomagać, powiadać, pozwalać, pożyczać, przeszkadzać, przyglądać się, przykazywać, przypominać, radzić, rozkazywać, służyć, szkodzić, ufać, ulegać, wierzyć, wybaczać, zabierać, zadawać, zagrażać and życzyć.

Some irregular nouns:
dzień, tydzień, człowiek, pieniądz, rok, przyjaciel, brat, ojciec, ksiądz, orzeł, rząd, kwiecień, pan, pies, pani, gospodyni, ręka, wieś, rzecz, kolej, nić, dziecko, oko, ucho, książę, radio, studi, państwo and lato.

Pronouns

General usage  Personal pronouns  Reflexive pronouns  Possessive pronouns   Demonstrative pronouns  Interrogative pronouns  Distributive pronouns  Relative pronouns  Indefinite pronouns

General usage:
Basically a pronoun replaces a noun. All pronouns, but not the reflexive pronouns, decline for gender, number and case of the noun which they replace. Some pronouns are identical to their adjective counterpart.
 

Personal pronouns:
In Polish, you have three types of personal pronouns: ordinary, emphatic and prepositional.

Ordinary:
These are used when there is no need for emphasis and if the pronoun does not follow a preposition.
The pronouns ty and wy are sometimes used with a personal name to attract attention.
The pronouns mię, mi, cię, ci, go and mu cannot start the sentence nor can they carry the sentence stress.
Usually you omit the nominative case personal pronoun, except in cases where this may lead to misinterpretations since there is a verb beginning like a pronoun. myjemy and jemy for example - both have totally different meanings.
 

Note: There is no locative case for ordinary personal pronouns.

You use ty and wy only for persons you know well (friends, family-members, ...). In all other cases you use the formal form namely the nouns pan (for a man), pani (for a woman), panowie (for men), panie (for women), państwo (for mixed groups) and panna (for young woman) and panienka (for young women). However the last two forms can be in some case politically incorrect, so be careful with them.
Often you use Pan, Pani or Panna before the first names to imply familiarity.
Please note: Pan, Pani and Panna should have a capital "P", esp. in letters.

Emphatic:
As the name states, you use this form if you need to put emphases on the pronoun. However, there is no emphatic form for all ordinary personal pronouns. If none does exist, you use the ordinary form instead.
 

Prepositional:
This form is used after a preposition.
 

Reflexive pronouns:
These are used when the object of the verb is the same as the subject. These do not decline for number and gender.
 

Possessive pronouns:
These are used to express the possession of an object. These are actually adjectives, therefore declined as adjectives.
 

Demonstrative pronouns:
These pronouns are declined as demonstrative adjectives.
 

Interrogative pronouns:
The pronouns jaki/jaka/jakie, który/która/które and czyj/czyja/czyje are declined as adjectives therefore here I will only explain kto, co, nikt and nic.
In fact nikt is the negative form of kto, and nic the negation of co.
 

The genitive of co (czego) together with the preposition dla forms the word dlaczego. But often this word is replaced by the dative of co (czemu).
 

Distributive pronouns:
These decline as an adjective.
Note: żaden requires a double negation.
 

Relative pronouns:
Który/która/które (see interrogative pronouns) is often replaced by co in speech, and always after to and kto. W and który is often shorted to gdzie.
 

Indefinite pronouns:
There are two ways to form them, 1st by adding ś and 2nd by adding kolwiek.
You add ś if you want to express "some". To express "at all" or the suffix "ever" you use kolwiek. Both endings are not declineable.

Adjectives

  General Information  Attributive adjectives  Possessive adjectives  Demonstrative adjectives  Distributive adjectives  Interrogative adjectives  Relative adjectives  Indefinite adjectives   Numerical adjectives  Differences in usage  Declension  Adjectival participles  Comparative  Superlative   Negation  Formation from verbs   Formation from nouns

General Information:
The adjective qualifies a noun or pronoun. It's in the same case, number and gender as the noun or pronoun it describes.
Some adjectives are also used as pronouns.
 

Attributive adjectives:
These stands before the noun if they describe an incidental feature of it and they follow the noun when they describe a intrinsic feature.
Nominative singular:
There are 3 groups of them:
group a: adjectives that end in y (for masculine form), a (for feminine form) and e (for neuter form).
group b: adjectives that end in gi/ga/gie or ki/ka/kie.
group c: adjectives that end in i/ia/ie.

a few adjectives have an alternative form of masculine singular nominative:
ciekaw: ciekawy
godzien: godny
gotów: gotowy
pełen: pełny
pewien: pewny
świadom: świadomy
wesół: wesoły
winien: winny
zdrów: zdrowy
rad and wart don't have any long form.
Nominative plural:
All adjectives not referring to all men or men+women groups use the nominative singular neuter form.
Adjectives referring to a group of men or a group of men and women take the ending i. But some consonant alternations do occur.
 

In some cases, if sound demands, the ending is y.
 

Possessive adjectives:
 

For the polite forms (pan, pani, etc.) you use their genitive form since they are not adjectives but nouns.

The forms for jego (his), jej (her) and ich (their) do not decline at all. In fact they use the genitive of the personal pronoun.

There is an other word to express possession: swój. It means "my own", "your own", "his own" etc.:

Demonstrative adjectives:
These point an object out.
 

demonstrative "self":
For this you use sam/sama/samo not się. This adjective agrees to the noun's or pronoun's gender, number and case.

To express "the same" meaning the same identity you use ten + sam/sama/samo. Plus "co" for comparisons.
To express "the same" meaning the same appearance, design, character, etc. you use taki + sam/sama/samo. Plus "jak" for comparisons.
 

Distributive adjectives:
These are used the select things out of a set.

Interrogative adjectives:
Use these to ask a question. Usually it's separated from the noun.

Relative adjectives:
You use them too express "what" and "which" followed by a noun.
To express this you take the form that corresponds with the noun of the adjective "który".
 

Indefinite adjectives:
You add the ś at the end of the declined adjective. This is done to express some.
However "some" is also expressed when using the genitive case.
"Any" is expressed by żaden. While "Many" and "a few" are adverbs.
 

Numerical adjectives:
Numbers, cardinal and ordinal, decline as adjectives. See also Numerals.
 

Differences in usage:
After verbs of looking, feeling you use an adverb.
 

Declension:
Note: For male persons you use the genitive instead of the accusative. In men plural nominative and vocative cases you use the ending of nominative plural men declination for nouns.

Adjectives in y, a and e:

Adjectives in i, a and ie:

Possessive adjectives mój, twój and swój:

nasz and wasz are declined as adjectives with ending y. In plural men nominative and vocative they take the ending i.

Demonstrative adjectives ten, ta and to:

Adjectival participles:
There are 3 forms: present active, present passive and past passive. They are used to replace a relative clause.
All these decline as normal adjectives.
The present forms are made with imperfect verbs only, while the past form uses perfective verbs only.

Present active:
Translates the ending "ing"
To form: add the endings below to the present participle of the verb.

Present passive:
Translates "being"
To form: remove the ć from the verb's infinitive and add the ending any/ana/ane/ane/ani. They are declined as normal adjectives.

Past passive:
Translates "who, which, that has, had been"
To form:
Verbs in ać and eć: remove the ć or eć from the infinitive and add any/ana/ane/ane/ani.
Verbs ending ić and yć: remove the ć or yć and add ony/ona/one/one/eni.
Verbs ending ść with d or t in 1st person singular: remove ść and add dziony/dziona/dzione/dzione/dzieni.
Verbs ending in źć: remove the źć and add ziony/ziona/zione/zione/zieni.
Verbs ending in nąć: remove the nąć and add ięty/ięta/ięte/ięte/ięci.
Verbs ending in ąć: remove the ąć and add ęty/ęta/ęte/ęte/ęci.
Verbs ending in ić, yć and uć with j occurring in future tense: remove the ć and add ity/ita/ite/ite/ici.
 

Comparative:
Most adjectives' comparative form is made by replacing the ending (y, a, ie, e, i, ki, gi, oki, ogi, eki) with these below.

e.g.: nowy: mowszy, mowsza, nowsze, nowsze and nowsi
In some cases the adjective softens it's hard stem - so that sometimes also vowel alternations do occur:

Adjectives that have already two or more consonants at the stem ending insert ej before the new ending: ładny: ładnieszy
And here again some consonants do change:

There are also some irregular forms:

Apart from the irregular forms above, there is a number of adjectives that's comparative is formed completely different.
These adjectives are usually long or seldom used adjectives as well as those preceded by nie.
Their comparative is formed by putting bardziej before the adjective.
interesujący: bardziej interesujący
leniwy: bardziej leniwy
niebezpieczny: bardziej niebezpieczny

To compare you have to use niż. However you can replace this conjunction with the preposition od followed by the genitive case while you would use the nominative with niż.
 

Superlative:
To form this you add naj before the adjective. Adjectives that use bardziej in the comparative add naj before the bardziej.

There are two ways to emphasis the superlative.
1st by adding ze wszystkich to express "of all".
2nd by putting jak before the adjective to express "as...as possible".
 

Negation:
To express the opposite of a adjective put the particle nie at the beginning of the adjective.
 

Formation from verbs:
Put the suffix ny/na/ne to the verb stem. Sometimes an extra l is added before this suffix.
 

Formation from nouns:
There is a big amount of possible endings: ski/cki/dzki, owy, ny, czny or ijny/yiny. When such a suffix is added, nouns ending in a vowel lose the ending, nouns in ek lost the e. Nouns in ó as the last stem vowel change it to o. After hard stem consonant groups an extra e is added.

Adverbs

Regulars  Irregulars  Usage  Comperative  Superlative  Negation 

Regulars:
Adverbs are made out of the corresponding adjective. The ending -y/-i is replaced by -o (in some cases with -ie). A "s" before -nie changes to the soft ś. (własny -> właśnie)
długi -> długo (long)
ładny -> ładnie (nice/ly)
wolny -> wolno (slow/ly)

Irregulars:
They add an e because of that consonant alternations occur.
dobry -> dobrze
mądry -> mądrze
zły -> źle
The adjective duży (big) has two adverbs: dużo and wiele. Dużo meaning much, is used for non-countable nouns while wiele (many) with plural nouns. The following noun is in the genitive case.

Usage:
Adverbs ae used as in English, with the small exception, that in Polish you use adverbs also for verbs of feeling and looking.

Comparative:
Adverbs ending in -e/-ie add a -j. (ładnie -> ładniej)

For more details on comparative look at the page about adjectives.

Superlative:
To form the superlative add (as with adjectives) naj before the comparative of an adverb. (ładniej -> najładniej)

Negation:
Most adverbs form their opposite form by adding nie in the beginning.  (dobrze -> niedobrze)

Prepositions

Accusative Genitive Locative Instrumental Dative

To the prepositions bez, nad, od, pod, przed, przez, w and z an "e" is added, when they are followed by the pronouns mnie and mną and difficult consonant groups.

Accusative case:
They are used to express motion or aim towards a person or object.
Przez (meaning through, across, via) is always followed by the accusative.
Verbs that are followed by na, w, za, o or po are followed by the accusative case as well.

Genitive Case:
Here is a list of prepositions requiring this case when they specify the static position of two objects relative to each other:
blisko (near), daleko (far from), dokoła (around), koło (near), naprzeciw[ko] (opposite), niedaleko (near), obok (beside), poniżej (below), powyżej (above), spod (from near), u (at), w pobliżu (in the vicinity of), wewnątrz (inside), wsród (among), wszerz (along - width), wzdłuż (along - length), zewnątrz (outside), znad (from near)

These prepositions are always followed by the genitive case:
bez (without), dla (for), do (to, towards, into), mimo (despite), na kształk (in the shape of), od (from), podczas (during), prócz (apart from), w [prze]ciągu (in the course of), według (according to), wskutek (on account of), z (out of, from), z powodu (because of), za (as far back as), za pomocą (with the help of), zamiast (instead of)

Locative Case:
All prepositions of the locative case can be used with the accusative case to denote motion, except the preposition przy.
na (on, at, in – open area), o (about, concerning, at), po (along, after), przy (near, close to, by), w (in, inside - enclosed area)

Instrumental Case:
All prepositions following, can be used as well in the accusative case to denote motion, apart from z.
między (among, between), nad (above, over), pod (below, under), przed (in front of), z (with), za (behind, beyond).

Dative Case:
These prepositions require the dative:
dzięki (due to), ku (towards), precziw[ko] (against), wbrew (contrary to).

Conjunctions

Conjunctions can join words, phrases or clauses which have the same function in the sentence. This type is called Coordinating conjunction. The other possible function, called subordinating conjunction, introduces noun and adverbial clauses. This type either joins clauses or begins a sentence.

Coordinating conjunctions:
 

You need commas:
- before ale and lecz
- before a if the preceding and the following clause contrast with each other
- before the 2nd of two identical conjunctions

Subordination conjunctions:
There are 7 different types of subordinate clauses to introduce a subordinate clause. These are: cause, comparison, concession, condition, purpose, result and time.

Cause:

Comparison:

If the verb in the main clause and in the jak-clause are identical the verb in the jak-clause is omitted.

Concession:

Condition:

Purpose:

Result:

Time:

Numerals

  Cardinal numbers  Ordinal numbers   Indefinite numbers  Fractions and decimal numbers  Age  Dates and times

A complete list of the Polish numbers (Cardinal and Ordinal), you find at this external page.

Cardinal numbers:
They are declined as adjectives.

One (jeden, jedna, jedno)

Actually there is no accusative form for Masculine creatures (men, animals, etc.), so the genitive is used instead.

Two (dwa, dwie, dwa):
For persons of mixed gender, children and young animals, one uses dwoje. The same applies to objects that don't have a singular form.

Three (trzy) and four (cztery):
For persons of mixed gender, children and young animals, one uses troje (czworo). The same applies to objects that don't have a singular form.

There are two different forms for the men nominative case: The 1st requires the verb being in plural. While the 2nd version (which usually is used in colloquial Polish) demands a verb in singular but the noun has to be in the genitive case.

Five (pięć) and onwards:
These numbers are, in the nominative and accusative case) only declined when they refer to men. There is only one declination for these numbers. In Polish all numbers from 5 onwards are treated as quantities. This means that a number in the nominative, accusative or genitive case always refers to a noun in the genitive case.
The instrumental case has an alternative ending for numbers 5-90. This replaces the u with oma:
pięcioma, cześcioma, dziewięcioma, etc...
Numbers consisting of up to 3 elements, decline each unit. Exception: jeden is never declined when not alone. Numbers of more than 3 elements decline usually only the last two units. But there is also the possibility to decline all elements.
 

Thousand (tysiąc) and million (milion):
They are declined as nouns and are always followed by a noun in the genitive case. Nevertheless they only take a singular verb.
 

Ordinal numbers:
These are declined as adjectives.

Indefinite numbers:
Such numbers in the nominative, accusative and genitive case the following noun has to be in the genitive case. The verb follows in singular. There are two possible endings for the instrumental case.

Fractions and decimal numbers:
They consist of a cardinal number followed by an ordinal number which is declined as an adjective. These expressions are feminine. Any noun to which this number is referred to stands in the genitive case.
Important: In the Polish language one uses the comma as the decimal point.
e.g.:
half = pół (this is not declineable) or połowa (what is a noun)
third = jedna trzecia
two thirds = dwie trzecie
0.1 0,1 = jedna dziesiąta
0.5 0,5 = pięć dziesiątych

Age:
To express how old some one is you have to say that this person got ... years.
The plural of rok (year) is lata (summers).
Mam dwadziestu pięciu laty. (I'm 25 years old)

Dates and times:
The day, the month and year stand in the genitive case. While in the year only the last two digits are declined.

The clock time is expressed with the ordinal number plus the words godzina (hour) and minuta (minute). Both are female.
You would say:
"at what hour?"
"it's the 8th hour and 20 minutes"
Godzina and minuta are usually omitted.

Particles

Czy:
This particle starts yes-no questions.
Czy kochasz mię? (Do you love me?)
Czy ona ma kotkę? (Does she have a cat?)

Li:
This is an obsolete form of the particle czy.
Kochasz-li mię? = Czy kochasz mię?
Ona ma-li kotkę? = Czy ona ma kotkę?

No:
1. Express warning, impatience or amazement:
No, chodź już, chodź. (Oh, come on, come on.)
2. It adds force to a command:
Chodź no tutaj. (Come here.)
3. To express finality:
No, to do widzenia. (Well then, bye.)

Że:
This one adds force to commands or questions.
1. For commands it is add to the imperative of the verb:
Przestańże. (Stop it.)
2. In questions to the word czy or to other question words in the past tense. But: the verb endings resulting from the conjugation in the past tense are added to the że!
Gdzieżeś był? (Usually you would put the ś at the verb był)
3. To an adjective or adverb.

Niech:
This particle is used in commands and wishes.

Oby:
The same as niech but used only for wishes.

By:
1. To form the conditional tense, it is attached to the verb before the personal ending.
2. To form impersonal expressions, it is attached to the 3rd person singular.
3. In case it's together wit the infinitive it stands alone and is not attached to the verb.

Nie:
This particle is used for negations. Usually it stands before the negated phrase. This particle is also used to form negative forms of adjectives and adverbs.

Ś:
This particle is added to pronouns to get their indefinite forms.

To:
Use this particle to emphasize your statement.

Ci:
This particle is used only in colloquial speech. It basically means "for you".

A:
1. Used as a link to an idea mentioned before.
2. To strengthen a phrase (or word).
 

Sentence Structure

Adjectives  Sub and main clauses  Emphasis  Commas  Direct speech 

In general one uses the same pattern as in English: Subject - Predicate - Object.
But because of case, gender and number inflections in Polish you can handle this scheme quite flexible.
In questions and imperative sentences the word order is exactly the same as it would be in English.

If the sentence contains a pronoun as a subject, it usually is omitted.
So you can say "Mam kotkę." instead of "Ja mam kotkę.". (meaning "I have a cat.")

Adverbs and the negation particle nie usually precede the word or phrase.

Adjectives:
Adjectives stand before the noun if they refer to an incidental feature of the noun. In case they refer to an intrinsic feature they follow the noun. Possessives, demonstratives, etc. always precede the noun.
To jest niebieska książka. (This is a blue book.)
To jest książka niebieska. (This is the blue book.)
To jest moja nsiążka. (This is my book.)

Sub and main clauses:
If you have a main and one (or more) subordinate clauses, the main clause is usually the 1st. In some cases the opposite is possible, esp. when the sub-clause begins with jeśli, jeżeli or gdyby.

Emphasis:
The phrase that should be emphasized usually stands right in the beginning of the sentences. In some cases it can also be put at the end of the sentence.

Commas:
1. Between phrases (or words) that of the same grammatical function.
Przychodziłem, widziełem, zwyciężąłem. (I came, saw and won.)
2. After an interjection. In this case you can also use an exclamation mark as you would in English.
Cześć, jak się panu powodzi? or Cześć! Jak się panu powodzi? (Hi! How are you?)
3. Before conjunctions as a, ale, lecz and before conjunctions that begin a sub clause.
4. Before the 1st of two conjunctions standing together.
5. If you add extra information to a sentence using i to; i tak; albo or raczej, you have to put the comma before this conjunction and if the original sentence continues after the interlude, a comma is needed at the end of the interjection too.
6. Before relative clauses, which are usually introduced by który.

Direct speech:
In Polish one uses dashes ( - ) to indicate direct speech. It is only required in the beginning and when the narrator adds a comment.
-Gdzie jest ona - zapytała Ala - Nie ma jej tutaj.
"Where is she?" asked Ala. "She is not here."

You use " to enclose speech within speech and around thoughts, quotations and figurative references.

Polish Pronunciation

Several Polish letters cannot be easily viewed on the WWW. They will be represented by the ascii characters: a, an a with a tail curling to the right; e, an e with a tail; c' a c with acute accent; l/ an l with a diagonal slash through it; n' an n with an acute accent; s' an s with an acute accent; z' a z with an acute accent; and z. a z with a single dot over it.

Softened Consonants

A common phenomenon in the Slavic languages is "softening" or "softened" pronunciation of consonants. This is made by pronounced a slight 'y' immediately following the letter.

Example: NIE is pronounced NyEH

This occurance happens in the following letters:
C     written     C' or CI
N     written     N' or NI (as in the Spanish ñ)
S     written     S' or SI
Z     written     Z' or ZI (can also occur in the pair dz = dz' or dzi)

It is important to note the voiced consonants become devoiced at the end of words.

Example: CHLEB is pronounced CHLEP

Nazalized Vowels

Polish has two vowels which are nazalized. In theory, nazalization should occur by pronouncing a short French 'n' after the vowel. Such as in the French 'bon'. However, one can easily get away with just pronouncing an regular 'n' after the vowel.

SRESS

The stress falls in Polish on the next to last syllable.

Polnische Aussprache

Einige Zeichen des polnischen Zeichensatzes sind nicht im ISO-Latin-1 Code enthalten, sondern kommen nur im ISO-Latin-2 Code vor. Falls Ihr Browser ISO-Latin-2 unterstützt (z.B. Netscape 3.0 im Options Menü, Eintrag Document Encoding), können Sie die ISO-Latin-2 Variante dieser Seite abrufen.

Hier verwenden wir stattdessen folgende Notationen:

A a,

(ein A mit rechtsdrehender Locke)

E, e,

(ein E mit rechtsdrehender Locke)

C' c'

(ein C mit akutem Akzent)

L/ l/

(ein diagonal durchgestrichenes L)

N' n'

(ein N mit akutem Akzent)

S' s'

(ein S mit akutem Akzent)

Z' z'

(ein Z mit akutem Akzent)

Z. z.

(ein Z mit 'i-Punkt')

Gedämpfte (weiche) Konsonanten

Ein den slavischen Sprachen gemeinsames Phänomen ist die 'gedämpfte' Konsonantenaussprache. Man spricht diese Konsonanten mit einem darauffolgenden sehr kurzen 'J' (jott) aus.

Beispiel: NIE spricht man als NjEH

Das tritt bei folgenden Konsonanten auf:

C

(geschrieben als   C' or CI)

N

(geschrieben als   N' or NI --- wie das Spanische ñ)

S

(geschrieben als   S' or SI)

Z

(geschrieben als Z' or ZI --
 dies kommt auch im Paar dz = dz' oder dzi vor)

Man beachte, daß stimmhafte Konsonanten zu stimmlosen werden, wenn sie am Ende eines Wort stehen.

Beispiel:: CHLEB spricht man als CHLEP aus.

Nasalisierte Vokale

Im Polnischen gibt es zwei Vokale, die 'nasalisiert' werden. Man spricht theoretisch diese Vokale wie ein französiches 'N' aus (z.B. wie im französischen Wort 'bon'). Es fällt aber auch kaum auf, wenn man ein gewöhnliches 'n' nach dem Vokal spricht.

BETONUNG

Die Betonung aller mehrsilbigen polnischen Wörter liegt auf der vorletzten Silbe