Polish grammar

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This article describes the grammar of the Polish language , including some linguistic-historical notes and dialectal peculiarities.

Polish as a West Slavic language has 7 cases (cases) and 3 genera (genders) in the declension ; the dual (the two number) has long since ceased to exist. In the inflection of verbs , only the present tense is preserved as the original form ; Past , future and possibility form are formed with auxiliary verbs.

Polish is the only Slavic language that has retained two nasal vowels ( ą and ę ), which are no longer used in the original distribution. On the other hand, Polish no longer knows long vowels, or rather: the shortness or length of vowels are lexically irrelevant. Some letters are pronounced differently in the various Polish dialects (see: Etymology and dialectal variants ).

In the following, diffraction patterns are shown using tables; In square brackets are pronouncements using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) , and italics are individual letters or parts of words in Polish.

Phonology

The pronunciation information according to the IPA is supplemented in this section by a type of phonetic transcription, which tries to paraphrase the Polish sounds according to the reading of Standard German, even if this is only possible approximately. The following table shows the Polish alphabet and a correspondence between common groups of letters and their pronunciation; Details are explained in the rest of the chapter.

The alphabet, spelling and pronunciation of Polish
Letter (s) designation pronunciation variants
a a [a]
ą ą [ɔ̃] s. Section "Variants of the nasal vowels"
b
bi
be
 
[b]
[bʲ]
like p 1
[bʲi] 3
c
ci (!)
ć
ch
cz (!)
ce

ci
 
 
[t͡s]
[t̠͡ɕ]
[t̠͡ɕ]
[x]
[ʈ͡ʂ]
like dz 2
[t̠͡ɕi] 3
like 2
[ʏ] 2
like
d
di
dz
dzi (!)
de
 
 
 
 
[d]
[dʲ]
[d͡z]
[d̠͡ʑ]
[d̠͡ʑ]
like t 1
[dʲi] 3
like c 1
[d̠͡ʑi] 3
like ć 1
e e [ɛ] [e] to / between palatals
ę ę [ɛ̃] s. Section "Variants of the nasal vowels"
f
fi
ef
 
[f]
[fʲ]
like w 2
[fʲi] 3
g
gi
gie
 
[g]
[gʲ]
like k 1
[gʲi] 3
H (!) Ha like ch [ʏ] 2 , ([ɦ] 5 )
i i [i] [ʲ] before vowel, [ʲi] 4
j jot [j] [ʲj] after consonant
k
ki
ka
 
[k]
[kʲ]
like g 2
[kʲi] 3
l
ł
el
[l]
[w]
([lʲ] 5 )
[u] or not at all 4 , ([ł] 5 )
m
mi
em
 
[m]
[mʲ]

[mʲi] 3
n
ni
ń
en

[n]
[ɲ]
[ɲ]
 
[ɲi] 3
 
O O [O] [ɔ]
O o kreskowane /
  oz kreską "o with line" /
  u zamknięte "closed u"
[u]
p
pi
pe
 
[p]
[pʲ]
like b 2
[pʲi] 3
r
rz (!)
he
 
[r] (rolled)
like ż
also voiceless: [r̥] 1
like sz 1 , [rz] (rarely), ([r̝] / [r̝̊] 5 )
s
si
ś
sz (!)
it


 
[s]
[ɕ]
[ɕ]
[ʂ]
like z 2
[ɕi] 3
like ź 2
like ż 2
t
ti
te
 
[t]
[tʲ] or [tʲi] 3
like d 2
u u / u otwarte "open u" [u] [u̯]
w wu [v] [f] 1
y igrek [ɨ]
z
zi (!)
ź
zet

ziet
[z]
[ʑ]
[ʑ]
like s 1
[ʑi] 3
like ś 1
ż żet [ʐ] like sz 1
1 In voiceless consonant groups or in the final part in the pause
2 In voiced consonant groups
3 At the end of the word
4 At the end of the word after consonant
5 Older pronunciation or dialect variant

Vowels

Front vowels Central vowels Back vowels
Closed vowels
Blank vowel trapezoid.svg
i
ɨ
u
ɛ • ɛ ̃
ɔ • ɔ ̃
a
e 1
1 allophone from ɛ in a palatalized setting
almost closed
half closed
medium
half open
almost open
open

Vowel inventory

  • Polish knows the vowels a, e, i, y, o, u (= ó), ą, ę (these are: / a, ɛ, i, ɨ, ɔ, u, ɔ̃ , ɛ̃ /).
  • To e exists besides / ɛ / and the closed pronunciation variant [e] between palatalized vowels: dzi e ń [d͡ʑeɲ] (like 'dschjeejn') "day", Pniewy (like 'pn j eewe') [pɲevɨ] "The city of Pinne".
  • The letters u and ó always have the same pronunciation: samoch ó d ( something like 'sam o chut') [sa'mɔxut] "car".

Vowel duration:

  • The Polish phonemic system does not distinguish between vowel lengths .
  • Unstressed vowels are short, stressed vowels are sometimes spoken stretched: czasami ( something like 'tschaßaami') [ʈ͡ʂa'saˑmi] "sometimes".

Tenseness (degree of opening):

  • The vowels i and u are closed ([i] / [u]): musi [muɕi] “must”.
  • e and o are mostly open ([ɛ] / [ɔ]): może [mɔʐɛ] "maybe".
  • y is an unstressed [ɨ], something like i in German "bin";
    at the end of a word it resembles the Schwa : ryby (like 'ribbe') [rɨbɨ] "fish".

Variants of the nasal vowels:

  • The nasal vowels ą and ę can be realized in many different ways:
Surroundings pronunciation example
especially during the break [ɔɰ̃] / [ɛɰ̃] (like nasales 'ßou') [sɔɰ̃] "are"
ąb
ęb
ąp
ęp
[ɔmb]
[ɛmb]
[ɔmp]
[ɛmp]
trąbić (roughly like 'trombitch') [trɔmbit̠͡ɕ] "
honk " gołębie (roughly like 'gouämbjä') [gɔu̯ɛmbʲɛ] "pigeons"
kąpać (roughly like 'kompatch') [kɔmpat̠͡ɕ] "bathe"
następny (roughly like 'wet-tämpne ') [nas'tɛmpnɨ] "next"
ąd 1
ęd 1
ąt 1
ęt 1
[ɔnd]
[ɛnd]
[ɔnt]
[ɛnt]
oglądać ( something like 'o-glondatch') [ɔ'glɔndat̠͡ɕ] "look at"
prędki (
something like 'prentki') [prɛntkʲi] 3 "quickly"
łączę (
something like 'uontschäo') [wɔnt̠͡ɕɛ] "I connect"
ąg
ęg
ąk
ęk
[ɔŋg]
[ɛŋg]
[ɔŋk]
[ɛŋk]
pociąg ( something like 'po-tchonk') [pɔt̠͡ɕɔŋk] 3 "train"
ręka (
something like 'ränka') ['rɛŋka] "hand / arm"
ądź 2
ędź 2
ąć 2
ęć 2
[ɔɲd̠͡ʑ]
[ɛɲd̠͡ʑ]
[ɔɲt̠͡ɕ]
[ɛɲt̠͡ɕ]
pięć ( something like 'pjäntch') [pʲɛɲt̠͡ɕ] "five"
łabędzie (
something like 'ua-bändchä') [wa'bɛɲd̠͡ʑɛ] "swans"
zdjęcie (
something like 'sdjän-tchä') ['zdjɛɲt̠͡ɕɛ] "photo"
1 The pronunciation [ɔn] / [ɛn] also applies to the affricate AC (z) and E c (z)
2 Also applies to the spelling Adzi / ędzi or ACI / ECI
3 alignment with the sequence consonant or devoicing .
  • Especially at the end of a word, ą and ę have a tendency to be de-nasalized; ę can then tend to 'a'.

Emphasis

  • In general, the penultimate syllable is stressed (and its vowel may be stretched a bit), regardless of whether it belongs to the word stem or an ending:
lekarz (etwa wie 'lä-kasch') [lɛkaʂ] „Arzt“
lekarzem (instr.) (etwa wie 'lä-kaaschäm') [lɛ'kaˑʐɛm] „Arzt“
lekarzami (instr.) (etwa wie 'läka-schaami') [lɛkaʐ'aˑmi] „Ärzte“.
  • If the endings of the verb być “sein” are appended to a word, this has no influence on its stress, so that in the past tense and conditional of a verb the third to last syllable may be stressed: pis a li śmy “we wrote” etc.

Diphthongs (double lute)

nauczyciel /na.u.ʈ͡ʂɨ.t̠͡ɕɛl/ „Lehrer“
idee /i'dɛ.ɛ/ „Ideen“
  • Exceptions are the combinations ia, ie, io, iu , that is: Palatalized consonant + [a, ɛ, ɔ, u]. The declension ending ii is pronounced like a monosyllabic long [i:]: teorii (something like 'ta-orri') [tɛ'ɔri:] "of the theory".

However, diphthongs are definitely spoken:

  • The combination au is spoken in one syllable, at least in foreign words: aula [awla] "Aula".
  • The combination with j and ł creates the monosyllabic compounds aj, ej, yj, oj, uj; ał, eł, ił, ył, oł, ół / uł, ął :
i-diphthongs u-diphthongs
a-initial sound bodaj ( something like 'boddai') [bɔdai̯] "possibly" miał ( something like 'mjau') [mjaw] "he had"
e initial sound sejf ( something like 'ßäif') [sɛi̯f] "Safe" kieł ( something like 'kjäo') [kʲɛw] "tooth"
i initial sound (like 'i-u') [iw] "mud"
y initial sound czyj ( something like 'tschij') [ʈ͡ʂɨi̯] "whose" tył ( something like 'tüu') [tɨw] "buttocks"
o initial sound wojna (something like 'woina') [vɔi̯na] "war" chochoł ( something like 'cho-chou') [xɔxɔw] "summit"
u initial sound niechluj ( something like 'njäch-lui') [ɲɛxlui̯] "lubricant" stół ( something like 'ßtuu') [stuw] "table"
muł (
something like 'muu') [muw] "mule"
ą initial sound minął [mʲinɔ̃w] "has expired"

Consonants

The following table shows the consonants of Polish including their variants and sounds that only occur in some dialects:

Articulation place labial Coronal Dorsal -
Articulation type ↓ Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Retroflex Alveolo-palatal Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasals    m    n    ɲ ŋ
Occlusive pb td (c ɟ) kg
Fricatives fv sz ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ (ç) x ʁ 1 (ɦ)
Affricata d͡z t͡s ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ t̠͡ɕ d̠͡ʑ
Approximants    j    w
Trills    r̥ 1 r
Lateral fricative    (ɬ)
Lateral approximant    l   (ʎ)
1 Allophones in consonant clusters
Sounds in brackets are dialectal variants!

These consonants are divided into 3 groups, which is important for the declination. They are sorted according to voiced or unvoiced pairs:

  • Historically soft / softened: rz / ż / sz; dż / cz; dz / c
  • Soft: ń; ś / ź; ć / dź; ść; (l + j)
  • The rest are hard: b / p, d / t, g / k; w / f, z / s; m, n; ł, r; ch; zd / st

Pronunciation of consonants

  • The consonants b, d, f, g, j, k, l, m, p, t, w are spoken as in German, but plosives are not breathed in .
    They can all be palatalized.
  • q, v, x only appear in foreign words or proper names.
  • n is also spoken before g and k as [n]; the sound [ŋ] still occurs, namely when the nasalization is reversed before g and k . Compare : sarenka ( something like 'ßaränn-ka') [sa'rɛnka] "deer" and ręka ( something like 'ränka') ['rɛŋka] "hand" or "arm".
  • What is spoken differently than in German:
    • h (and also ch ) is always spoken like the German ach sound ([x]): herbata [xɛr'baˑta] "tea".
    • r is always rolled tongue-tip R ([r]).
    • y always denotes a vowel!
  • The following letters do not appear in German:
    • ³ is a u-like glide , such as the 'w' in English (eg. w atch ): Lodz (such as 'uutch') [wut͡ɕ] "(the city) Lodz".
      ł can also appear as a full vowel [u] in the syllable core: szedł (
      something like 'Schadendu') ['ʃɛdu] "[he] went".
      In cursive script , the slash is written over the l .
    • ń is the palatal 'n' (di [ɲ]) before the consonant or at the end of the word: słońce ( something like 'swoin-tsä') [swɔ j ɲt͡sɛ] "sun".
    • ś, ź and ć are sibilants formed on the teeth; ź is written in cursive without a middle bar.
      ś is similar to the German I-sound (to be precise: [ɕ]), ź is the corresponding voiced variant (to be precise: [ʑ]), and ć is pronounced like 'tch' in 'Hü tch en' (precisely taken: [t̠͡ɕ]).
    • ż is the voiced equivalent of the German 'sch', similar to the 'j' in 'Journalist': może (like 'moschä') [mɔʐɛ] "perhaps". It is not to be confused with ź.
      In cursive a 'z' is written with a middle bar (without a point!).
  • Special rules apply to s, z, c :
    • s is mostly spoken like 'ß' ( voiceless s ) (di [s]), but before i like ś : sedno ( something like 'ßädno') "core, essence" <> siedem ( something like 'chäddäm') [ɕɛdɛm ] "Seven".
    • z is always the voiced variant of s : It is usually spoken like a voiced 's' in 'sun' (di [z]), but before i it is pronounced like ź : baza (like 'baasa') [baza] " Basis "<> bazia [baʑa]" pussy willow ".
      z is written in cursive without a middle bar.
    • c is mostly spoken like the German 'z' (di [t͡s]), but before i like ć : co [t͡sɔ] "was" <> ci [t̠͡ɕi] "dir".

Special combinations:

  • ni, si, zi, ci + the following vowel are spelling variants of ń, ś, ź, ć [ɲ, ɕ, ʑ, t̠͡ɕ].
  • rz is a (historically determined) spelling variant of ż [ʐ]: morze (like 'moschä') [mɔʒɛ] "sea".
    Exceptions are a few stems (like zamarza- (like 'samarsa') [zamarza-] / marzną- (like 'marsnong') [marznɔ̃-] "freeze", Tarzan ) in which it is pronounced [rz].
  • sz, cz are sibilants according to German 'sch' and 'tsch' [ʂ, ʈ͡ʂ]: moszcz (roughly like 'moschtsch') [mɔʂʈ͡ʂ] "Most".

Consonant cluster

  • If the same consonant appears twice next to each other (as far as pronunciation is concerned!), Each part of the pair belongs to a different syllable; the separation can be made easier by inserting a tail : ucze nn ica [uʈ͡ʂɛn.nit͡sa] (like 'u-tschänne-nietza') "schoolgirl", Tczew (like 't'tschäff') [t.ʈ͡ʂɛf] "Dirschau "; This is rarely found in foreign words: lasso "Lasso".
  • In a group of several plosives and fricatives (which can extend across word boundaries), each of these sounds is either voiceless or voiced, regardless of the typeface. The decision for voiced or unvoiced is based on the beginning of the syllable:
Cluster example process Juxtaposition
trz trzy [ʈ͡ ʂ ɨ] "three" rz becomes voiceless drz wi [ɖ͡ʐvi] "door"
prz przed [p ʂ ɛt] "before" rz becomes voiceless brz ydki [b͡ʐɨtki] "ugly"
short skrzyżowanie [sk ʂ ɨʐɔvaɲɛ] "crossing" rz becomes voiceless grz yb [g͡ʐɨp] "mushroom"
w / z
+ voiceless initial sound
w formie [ f fɔrmʲɛ] "in the form"
w którym kierunku [ f kturɨm kʲɛrunku]
z czasem [ s ʈ͡ʂasɛm] "with the times"
w and z become voiceless w dół [ w duw] "downwards"
z bawełny [ z bavɛwnɨ] "made of cotton"
all voiceless łód k a [wu t ka] "boat"
ś wiadec t wof ʲadɛt͡st f ɔ] "certificate"
t rwać [ t̪r̥f at̠͡ɕ] "last"
the d becomes voiceless
both w become voiceless
r and w become voiceless
na dg arstek "wrist"
all voiced tak ż e [ta g ʐɛ] "also" the k becomes voiced

Final hardening

  • At the end of the word all plosives, fricatives and affricates have voting going on , if they are not within a word-wide consonant cluster:
Lute Pronunciation at the end of the word example
Plosives: b / d / g [p / t / k] pociągu [pot̠͡ɕɔŋgu] "of the train" <> pocią g [pot̠͡ɕɔŋk] "train"
Fricatives: w / z / ź / ż [f / s / ɕ / ʂ] męża [mɛ̃: ʐa] "of the man" <> ż [mɔ̃: ʂ] "man"
Affricates: c / dz / dź [t͡s / d͡z / t̠͡ɕ] kadzi [kadʑi] "tub" <> ka [kat̠͡ɕ] "tub"
Combinations, e.g. B. zd [st] objazdy [ɔbjazdɨ] "Rundfahrten" <> obja zd [ɔbjast] "Rundfahrt"

Laws of syllables

Movable e

In the endingless forms nominative singular or genitive plural, an e or ie is inserted into many nouns , if otherwise two consonants would appear one after the other at the end of the word: statki " Schiff " <> stat e k "Schiff", dni "Tage" <> dz ie ń (with softening from 'd' to dz ) "day", cukru "the sugar" <> cuk ie r "the sugar" etc.

Palatalizing i

  • The letter i and a preceding consonant form a unit in Polish; the consonant is palatalized (sounds like it is followed by a 'j'): pani (like 'panji') [paɲi] "woman", kiedy (like 'kjädde') [kʲɛdɨ] "when" , niebo (something like 'njäbbo') [ɲɛbɔ] "heaven"; also in foreign words: kolonia [kɔˈlɔɲja] "settlement", teoria [t̪ɛˈɔrja] "theory".
  • The palatalization can be lost before a consonant or at the end of a word: dzi "day" <> d ni "days", gołę bi e "doves" <> gołą b "dove".
    • si, zi, ci and ni are written in this position ś, ź, ć, ń , the pronunciation [ɕ, ʑ, t̠͡ɕ, ɲ] is retained: goś c i [gɔɕ t̠͡ɕi] "guests" <> goś ć [ gɔɕ t̠͡ɕ] "guest"; ko ni e "horses" <> ko ń ( something like 'ko j n') [kɔɲ] "horse".
    • The counterpart to ł , originally palatalized once, is l , which can also be placed in front of a consonant: wo ł y “ox” <> wo l e (locative) “ox”; wilk [vilk] "wolf".
      li [lʲ] also occurs: bazylia [bazɨlʲa] "basil", musli [muslʲ] "muesli".

Vowel change

Common vowel alternations in Polish word stems are:

  • o <> ó: samochód (nominative) <> samoch o dem (instrumental) "car".
  • e <> a: miał "he had" <> mi e li "they had".
  • ę <> ą: płyn ą ł "he swam" <> płynęła "she swam".
  • e <> o / ó: niosła “they carried” <> ni li “they carried”; przyjaciółka "friend" <> przyjaci e lski "friendly".

Possible syllables

The Polish consonant phonemes cannot be connected to any vowel, as some Polish sounds are only contextual variants, as consonants have diverged over time depending on the environment.

  • The two nasal vowels appear in every setting except as 'kię' and 'chą', albeit with quite different frequencies.
Not palatalized Palatalized etymology
sa se sy so su
za ze zy zo too
sia sie si sio siu (-ś)
zia zie zi zio ziu (-ź)
</ s / or / sj /
</ z / or / zj /
ca ce cy co cu
dza dze dzy dzo dzu
cia cie ci cio ciu (-ć)
dzia dzie dzi dzio dziu (-dź)
</ c / or / tj /
</ dz / or / dj /
na no ny no nu nia nie ni nio niu [ɲ] (-ń)
ra re ry ro ru (rza rze rzy rzo rzu) 1 </ r / or / rʲ /
ła łe ły ło łu [w] la le li lo lu </ ł / or / lʲ /
sza sze szy szo szu
cza cze czy czo czu
ża że ży żo żu
- (in relation to 'ch')
(in relation to 'sz')
cha che chy cho chu -
ka - - ko ku - kie ki - -
ga - - go gu - gie gi - -
1 The original palatal 'rʲ' became rz in Polish and is now spoken like ż , which is no longer palatal.

A number of observations can be made from the syllables represented in Polish:

  • For example, a syllable like [si] or [ti] does not appear in Polish, since the original 's' and 't' before an 'i' have changed to [ɕ] and [t̠͡ɕ] respectively.
  • In Polish, groups of sounds like [si] and [tsi] can only be reproduced in writing with the help of an additional 'j': restaura cji "des restaurants" (because ci or tsi would always have to be spoken [t̠͡ɕi]).
  • This series of syllables shows, for example, that a Polish word cannot end with '-ky, -gy, -ly, -szi' or '-ke, -ge' (but only with -ki, -gi, -li / -ły, -szy or -kie, -gie ), which is important for the declination.
  • Many phenomena can also be explained by changing consonants in inflection:
    • The adverb to dobry “good” is dob rz e , the adverb to zły “bad” is źle ;
    • the feminine form of lekarz "doctor" is leka r ka ;
    • the masculine plural of the L participle is - l i , while all other forms have ł ;
    • the locative of stół "table" is stole ;
    • the genitive of cielę "calf" is cielę c ia etc.
  • The column with the etymology of the syllables allows relationships between dzień “day” (dzi <dj) and dni “days”, ten “this” and ci “these” (ci <ti), oko “eye” and oczy “eyes” ”, Ucho “ ear ”and uszy “ ears ”.

Etymology and dialects

Non-native words

Polish loanwords can be divided into three groups based on their phonetic shape:

  1. The oldest of them were incorporated into Polish when the above syllable structure did not yet exist. These foreign words have been through together with native Polish words all sound shifts: Łacina (like 'uatchiena') [wa't̠͡ɕina] " L ATon" Dark 'l' is [w], 'ti' becomes ci ; Jola [jɔla] "Ju li a": 'lj' becomes light 'l'; Rzym (something like 'schimm') [ʐɨm] "Rome": 'r' becomes rz in a bright environment .
  2. When the sound shifts had already taken place, 'i' was replaced by y in some places rather than changing the consonant: ryzyko ( something like 'rese-ko') “Risk”: the syllable 'ri' does not appear, and zi would be spoken [ʑi]; tyfus ( something like 'te-fuss') [tɨfus] "Typhus": the syllable ti does not appear.
  3. Today there are also many words in Polish that contain 'foreign' syllables: 'ti' in apa ti a "apathy"; 'chi' in ar chi tekt [ar'xitɛkt] “architect”; 'di' in di agnoza [dʲagnɔza] "diagnosis"; 'ri': bate ri a [baˈt̪ɛrja] "battery"; 'żi': reżim "regime" etc.

Conversely, the German versions of Polish city names contain a more original phonetic form: The German form of the city name “Ratibor” has retained an older form than its current Polish counterpart Ra c ib órz ( something like 'ra-tchi-busch ') [rat̠͡ɕibu͡ʂ], in which three sounds have undergone a change.

  • Since Polish does not have long consonants, double consonants are simplified in polonization : taras "Te rr a ss e" etc.
  • Historical spellings such as 'ph' or 'th' are also not found in Polish: dyfteryt "Di phth erie" etc.

Etymology of single sounds

  • ó was originally a long / o: /.
  • rz was originally a palatalized 'r': morze ( something like 'moschä') [mɔʐɛ] "sea" ~ Russian море [mɔrjɛ].
  • ł was originally dark 'l', as it is e.g. B. occurs in Russian and English, hence the spelling.
  • l was originally light 'lʲ': lubić ( something like 'lubietch') [lubit̠͡ɕ] ~ Russian любить [lʲubitʲ], “like”.
  • ci is often derived from 'ti': Marcin (something like 'martchien') [mart̠͡ɕin] "Martin".

Dialectal peculiarities

  • In some dialectal variants, the letter groups ti, di, chi, li have the pronunciation [c], [ɟ], [ç], [ʎ].
  • [ɦ] is a variant of [x] in the eastern coastal regions and Silesia.
  • l and ł are spoken in the older pronunciation and in the eastern dialects [lʲ] and [ł], respectively.

declination

  • Declinable parts of speech in Polish are nouns, adjectives, pronouns and quantifiers (numerals and the like); there is neither a definite nor an indefinite article.
  • The Polish language knows 7 cases , 2 numbers and 3 genders .
  • The formation of the individual forms shows some differences between nouns on the one hand and adjectives and pronouns .
  • In the following, the term rectus denotes the "basic form" as it stands in the dictionary. This is always the nominative singular, in all neuter and many masculine forms the accusative singular as well.

In the case of many words, the special changes in the root of the word for forms without an ending should be noted. This applies above all to the genitive plural feminine / neuter and the rectus singular masculine.

  • The movable e , which appears mainly in the endings -ek, - (i) ec, - (i) er, -eł, -ew :
    • biurko "desk"> biurek (genitive plural), matka "mother"> matek (genitive plural); chłopiec, cukier, Paweł “Junge, Zucker, Paul” only have the (i) e in the last syllable in the rectus singular.
  • -j can become i at the end of a word after a vowel and form its own syllable. The genitive plural of pokój “room” is either pokojów or pokoi .
  • o , if it is in the last syllable, can appear as ó : samochodem (instrumental) "Auto", but samochód in the rectus singular ; woda “water” in the genitive plural is wód .

case

  • Polish has retained 7 cases from Urindo-European times; the former ablative has coincided with the genitive. Polish knows the following cases today:
Latin name Polish name use
[casus] nominativus mianownik who or what?
[casus] genitivus / genetivus dopełniacz whose? (where from? since when?)
[casus] dativus celownik whom?
[casus] accusativus biernik who or what?
[casus] instrumentalis narzędnik by which? (with whom?)
[casus] locativus miejscownik (where? what about?)
[casus] vocativus wołacz Case of the direct salutation
  • In neuter nouns, adjectives and pronouns, the nominative, accusative and vocative have the same form. The only exception is ono "es" with the accusative je .
  • In the plural, nominative and vocative are always the same.

A description of their possible uses is given in the Syntax section .
The formation of the singular and plural cases is described in the sections Nouns , Adjectives and Pronouns .

Numbers

  • Polish knows both the singular and two uses of plural forms . The first plural form is used for quantities from 2 to 4, inclusive. The second is formed like the genitive plural and is there for sets of 5 or more. An example: jedno piwo (“one beer”), dwa piwa (“two beers”), pięć piw (“five beers”). This rule is repeated from 22 "copies" onwards for all quantities that end in -2 to -5: 22 piwa / 25 piw , 32 piwa / 35 piw , 102 piwa / 105 piw , ... etc.
  • An originally existing dual was dismantled from the 15th century; Traces of this can be found in “irregular” secondary forms of body parts that appear in pairs such as oko “eye” (oczy, oczu, oczyma) and ucho “ear” (uszyma) , in fixed additions such as proverbs and occasionally in toponyms.
  • The endings of singular and plural cannot be derived from each other. For example, the available locative endings in the singular -u, -i, - (i) e , in the plural -ach .

Genera (gender)

  • Polish knows three genders: masculine (male), feminine (female), neuter (neuter).
  • Masculine and neuter originally had the same endings - with the exception of the nominative and accusative. This is no longer the case due to the mixing of stem classes (for example, the plural masculine genitive of nouns usually has the ending -ów , while neutras have no ending at all).
  • In the case of adjectives and pronouns in the plural, only two genera are distinguished:
    • Masculine in a group with at least one male member: wszyscy jed li “everyone ate” - including at least one male person.
    • Non-masculine in a group without a male member: wszystkie jad ły “everyone ate” - without including a male person.

Another distinction is that between animate and inanimate.

  • In masculine, the accusative and the genitive singular have the same form if the noun is animate or an adjective / pronoun refers to an animate object. Otherwise the nominative and accusative singular are the same.
    In the plural, the genitive = accusative rule only applies to people.
  • "Lively" is not to be taken literally here. Primarily people and animals are considered to be alive , but in some cases also animals processed into food, currencies ( acc . Dolara ), cigarette and car brands ( acc . Opla, mercedesa) and colloquially fruit, vegetables and flowers ( acc . Tulipana ).
    In the newer colloquial language one also finds words like SMS, email declined as "animated" (acc. SMS-a, maila ).

Nouns

In older Slavic languages, nouns could be divided into different classes according to their stem end. This is no longer the case in Polish in this form:

  • Many classes have intermingled with one another, so that today there is a general scheme according to which most nouns can be declined. The 'regular' nouns are covered in the Common Grounds section .
  • However, a number of nouns are irregular; mostly it is an irregular rectus singular, while the other cases are derived from another stem and have regular endings. Declension of nouns can be found in the section master classes . They mainly include nouns from smaller classes and foreign words.

General scheme

The following table gives an overview of the declension of nouns. The following section Commonalities describes general rules for the forms that are easy to form, while the section Special features outlines rules for the more difficult to explain forms (underlined below).

case Masculine neuter Feminine
Singular
Nominative singular Rectus as in the dictionary,
sometimes irregular
Genitive singular a, u a y
after g, k , soft or labial consonant: i
Dative singular owi
rarely u
u e, i, y
Accusative singular Like genitive singular
or like nominative singular
Like nominative singular ę
With nominative singular on consonant: ą
Instrumental singular em
after -g / -k : -iem
ą
Locative singular e, u Like dative singular
Vocative singular Mostly like locative singular Like nominative singular o, i, y, u
Plural
Nominative plural i, y 1 , e, owie, owiese a y, e, i
Genitive plural ów, y, i -, i, y, ów 2 -, i, y
Dative plural om
Accusative plural Like genitive plural
or like nominative plural
Like nominative plural
Instrumental plural ami, rarely mi
Locative plural Oh
Vocative plural Like nominative plural
1 May require changing the preceding consonant
2 May require changing the preceding vowel
  • The declension of pan, pani “Herr, Frau; It "has the following scheme:
case Masculine
"Lord"
Feminine
woman
Feminine
miss
Singular
Nominative pan pani panna
Genitive pana panny
dative panu pannie
accusative pana panią pannę
Instrumental panem panną
locative panie pani pannie
vocative Like nominative singular panno
Plural
Masculine
"(my) gentlemen"
Feminine
"(my) ladies"
Feminine
"(my) Miss"
Mixed
"(my) ladies and gentlemen"
Nominative panowie panie panny państwo
Genitive panów pań panien państwa
dative panom panioma pannom państwu
accusative panów Like nominative plural państwa
Instrumental panami paniami pannami państwem
locative panach paniach pannach państwu
vocative Like nominative plural państw a

państwo, meaning "state", has a different declination in some cases:

case "The Polish state" "Mr. and Mrs. Nowak"
Nominative państwo polskie państwo Nowakowie
accusative państw a Nowaków
locative państwie polskim państw u Nowakach

Similarities

The rectus (nominative singular) provides information about the gender of a noun:

  • Masculine usually end in a consonant.
    • However, there are also a number of masculines in -a such as poeta "poet", mężczyzna "man", morderca "murderer".
  • Feminine almost all end in -a, -ść, -źń, -i : żona "wife", przyjaźń "friendship", bogini "goddess".
    • However, some have other endings: noc "night", krew "blood".
  • Almost all neutrals end in -o, -e, -ę, -um : niebo "sky", imię "first name", muzeum "museum".

  • Those nouns with the locative singular ending in -e usually have a softened final consonant, if this is possible:
    • t> ce / cie: matka> matce "mother", pilot> pilocie "pilot" ...
    • b, w> bie, like: dąb> dębie "oak", drzewo <> drzewie "tree" ...
    • r> rze: jezioro> jeziorze "lake" ...
    • n> never: żona> żonie "wife", okno> oknie "window" ...
    • k> ce: męka> męce "Pein" ...
  • The dative singular masculine usually ends in -owi . However, the ending -u have: ojciec> ojcu "father", brat> bratu "brother", chłop> chłopu "boy", pan> panu "Lord, you", kot> kotu "cat", pies> psu "dog" , lew> lwu "lion"; diabeł> diabłu "devil", bóg> bogu "god", ksiądz> księdzu "priest"; kat> katu "executioner"; świat> światu "world".

Some cases have the same endings for almost all nouns:

  • The dative plural ends in -om : poetom "the poets", niebom "the heavens".
  • The instrumental plural ends in -ami : z poetami "with the poets", z żonami "with the wives".
    • The masculina end in -mi koń> końmi "horse", przyjaciel> przyjaciółmi "friend", ludzie> ludźmi "people", gość> gośćmi "guest";
      the neuter dziecko> dziećmi "child";
      the feminine kość> kośćmi "bone", nić> nićmi "thread", pieniądze> pieni ę dzmi (feminine plural) "money", and optionally also dłoń> dłońmi / dłoniami "palm" and gałąź> gał ę źmi / gał ę ziami "Branch".
    • Minor forms on -yma have: oczyma "eyes" and uszyma "ears".
  • The locative plural ends in -ach : w Czechach "in the Czech Republic".
    • It also ends in some pluralized names of states with -ech with additional softening of the preceding consonant: w Niem cz ech "in Germany", na Węg rz ech "in Hungary", we Wło sz ech "in Italy".
  • The nominative / accusative / vocative plural ends in neuter -a : nieba "the heavens", imiona "the first names", muzea "the museums".
  • Nouns with "unusual" endings like -u are not declined: gnu "Gnu".
  • The seldom used masculine vocative singular is equal to the locative singular. Exceptions are: ojciec> ojcze "father" and chłopiec> chłopcze "boy".

particularities

Nominative singular of masculine and genitive plural of feminine:

  • The consonants b , f , m , p and w can only precede vowels

bi , fi , mi , pi and wi are softened. At the end of a word (and before consonants) these consonants cannot appear softened, because according to the Polish sense of the word they cannot be pronounced softened and therefore there is no written representation for them. This has an impact on the ending cases, i.e. the nominative singular of the masculine and the genitive plural of the feminine.

  • Individual masculines that end in -b , -f , -m , -p or -w in the nominative singular are soft-stemmed. Example karp "carp"> genitive: karpia . All other cases follow the soft-stemmed declination scheme.
    • In the ordinary vocabulary, these exceptional cases are of little importance. However, this declination scheme also applies to some place names, e.g. B. Bytom > Genitive: Bytomia or Pakosłasw > Genitive: Pakosłaswia .
    • Feminine on -bia , -fia , -mia , -pia and -wia form the genitive plural with a hardened stem end , i.e. -b , -f , -m , -p or -w .

Genitive singular:

  • Animated masculine forms the genitive on -a . Exceptions: wół> wołu "ox" and bawół> bawołu "buffalo"
  • In inanimate masculine cases, the genitive ends either in -a or -u . The standard ending is -u , but there are numerous exceptions, most of which are derived from the meaning of the word.
    • In -a end month names, clothing, tools, weights and currencies, dances, body parts, historic buildings, tropical fruits, mushrooms, name on -yk / ik and place names. There are exceptions to this, see below. Some other masculine forms the genitive on -a , but cannot be grouped into categories.
    • In -u most inanimate masculine, do not fall within one of the above groups end. There are also place names on -grad, -gród, -gard and -furt as well as some other foreign place names, e.g. B. Rzym> Rzymu "Rom" or Dortmund> Dortmundu .
    • In some tribes, both genitive forms occur, each with a different meaning. This sometimes also creates contradictions to the otherwise applicable rules. For example: lód "ice cream" → loda "ice cream" <> lodu "frozen water", LuksemburgLuksemburga "Luxembourg" (country) <> Luksemburgu "Luxembourg" (city). zamek "castle" → zamku "castle" (building) <> zamka "door lock"
  • In feminine -ia / -ja it ends in -i . Only non-polish for foreign words and names. The ending -ii / -ji comes from the origin : teoria> teorii "theory", Cecylia> Cecylii .

Dative singular:

  • Feminine have:
    • -e with softening after a hard consonant ( żona> żonie "wife").
    • -i after a soft or labial consonant ( Ania> Ani, pani> pani "woman", brew> brwi "brow").
    • -y after historically soft consonant ( noc> nocy "night").

Locative singular:

  • With masculine it ends in -e with consonant softening; Nouns in soft vowels or g / k / ch have -u : gość> gościu "guest", dzień> dniu "day", król> królu "king" (with a light 'l').
    The locative singular neuter also ends on -e after a hard consonant (except for nouns on g / k / ch ) with additional consonant softening, otherwise on -u : imię> imieniu "name", serce> sercu "heart", lotnisko> lotnisku "Airport".

Vocative singular:

  • Feminine have:
    • -o for nouns ending in -a .
    • -i for words with -i or soft consonant ( pani> pani "woman", brew> brwi "brow")
    • -y for words with historically soft consonants without a vowel ( noc> nocy "night").
    • -u for proper names (Ania> Aniu) .

Nominative plural:

  • With masculine there are the following options:
    • For persons: -i with a change in consonant after a hard consonant ( mężczyzna> mężczy ź ni "man");
      -y with consonant change to -g, -k, -r ( doktor> doktorzy "doctor").
    • For non-persons: -i after -g / -k ( ptak> ptaki "bird");
      -y after a hard consonant except -g / -k ( kot> koty "cat").
    • Nouns in -ec have -y : chłopiec> chłopcy "boy".
    • Nouns on soft consonants and loan words on -ans have -e ( lekarz> lekarze "doctor", alians> alianse "alliance").
    • -owie is in some males names, especially kinship ( syn> Synowie "son", ojcowie "fathers", zięciowie "sons" świekrowie "fathers-in" ojczymowie "stepfathers"),
      high titles ( król> Królowie "King" profesor> profesorowie "professor")
      and words ending in -n, -ek ( opiekun> opiekunowie "supervisor", dziadek> dziadkowie "grandfather").
      Also with some surnames like Nowakowie "die
      Nowaks ".
    • -owiese for some words on -log-, -r, -mistrz ( geologowie , rektorz> rektorowie , burmistrze> burmistrzowie "mayor").
  • Feminine have:
    • -y for words with a hard consonant + -a or those with a historically soft consonant without a vowel.
    • -e after a soft consonant with a vowel ( dłoń> dłonie "palm", gałąź> gałęzie "branch", noc> nocy / noce "night").
    • -i after -g / -k or after a soft consonant without a vowel ( brew> brwi "Braue", also wieś> wsi (e) "Dorf").

Genitive plural:

  • Masculine have the following options:
    • -ów after a hard consonant and some others ( pan> panów "Lord", kraj> krajów "country", uczeń> uczniów "pupil")
    • -y after historically soft consonant ( talerz> talerzy "plate", wąż> węży "snake").
    • -i after a soft consonant ( nauczyciel> nauczycieli "teacher").
  • Neutra have:
    • usually no ending.
    • -i after the softened consonant ( narzędzie> narzędzi "tool").
    • -y after historically soft consonant ( wybrzeże> wybrzeży "coast").
    • -ów for animate nouns on -sk ( chłopisko> chłopisków "big guy").
  • Feminine have:
    • usually no ending.
    • -i after a few words on a soft consonant without a vowel, those on a consonant + -nia and words on -ownia, -arnia, -ernia, -alnia, -elnia ( powierzchnia> powierzchni "surface", kawiarnia> kawiarni "café, bistro" , idea> idei "idea").
    • Words ending in -ja have one of the two endings ( żmija> żmij "snake", zbroja> zbro i "armor").

Nouns on -anin appear shortened in the plural: Rosjanin "Russe" in the nominative plural: Rosjanie , in the genitive plural Rosjan , in the dative plural Rosjanom etc.
Only the following nouns have a genitive plural ending: Amerykanów, Afrykanów, Meksykanów, republikanów .


Many proper names are not inflected.

  • powieści Juliusza Verne'a "Novels by Jules Verne"
  • Pan Nowak "Herr Nowak" is usually declined (but z panem Janem Nowak "with Herr Jan Nowak" is also possible), but not Pani Nowak "Frau Nowak".

Parent classes

Older languages, from which Polish emerged, had a rich system of clearly separable declension classes. In modern Polish, the most important of the original classes are sometimes mixed up with each other; only a few copies of other classes are left, which are now referred to as 'irregular'.

Native words

The following sections are to be regarded as an incomplete etymology of the present day declension scheme and do not give any reliable references to the present day declension of Polish nouns. The declension tables serve as examples of the full inflection of Polish nouns; In bold are those forms that clearly belonged to the original declension class of the word.

  • The thematic (o-) stems have mixed with other classes for masculine and neuter.

  • The original jo stems ( kraj "country", koń "horse" and mąż "husband") end in a soft consonant or j :

  • The a declination has been preserved to this day. It includes feminine nouns such as żona "wife", but also some masculine nouns such as poeta "poet", which are declined identically:

  • A variant of the a-declension, namely the ja-declension, included ziemia "earth" and feminine on -sza, -cza, -ca, -ża ( dusza "soul", piecza "care", praca "work", plaża "beach"):

  • From the original u-tribes n ( wół “ox”, dom “house” and syn “son”, jad “poison”, miód “honey”, poród “birth”, dług “guilt”) come the endings -owi in the dative case Singular, -u in the locative singular, -ów as in the nominative / vocative plural and -ów in the genitive plural.

  • Most of the i-tribes were feminine, but there are also some masculines ( bol “pain”, gwóźdź “nail”, gołąb “dove”, gość “guest”, zięć “son-in-law”, łokieć “elbow”, niedźwiedź “bear ", Paznokieć " [finger / toe] nail ", ogień " fire ", czerw " worm ", węgiel " coal "; zwierzę " animal "has joined the t-tribes and is therefore neuter).
  • The declination of some masculine nouns on a soft consonant looks like this:
  • Originally female i-tribes ( maść (<-st-) "ointment", bojaźń (<-zn-) "fear", piędź (-d-) "span", wieś (<-s-) "village", myśl “Thought” (<-l-); also: mysz “mouse” and rzecz “thing”) end in a palatalized consonant.
  • The former feminine wytwór "creature" and błąd "mistake, error" are now male:
  • The neuter nouns oko "eye" and ucho "ear" have a different stem consonant in the plural and form some plural forms according to the old two-number endings of the i-stems:

  • From the Feminina in -i , in Polish pani "you" (for a female person) and bogini "goddess" have been preserved:

  • The n-stems are male or neuter. The neutras lose their n in the rectus singular : imię "first name", brzemię "burden", siemię "same", plemię "trunk". Masculina has a in the rectus singular: dzień "day", korzeń "root", płomień "flame", rzemień "belt", stopień "step", jeleń "deer".

  • Old û tribes are chorągiew "flag", krew "blood" and cerkiew "orthodox church":

  • Only neutras belonged to the t-tribes . From them in Polish cielę "calf" is preserved:

  • The nominative singular ending -o comes from the s-tribes ( koło "wheel", dzieło "work", drzewo "tree", cudo "miracle", slowo "word", niebo "sky", ciało "body") most neutras. The inflection scheme of a neuter on labial looks like this today:

The following two classes no longer exist:

  • Neutra on -anie no longer have any special features in Polish:
  • The only surviving r-stems in Slavic - the original words for 'mother' and 'daughter' - have been replaced by others in Polish (namely by the a-stems matka for "mother" and córka for "daughter").

  • Some of the original classes (notably n-, t-, and û-stems) left an irregular rectus singular; most of the other forms of declension have now adopted the "general" endings.
  • Due to a large number of upheavals, a number of Polish nouns can sometimes have several forms. As an arbitrary example, let us pick out the "devil":
Foreign words

Some foreign words in Polish cannot be declined or only partially declined because the ending of the rectus does not fit into any Polish declination scheme. These include:

  • Neutra in -um (foreign words from Latin) remain unchanged in the singular , in the plural genitive they have -ów ( album is masculine, however):
  • Nouns ending in -u are not declined at all: gnu "Gnu" etc., the same applies to some foreign geographical names that are perceived as foreign, such as B. "Bielefeld".
  • Foreign words in -ia or -ja are declined like other native words with the same ending, but they keep their i or j in all forms; the genitive plural also has an irregular minor form:

Adjectives

Adjectives are usually in the attributive position of a noun. They can also be derived from adverbs, as described in the Derivation section .

  • They come before the reference noun when specifying its quality: biały kot "the / a white cat".
  • They stand behind the reference noun when they refer to its function or general nature: język polski , "the Polish language". Often this also serves to form fixed phrases (quasi as an equivalent of the compound words ): kot domowy "house cat", robotnik nielegalny "black worker ".

declination

Adjectives are declined similar to pronouns :

Singular Plural
Feminine Masculine personal
Masculine animated
Masculine inanimate neuter Masculine personally Other genera
Nominative -a
-ia
-y
-i
-e
-ie
-i / -y (!) -e
-ie
Genitive -ej
-iej
-ego
-iego
-ych
-i
dative -emu
-iemu
-ym
-im
accusative
-ią
-ego
-iego
-y
-i
-e
-ie
-ych
-i
-e
-ie
Instrumental -ym
-im
-ymi
-imi
locative -ej
-iej
-ych
-i
  • Adjectives on a hard consonant other than g and k have the endings of the top line: czarny, czarnego, czarnemu, czarnym ... (hard consonant) "black" <> niski, niskiego, niskiemu, niskim ... (other consonant) "low".
  • The masculine nominative plural requires the palatalization of the preceding consonant, which causes a change in some:
Nominative singular Nominative plural
-ry / -rzy -rzy
-ły -li
-szy -si
-ki
-gi
-ci
-dzi

increase

  • Polish adjectives can form a comparative, from which the superlative is in turn derived by a preceding naj- .
  • The comparative is formed in two different ways: 1. Adding a suffix, 2. Preceding bardziej "more" (especially with foreign words) - the superlative is then formed by placing najbardziej "most" in front .

  • The comparative suffix occurs in different forms:
    • -sz- is appended to adjectives that end in a single consonant: stary> starszy "old".
      This also includes adjectives that are formed by the suffixes -k, -ek, -ok, which are then omitted themselves: brzydki> brzydszy "ugly".
      The final consonant sometimes changes: wysoki> wyższy "high", drogi> droższy "expensive", wesoły> weselszy "happy".
    • For adjectives with multiple consonants, -ejsz- is added: uprzejmy> uprzejmiejszy "polite". Changes in
      consonants can also occur here: mądry> mądrzejszy = mędrszy "smart", żyzny> żyźniejszy "fertile".
    • Some adjectives use a different stem before the comparative
      suffix : dobry> lepszy "good", zły> gorszy "bad", mały> mniejszy "small", wielki / duży> większy "large / great", lekki> lźejszy "light" .
  • An adjective with a comparative suffix is declined just like any other: starszy, starsza, starsze "older".

Pronouns and adverbs

Most pronouns are declined like adjectives. Adverbs are immutable; the section Derivation describes the formation of adverbs from adjectives.

Personalia and possessives

Personal pronouns have their own inflection scheme. There is only one single reflexive pronoun that can refer to any subject. There is no vocative.

case I you he it she we her she
(masculine)
she
(non-masculine)
Reflexive
Singular Plural
Nominative Yes ty on ono ona my wy oni one
Genitive mnie ciebie
cię
jego / niego
go
jej nas What me not siebie
się
dative mnie
mi
tobie
ci
jemu / niemu
mu
nam wam im / nim sobie
accusative Like genitive ever / never Yes Like genitive ever / never Like genitive
Instrumental mną tobą nim nią nami wami nimi sobą
locative mnie tobie niej nas What not sobie
  • If there are two forms on top of each other in a line, the lower form is the unstressed one that cannot express any contrast.
    The stressed form of the 1st and 2nd persons always comes after prepositions or at the beginning of a sentence.
  • After prepositions, the third person always has those forms to the right of the slash, i.e. niego, niemu, nich, nim - here there is no distinction between stressed and unstressed.
    In literary terms , contractions also appear:
    za niego> zań “for him”.
  • For polite salutation (you) in Polish Pan, Pani, Panna “Herr, Frau, Fräulein” are used to address a single person, Panowie, Panie, Państwo, Panny “Gentlemen, women, ladies and gentlemen, Miss” are used to address several people whose declension is shown in the Nouns section. The predicate is in the 3rd person singular or plural.

The genitive in the personal pronouns of the 1st and 2nd person is only used as an object of certain verbs or after certain prepositions. Otherwise, as in German possessive pronouns:

person Singular Plural
1st person mój, moja, moje, moi "my" nasz, nasza, nasze, nasi "our"
2nd person twój, twoja, twoje, twoi "your" wasz, wasza, wasze, wasi "your"
Reflexive swój, swoja, swoje, swoi
  • The accent on the ó is only in the masculine rectus singular; otherwise they are declined like adjectives .
  • The reflexive swój , which does not exist in German, relates to the subject of the sentence, but cannot itself appear within the subject phrase.
    The subject of the sentence can also be the 1st or 2nd person, so that there are two options for the possessive pronoun:
    • 1st person: (ja) widzę swojego / mojego psa “I see my dog” (accusative = genitive), (ja) widzę swój / mój dom “I see my house” (accusative = nominative);
      (my) widzimy swojego / naszego psa “we see our dog”, (my) widzimy swój / nasz dom “we see our house”.
    • 2nd person: (ty) widzisz swojego / twojego psa “you see your dog”, (ty) widzisz swój / twój dom “you see your house”;
      (wy) widzicie swojego / waszego psa “you see your dog”, (wy) widzicie swój / wasz dom “you see your house”.
    • 3rd person: on widzi swojego psa “he sees his [own] dog” / ona widzi swojego psa “she sees her [own] dog”; on widzi swój dom “he sees his [own] house” / ona widzi swój dom “she sees her own house”;
      oni / one widzą swojego psa “you see your [own] dog”, oni / one widzą swój dom “you see your own house”.
  • If the object of reference does not belong to the subject, the immutable, non-reflexive personal pronouns are in the 3rd person:
    • jedo "whose": on widzi jego psa "he sees his dog", ona widzi jego psa "she sees his dog"; on widzi jego dom “he sees his house”;
      oni / one widzą jego psa "you see his dog" etc.
    • jej "her" (feminine singular): on widzi jej psa "he sees her dog", ona widzi jej psa "she sees her dog"; on widzi jej dom “he sees your house”;
      oni / one widzą jej psa “you see your dog” etc.
    • I “whose” (plural): on widzi I psa “he sees their dog” / “he sees their dog”, ona widzi I psa “she sees their dog” / “she sees their dog”; on widzi ich dom “he sees their house” / “he sees their house”;
      oni / one widzą ich psa “you see their dog” / “you see
      your dog” etc.
  • Literary subsidiary forms are: me (moje), ma (moja), mego (mojego), mych (moich) etc.

Demonstratives

  • taki (taka, takie) "such, such".
  • ten "this" and tamten "that there, that" are declined as follows:
Declinion of ten Masculine neuter Feminine Masculine Non-masculine
Singular Plural
Nominative th to ta c i te
Genitive tego tej tych
dative temu tym
accusative Like nominative or genitive singular to Like nominative or genitive plural te
Instrumental tym tymi
locative tej tych
  • There is also ów (owa, owo) "that one".
  • tyle "so much" (the oblique case and the personal masculine have tylu ): tyle mleka "so much milk" ( mleka is in the genitive singular), like tylko tyle "I only know so much", like tyle, co i ty "I know so much like you ”, mam tyle lat, co on (literally:“ I have as many years as him ”)“ I'm as old as him ”; tylu mężczyzn “so many men” ( mężczyzn is genitive plural), never mamy tylu krzeseł “we don't have that many chairs” ( tylu krzeseł must be in the genitive plural because the predicate is negated).
    tyle is correlative with ile : zrób tyle, ile się da “do as much as possible”.
  • Not declined:
    • już "already", teraz "now", wtedy "at that point in time, then, then" ...
    • tu (taj) "here", tam "there / there (to)", tamtędy "there / there (through)"; stąd "from / from here", stamtąd "from there, there" ...
    • tak “so; yes ”: tak czy tak “ one way or the other ”, dokładnie tak… jak “ just like… like ”; tak jest “yes, yes yes”; tak dużo "so much", tak how much "so many"
    • dlatego "therefore, therefore, therefore, for this reason", na co "for this, in addition "

Interrogativa and Relativa

  • jaki (jaka, jakie) "what kind ?": jakie masz hobby? "What is your hobby?"
    It is also correlative to itself: jaka matka, jaka córka "like mother, like daughter".
  • który (która, które) "which one?": Która godzina? (what hour?) “what time is it?”.
    It is also a relative pronoun.
  • kto? "Who?" And co? "What?" Are only used instead of a noun:
account co
Nominative kto "who" co "what"
Genitive kogo ("who") czego ("what")
dative komu "whom" czemu ("what")
accusative kogo "who" Like nominative
Instrumental z kim "with whom" czym "with what"
locative o kim "about whom" o czym "what about"
  • ile “how much?” (declined like tyle ): ile to kosztuje? “How much does it cost?”, Ilu ludzi “how many people? How many people!”, Ilu kandydatów? "How many candidates?", Ile drzew? "How many trees?"
  • Not declined:
    • kiedy? "when?"
    • gdzie? "Where?", Skąd? "where from? from where? ”, dokąd? "Where to?" (For this increasingly gdzie )
    • jak? "how? in which way?"
    • dlaczego? “Why ?, why ?, why?” (Also colloquially czemu? ), Po co? "For what?", Czym? "With what?" (Tool)

Indefinite

Most indefinites are derived from interrogative pronouns by adding -ś . Also bądź “sei” (after) or lada and byle (in front) can be used for this.

  • któryś "any", jakiś "any".
  • któś "someone, someone" and coś "(any) something" are derived from the interrogative pronoun, as well as ktokolwiek "someone, whoever it is" and cokolwiek "whatever, no matter what"; The latter also means “something, a little”.
    There is also, for example, lada kto “no matter who” or co bądź “whatever”.
    The declension of ktoś, coś, ktokolwiek, cokolwiek happens as follows:
ktoś coś ktokolwiek / cokolwiek
Nominative ktoś "someone" coś "something" ktokolwiek "whoever" / cokolwiek "whatever"
Genitive kogoś "someone" czegoś kogokolwiek / czegokolwiek
dative komuś "someone" czemuś ("something") komukolwiek / czemukolwiek
accusative kogoś "someone" Like nominative kogokolwiek / cokolwiek
Instrumental z kimś "with someone" czymś "with something" z kimkolwiek / czymkolwiek
locative o kimś "about someone" o czymś "about something" o kimkolwiek / czymkolwiek
  • byle jaki “no matter what kind ”.
  • ilekolwiek "however much it may be".
  • Not declined:
    • kiedyś "sometime, once, one day".
    • gdzieś "somewhere", skądś "from somewhere", dokądś "somewhere": może się znamy skądś? "Maybe we know each other from somewhere?"
    • jakoś “somehow, in some way”.
    • czymś “with / through something”.

Negatives

Negatives contain an element -ni- . They are always used together with a ( never ) negative predicate.

  • żaden, żadna, żadne "(at all) none"; never expressed even by mere : nie mówię po polsku “I don't speak Polish”, nie ma sprawy “no problem, no cause”.
  • nikt "nobody", nikogo "nobody", nic "nothing":
nik nic
Nominative not "nobody" no "nothing"
Genitive nikogo "nobody" niczego
dative nikomu "nobody" niczemu ("nothing")
accusative nikogo "nobody" Like nominative
Instrumental z nikim "with nobody" niczym "with nothing"
locative o nikim "about nobody" o niczym "about nothing"

Example: Never mówimy o nikim specifically “we are not talking about anyone in particular”.

  • Not declined:
    • nigdy "never (times)".
    • nigdzie “nowhere, nowhere”, donikąd “nowhere to”, znikąd “from nowhere”.

Numerals

The Polish numerals are also declined.

  • The base number 1 has the forms of the adjective (everyone, jedna, jedno) . The plural jedni, jedne is translated as "the ones ".
  • The base numbers greater than one have their own declination scheme, whereby the gender categories that the reference noun can have are differentiated: It can 1. be a male person, 2. be a female noun, or 3. neuter or male without representing a person , be.
  • Ordinal numbers are treated like adjectives.
  • After most of the basic numbers, the noun is in the genitive plural, regardless of the case of the noun phrase. See the section "Use of the cases".


  • The following, still incomplete table shows the Polish basic and ordinal numbers:
  • dwa "two" and oba "both" have their own declination scheme:
  • 3 and 4 inflect the same:
  • 5 has the following scheme:

conjugation

General information on this under conjugation

The totality of possible forms of a verb can be divided into two groups:

  • Infinite forms: Here the Polish knows infinitives, participles and a verbal noun.
    • The infinitive (for example znać "know"), which can also be called simply "basic form", is used in a similar way to German.
    • Polish has an active participle, and a passive participle for transitive verbs.
  • Finite forms: In the finite forms, the verb is conjugated after people , it can also express different tenses and modes .

Infinite forms

Infinite forms are "timeless" in Polish and are not conjugated after persons.

infinitive

  • The infinitive ends in most verbs with , with some with -c :
    • być "to be", mieć "to have" etc.
    • biec “run”, piec “bake”; móc “can, be able, able”, wymóc “force”; strzec "guard".
      In the present tense these verbs are conjugated according to class I.
  • There are also some verbs ending in -ść and -źć :

L-participle

  • Polish also has the common Slavic verb form, which is formed with the suffix 'l'.
  • Originally it was a free participle, which is now only required to form the past tense , the conditional tense and, optionally, the future tense .
  • In most verbs, the L-participle is formed in such a way that the infinitive ending is omitted and the same endings are appended instead as in the following example with robić :
Singular Plural
Masculine robił robi l i
Feminine robiła robiły
neuter robiło
  • However, quite a number of verbs are irregular:

Other infinite forms

  • The participles of Polish only distinguish the gender verbi (active <> passive), but not the tense.

The active participle:

  • The active participle occurs in an adjectival and an adverbial form. The former is declined like an adjective, the latter is created simply by leaving out any ending.
  • Both are formed from the 3rd person plural (imperative):
    jechać - niech jadą "drive - [they] should drive"> jadąc (adverbial) or jadący, jadąca, jadące; jadący, jadące (adjective);
    być "to be"> będąc .

The passive participle:

  • The passive participle on -ty or -ony is only used in transitive verbs that can form the passive voice .
  • It is conjugated like an adjective: bić "to beat"> bity, bita, bite; bici, bite ; gryźć "bite"> gryziony, gryziona, gryzione; gryzi e ni, gryzione .

The impersonal past:

  • The impersonal past corresponds to the passive participle with the ending -o :
    bity> bito , gryziony> gryziono .

The verbal noun:

  • The verbal noun corresponds to the passive participle with the ending -ie + palatalization:
    bity> bicie , gryziony> gryzi e nie .

Aspects

Function of the aspects

In addition to the system of conjugation patterns present , past and future tense , Polish distinguishes between two aspects :

  • The in the perfective (unfinished) aspect marks an action as being in progress. This is the only way to describe what is happening in the present or what someone is doing.
  • The perfective aspect marks an action as (properly) completed; the conclusion can either have taken place in the past or take place at a future point in time.

Possible pairs of aspects

  • Some verbs appear exclusively in the imperfective aspect because their basic meaning cannot express a closable, targeted action or a process that comes to a standstill. These include: być "to be", mieć "have", chodzić "(regularly or to and fro) to go" and the like. a.
  • The remaining verbs appear as a pair, whereby one verb stem of the pair expresses the imperfective aspect, the other verb stem of the same pair the corresponding perfective aspect:
    • For example, the verbs robić and zrobić are both translated as "to do", but their meaning is not exactly the same:
Imperfect (unfinished): robić "To be doing something"
Perfect (accomplished): zrobic "Having done something (to the end), finished with doing"
    • With other verbs, the difference is more obvious:
Imperfect (unfinished): jeść "Eat" (bring food from the plate to the mouth)
Perfect (accomplished): zjeść "Eat up" (have eaten until nothing is left)
Imperfect (unfinished): czytać "Read" (no matter how much)
Perfect (accomplished): przeczytać "Read (whole)" (from front to back)

Formation of the perfect aspect

  • The verbs expressing the perfect aspect cannot be derived from their counterparts with imperfective meaning by general rules. Instead, both verbs of an imperfect-perfect pair must be learned together.
  • One can only systematize the differences between the imperfective and perfective stems (first the imperfective, then the perfective verb); even with one and the same verb several of the following types of derivation occur at the same time:
    • Many perfective verbs differ from their imperfective partners by a prefix: jeść <> zjeść "eat <> (eat everything)", rozumieć <> zrozumieć "understand", pisać <> na pisać "write <> (write everything down) ", Pić <> wypić " drink <> drink (from) ".
    • Some imperfectives appear shortened inside in the perfective version (for example -wa- is not applicable ): dawać <> dać "give", kupować <> kupić "buy", pomagać <> pomóc "help".
    • Some change vowels (for example imperfectively -ać and perfective -ić ): rzucać <> rzucić “to throw”, wracać <> wrócić “(to be on the way back <> to have returned :) to return”.
    • Some verbs show stems of different origins in the two aspects: oglądać <> obejrzeć "look at <> visit", brać <> wziąć "take", mówić <> powiedzieć "speak", widzieć <> zobaczyć "see" <> "look, catch sight of".

Times

Polish can express the times “present”, “past” and “future”. Together with the two aspects , there are 5 combinations:

  • The verbs of the perfective aspect can be used to express future and past:
    • The (closed) future through conjugation according to the present tense pattern : zrobi "he will have done something (to the end)"
    • The (closed) past through conjugation according to the pattern of the past tense : zrobił "he did something (to the end)"
  • With the verbs of the imperfective aspect, the present can also be formed:

Present

For conjugation according to the pattern of the actual present tense (which in perfect verbs denotes the closed future!), The Polish verbs can be divided into 4 main classes according to their endings; some irregular verbs remain.
The formation of conditional and imperative is dealt with in the Modes section .

Verbs of the 1st conjugation class (ę / esz) show - depending on the stem ending - some peculiarities, which is why several inflection patterns are given here:

  • Many auxiliary verbs are irregular, such as móc "can". Its 3rd person singular może also means “maybe”; there is also the impersonal form można “one may”.
  • brać as an example of a verb with strongly different present stems :
  • The stem for the 1st person singular (ja) is identical to that for the 3rd person plural (oni / one) . Therefore, when listing other verb types, it is sufficient to specify the I and the you form:
infinitive 1st person singular 2nd person singular
iść "go"
jechać "drive"
wyjść "go out"
idę
jadę
wyjdę
idziesz
jedziesz
wyjdziesz
chcieć "want" chcę chcesz
czuć "feel"
szyć "sew"
czuję
szyję
czujesz
szyjesz
bić "beat"
pić "drink"
biję
piję
bijesz
pijesz
zamknąć "close" zamknę zamkniesz
piec "bake" piekę pieczesz
wyjąć "take out" wyjmę wyjmiesz
gryźć "bite"
znaleźć "find"
gryzę
znajdę
gryziesz
znajdziesz

Verbs of the second class (ę / isz, ysz) have different endings depending on the final consonant:

  • Also: spać - śpię, śpisz "to sleep", stać - stoję, stoisz "to stand" and the like. a.

Verbs of III. Conjugation (whose infinitive always starts with -ać ) are usually regular:


Verbs of the IV conjugation (em / esz) sometimes have an irregular infinitive and / or an irregular 3rd person plural:


  • być “to be” is very irregular. The endings in italics are used to form the past tense and conditional:

Future tense

  • The future tense scheme can only be applied to verbs of the imperfective aspect . (Because conjugating verbs of the perfective aspect according to the present tense pattern automatically creates a "future" meaning.)
  • The verb być “to be” has retained its original future tense pattern.
Conjugation of być in the future tense:
Singular Plural
1st person będę "I will be" będziemy "we will be"
2nd person będziesz będziecie
3rd person będzie będą
  • The future tense of the other verbs is composed of these same future tense plus the infinitive , or optionally also the L-participle of the main verb; The former is easier to train, but the latter is more common.
  • The future tense auxiliary verb is the original future tense of the verb być "sein", which has retained this tense as the only verb - for this context alone.
  • The (imperfective) future tense of robić "to do":
będę robić Alternative: będę robił "I will do" (says a man)
będę robić Alternative: będę robiła "I will do" (says a woman)
będziesz robić Alternative: będziesz robił "You will do" (said to a man)
będziesz robić Alternative: będziesz robiła "You will do" (said to a woman)
będzie robić Alternative: będzie robił "He will do"
będzie robić Alternative: będzie robiła "She will do"
będzie robić Alternative: będzie robiło "It will do"
będziemy robić Alternative: będziemy robili "We will do"
będziemy robić Alternative: będziemy robiły "We will do" (says a group without men)
będziecie robić Alternative: będziecie robili "You will do"
będziecie robić Alternative: będziecie robiły "You will do" (to a group without men)
będą robić Alternative: będą robili "They will do"
będą robić Alternative: będą robiły "They will do" (a group without men)

preterite

  • The past tense is formed by the L-participle . This verb form is followed by the conjugated verb być "sein", in which, however, the first syllable and usually the following e are omitted:
Singular Plural
1st person: I - we (yes) robiłem / robiłam (my) robi l iśmy / robiłyśmy
2nd person: you - you (ty) robiłeś / robiłaś (wy) robi l iście / robiłyście
3 person: he
she
it
(on) robił
(ona) robiła
(ono) robiło
(oni) robi l i
(one) robiły
  • These endings are the same for all verbs. Note, however, that the L participle is irregular in some verbs .
  • iść " geht " is intended to serve as an example for the simple past conjugation of a verb with an irregular L-participle:

Modes

  • Polish has the following modes for verbs of both aspects :
    • Indicative (statement form): This is by far the most common mode. It occurs in all three conjugation patterns and is used when the conditional and imperative are inappropriate.
    • The conditional (possible form): roughly comparable to the German “would” form.
    • The imperative (command form): This mode only occurs for the people "you", "we" and "her".

The indicative

How to verbs in the indicative conjugated in section periods described.

The conditional

  • The only possible form of Polish is formed in a very similar way to the past tense , whereby the particle by is inserted between the L-participle and the personal ending .
  • Accordingly, the verb is also adjusted to the gender of the subject in the conditional.
  • Insofar as the conditional can be derived from the past tense, it is regular for all verbs.
person Singular Plural
1st person jechał bym
jechałabym
jechalibyśmy
jechałybyśmy
2nd person jechał byś
jechałabyś
jechalibyście
jechałybyście
3rd person jechałby
jechałaby
jechałoby
jechaliby
jechałyby
  • By and the ending of the person can, however, also separate from the verb and possibly append to a conjunction: zaraz byś poszla; prosili, żebym przyszedł .


The imperative

The imperative occurs on the one hand for the 2nd person (you / her) and the 1st person plural (we), on the other hand for the 3rd person singular (he / she / it) and plural (she).
The former forms are formed as follows:

  • Verbs of the I. conjugation (ę / esz) remove the ending -esz from the 2nd person singular present indicative - taking into account a possibly changed spelling of palatals: nieść: niesiesz> nieś! "Bring!", Jechać: jedziesz> jedź! "Drive!"
  • Verbs of the other conjugation classes take the 3rd person plural present indicative as the starting form: leżeć: leżą> leż! "Lie!", Powiedzieć: powiedzą> powiedz! "speech!".
  • Verbs that end in several consonants add -yj or -ij : rwać: rwę> rwij! “Tear!”.
  • Verbs ending in -bi - / - pi - / - wi- lose the i : mówić: mówię> mów! “Speak!”. Thereby o can become ó : robić> rób! “Do!”, Stać> stój! “Stand!”.
  • Some imperatives are irregular: być> bądź! "be!".
  • The we and you form add the suffixes -my and -cie : iść: idź !, idźmy !, idźcie! “Go: go !, let's go! / let's go !, go! ".

The forms of the 3rd person, on the other hand, are simply derived from the present indicative:

  • For this, the 3rd person singular or plural niech is prefixed: mówić: niech mówi, niech mówią "speak: let him speak !, let them speak!".
  • być "to be" forms these forms from the future stem : niech będzie, niech będą "he should be, they should be".

syntax

This chapter describes how words in Polish are arranged in sentences, in what order they are and how they must be inflected.

To the L-participle:

  • The endings of the 1st and 2nd person of the past tense can detach themselves from the L-participle and attach to
    sentence- introducing conjunctions, personal and interrogative pronouns or adverbs:
    co mu powiedzieli ście ? = co ście mu powiedzieli? “What did you tell him?”
    - nic mu nie mówili śmy = my śmy mu nic nie mówili “we didn't tell him anything”.
  • The conditional suffix including the personal ending can also be solved.

Congruence :

  • Subject and predicate match in person and number, in the past tense and conditional even gender equality is required: [stara kobieta] przy szła "[an old woman] has come" (female) <> [stary mężczyzna] przy szedł "a old man has come ”(male).
  • The order of the main clauses is fairly free:
    • The unmarked word order is subject-predicate-object : koń pije wodę “the horse drinks water”, but depending on the context, all possible permutations would be possible here.
    • In a neutral context and with normal sentence intonation, the noun phrase in front of the verb is interpreted as the subject, the one after the verb as an object.
    • For the unstressed personal pronouns (e.g. go “him”), more restricted rules apply.


Word order: The core sentence Jan jest nauczycielem serves as an example for context-related permutations of word order :

  • Neutral: Jan jest nauczycielem "Johann is a teacher".
  • Comparison with another subject: nauczycielem jest Jan a nie Piotr “JOHANN is a teacher, not (however) Peter”.
  • Comparison with other predicate nouns : Jan nauczycielem jest a nie studentem "Johann is TEACHER, (but) not a student".
  • The verb can also be at the beginning of a sentence, which is only partially possible in the German
      declarative sentence:
    Przyszła kobieta do lekarza “a woman comes to the doctor”; byli / żyli sobie dziad i baba “once there were / lived an old man and an old woman”.

Pronoun binding:

  • The subject above the object: Sąsiad Jana i powiedzał mu i że ... "Johann's i neighbor told him i (that is, Johann) that ..."

"Use the formal term of address":

  • Instead of the German politeness pronoun “Sie”, the Polish use of the words pan “Herr”, pani “Frau” etc., as listed in the Nouns section : gdzie pan pracuje? “Where do you work?” (Said to a man), gdzie pani pracuje? "Where do you work?" (Said to a woman) etc.

The reflexive pronoun:

  • The Polish reflexive pronoun się / sobie " sich " and the reflexive possessive pronoun swój can refer to any subject:
    (ja) czytam swoją książkę (literally: 'I read [ my ] book') "I read
    my book";
    (yes) widzę się w lustrze “I see myself in the mirror”.
  • The reflexive pronoun is also used in reflexive verbs in every person: (ja) uczę się polskiego (literally: 'I am learning Polish'), “I am learning Polish”, (ty) uczysz się polskiego “you are learning Polish”, etc. .
  • Sometimes it is also used with some non-reflexive verbs, which then corresponds to a passive construction: jak zapala się światło? "How do you (= switch on) the light?"

Record types

Associative conjunctions occur in all sentence types and also between sentences:
i "and [simultaneously]", a "and [while however]", albo "or", ale "but" ...
Connected

: zarówno ... jak i / też = never tylko … Lecz także “both… and”, never + ani… ani “neither… nor”.

Statements

A statement is essentially formulated as in German - with a verb in the indicative - even if the order of the words can be different.

Prompts

Prompts can be formed in different ways:

  • With the infinitive: Proszę zaplombować, nie wyrywać "please seal , do not pull", proszę mi to napisać "please write it down", proszę o rachunek "the bill please" ...
  • As a question: czy może pan / pani mi to napisać? "Can you write that down for me?" ...
  • With a verb in the imperative: mów mi gdzie są kwiaty “tell me where the flowers are” (title of a song by M. Dietrich), never mówcie mi że umiem, bo ja wiem lepiej! "Don't tell me that I can, because I know better", zostawmy wszystko, niech mówi serce "let's leave everything behind, let the heart say ..." (from a song by DKA) ...

Questions

  • Questions after a part of a sentence are formed with an interrogative pronoun (question pronoun):
    • The phrase with an interrogative pronoun is at the beginning of the sentence: [o kim] Jan czytał opowiadanie ___? “Who did Johann read a story about?”; Co Jan chce ___ szybko zjeść? “What does Johann want to eat quickly?”; Czyją czyta Anna ___ książkę? "Whose book is Anna reading?"; którą książkę skatagalowałeś? "Which book have you cataloged?"
    • Such a prefix is ​​not possible with indicative sentences (with że without by ): Gdzie Anna chce że by Jan poszedł jutro ___? "Where does Anna want Johann to go tomorrow?" <> Co Anna like że Jan je ___ zachłannie? "What does Anna know that Johann is eating?"
  • Decision-making questions (yes / no questions) are formed like a statement, but preceded by a czy . In this case , czy remains untranslated at the beginning of the sentence ; inside the sentence it is translated as "or": czy to jest jasne? "Is that clear?", Czy to jest miłość czy zauroczenie? “Is that love or enthusiasm?”, Czy można tu fotografować? "Is it allowed to forograph here?"

Subordinate clauses

  • The sentence order does not necessarily change in subordinate clauses, as is the case in German.
  • Subordinate conjunctions are: że "that", choć "at least, although, although", żeby / aby "with that, on that", jeśli "if" etc.
  • czy at the beginning of a subordinate clause is translated as "ob"; Inside the sentence it means "or": never wiem, czy to jest normalne czy never "I don't know whether this is normal or not".

Relative clauses

  • As a relative pronoun serves który : Książki które January czyta i recenzuje "books read and reviewed Johann".
  • Relative pronouns and trace do not have to match in the accusative and genitive of the negation:
    Koleżanka której Anna nie zaprosiła ___ ale Piotr przyprowadził ___ "The colleague who [although] didn't invite Anna, but brought Peter [with] home".
    Here, zaprosiła "[she] did not invite"
    never requires the genitive (because it is negated), but the non-negated przyprowadził "he brought" requires the accusative. In this case, the relative pronoun is congruent to the former (ie genitive singular).

Use of the case

Polish noun phrases consist of at least one noun, to which additional attributes can be added:

  • dom "(the / a) house": A single noun can form a complete noun phrase in Polish, as there are no articles.
  • ten dom "this house", czyj dom? "Whose house?": The noun can be expanded by a preceding pronoun; both must be congruent.
  • duży dom “a big house, the big house”: Adjectives must also be congruent with the noun.
  • dom Ewy “Eva's house”: genitive attributes are added.
  • dom, w którym mieszkasz z żoną “the house in which you live with [your] wife”: Relative clauses also follow the noun.

Nouns, the associated adjectives and adjectival pronouns all have the same case and number. The following is a description of the main uses of the Polish cases:

The nominative is the case of the subject.

  • Yes somebody “I eat” (subject to jeść “eat”).
  • On jest lekarzem “he is a doctor” (subject to być “to be”).
  • Ona jest zdrowa “she is healthy” (subject and predicate adjective of być “to be”).
  • To (jest) mój dom “this is my house” (predicate noun with to as the subject of być “to be”).
  • Jan złamał gałąź “John broke a branch” (the subject is the agent).
  • Jan złamał nogę "Johann broke [himself] his leg" (the subject is an experiencer).
  • Kamień spadł mi z serca “A stone fell from my heart” (idiom).
  • The nominative singular comes after the number every “1”, the nominative plural after the numbers 22/23/24, 32/33/34 etc .: Trzej Królowie “the three holy kings”, dwadzieścia dwa miasta “22 cities” (nominative Plural).
  • The nominative often replaces the masculine vocative; so the latter would be rather inappropriate after cześć “hello”.
  • “I myself” as a subject is called sam .

The genitive is used as a partitive , possessive (indicating the owner), object or negative accusative.

  • Partitive usage: on pije dużo wina (he drinks a lot [of] wine) : “he drinks a lot of wine”.
  • The owner of a thing is in the genitive. The personal and interrogative pronouns require a special adjective: mój dom "my house", moja żona "my wife"; czyj dom? "Whose house?", Czyja żona? “Whose wife?”; czyja to córka? "Whose daughter [is] this?"; to jest moja a to jest twoja “it's mine and that's yours”.
  • Verbs with a genitive subject: szukać "to seek", słuchać "to hear".
  • If the sentence predicate is negative, accusative objects are placed in the genitive: Nie widzę nikogo “I don't see anyone”.
  • The genitive is also used in nie ma "is not present / there": dlaczego tu nie ma Pawła ? "Why isn't Paul here?"
  • The genitive comes after the following prepositions: dla "for [a person]"; do "to after"; u "at"; od "from, since, from"; z "from [material, cause, origin]": z południa na północ "from south to north", z głodu "from hunger", stół z drewna "wooden table"; za : za młodu “at a young age”.
    ( z has a different meaning also with instrumental, za also with other cases!)
  • The plural genitive comes after the numbers 5 to 21, 25 to 31, 35 to 41, etc.: mieć 20 metrów wysokości “to be 5 meters high / tall”, maszerować pięć kilometrów “to march 5 kilometers”.

The dative stands:

  • as an indirect object next to an accusative object: daj mi książkę! "Give me a book!"
  • the only object: pomagajcie mi w tym! "Help me!"
  • after the preposition ku : ku morze “towards the sea”, ku niebu “skyward”, ku zachodowi “westward”, ku pamięci bohaterów “in memory of the heroes”, ku mojemu zdziwieniu “to my amazement”.

The accusative stands:

  • as a direct object in non-negated sentences.
  • as an indication of the spatial or temporal extent: (z) godzinę "(approximately) one hour [long]".
  • after the prepositions na , za , o : iść na spacer “going for a walk”, iść na koncert “going to a concert” (to an event), na długo “for a long time”, na śniadanie “for breakfast”;
    za miasto (literally: 'behind the city') "out of the city, into the countryside ",
    za dwie godziny "in two hours (from now)", za wszelką cenę "at any price", each za wszystkich "one for all ”, służyć za przykład “ serve as an example ”;
    wyższy o głowę “bigger by a head” (growth), pytać o coś “ask for something”.
    ( na and o can also be used with locative in a different meaning, za also stands with genitive or instrumental!)

The instrumental is used to indicate the means / instrument of action.

  • Bawię się lalką "I play with a doll" (without a preposition as a toy) <> bawię się z psem "I play with a dog" (with the preposition z as a partner).
  • Jadę pociagiem do Warszawy “I'm going to Warsaw by train”. (Means of transport)
  • The predicate noun and all its attributes are in the verb być “to be” in the instrumental, if the subject is not to “that”: On jest (dobrym lekarzem) “he is a (good) doctor” <> To jest dobry lekarz “that is a good doctor ”.
  • The instrumental comes after the prepositions z and za : z całą rodziną "with the whole family", z powodzeniem "with success", dzbanek z wodą "a jug of water", z trudnością "under difficulty";
    za drzewem “behind the tree”, za miastem “outside the city”, za każdym razem “every time”, za radą koleżanki “according to the advice of my colleague”,
    za żadne skarby świata “at no cost”.
    ( z has a different meaning also with genitive, za also with other cases!)

The locative is not alone.

  • It always follows one of the prepositions w or we after w + soft consonants, o and na : mieszkam w Warszawie “I live in Warsaw”, w domu “at home” (place), we wrześniu “in September”, w dzień “during the day "(Time), w dobrym nastroju " in a good mood ", w biegu " in a hurry "(circumstances);
    mówię o starych czasach “I talk about old times” (topic), myśleć o kimś “think of someone”, o własnych siłach “on their own”, o dużych wymaganiach “with high demands” (quality);
    na ulicy "on the street", na koniu "on the horse", na koncercie "in concert" (event), na never "in heaven", w never "in heaven (in the religious sense)".
    ( o and na can also have a different meaning with the accusative!)

The vocative is used for direct addressing; in the plural it is always identical with the nominative. He is especially in the polite form of address.

  • Dzień dobry, Panie Janie / Panie Inżynierze! "Good afternoon, Mr. Jan / Mr. Engineer!"
  • For such job titles that do not have a feminine form, the masculine form is used without inflection: Dzień dobry, Pani Profesor! "Good afternoon, Professor!"

negation

  • One set is negated by never presents the conjugated verb: nie wiem "[I] do not know".
  • is never necessary together with negative pronouns:
    • tego nikt never like “nobody knows that”, nikogo never ma w domu “nobody is at home”.
    • nic nie widzę “I don't see anything”.
    • nigdy nie był w tym mieście “he was never / never in this city”.
    • never możemy się nigdzie ukryć “we have nowhere / nowhere to hide”.
    • Two negative pronouns are also possible: nikt nic nie mówi (literally: 'nobody says anything') "nobody speaks".
  • “No more” is expressed by nie już : nie mam już czasu “I have no more time”.

  • In the case of adjectives, the
    negative is prefixed as an affix:
    czysty "pure, clear, clean" <> nieczysty "unclean, dirty".

  • “Without” is expressed by the negative adverbial active participle:
    skatalogowałem tę książkę [nie czytając jej] “I cataloged this book [without reading it]”.

Derivation and word composition

General information on this under derivation

Adverbs

Adverbs can be derived from adjectives or ordinal numbers in the following ways:

  • With the ending -o (usually after a soft or historically soft consonant) or -e after a softening of the consonant (usually after a hard consonant): mały> mało, tani> tanio; dobry> dobrze, zły> źle, wysoki> wysoko / wysoce, smutny> smutno / smutnie .
  • po + - (em) u : po polsku "(in) Polish", po staremu "the old way".
  • po + -e for numbers: po pierwsze "first".
  • z + -a, na / za + -o : z daleka "from a distance", na prawo "right", za zimno "too cold".
  • bardzo "very" is inherently an adverb.

By inflection in certain cases, adverbs can also be made from nouns:

  • Accusative: wprzód / w przód “before”, godzinę “for an hour”.
  • Instrumental: czas> czasem "sometimes".

It should be noted that the adjectives duży "big" and mały "small" converted into adverbs get the meaning dużo "a lot" and mało "little".


Adverbs can also be increased:

  • As with adjectives, this is done either by adding a suffix or by putting bardziej or najbardziej in front .
  • Adverbs have the special suffix - (i) ej- :
    • It requires a palatalized consonant: zimno> zimniej "cold", prosto> prościej "simple", bardzo> [coraz] bardziej "[always] more".
    • As with the adjective, the endings -k, -ek, -ok are omitted : daleko> dalej "far".
    • Some adverbs are also increased irregularly:
      dobrze> lepiej "good", dużo> więciej "a lot", mało> mniej "little", źle> gorzej "bad", lekko> lżej "easy, relaxed".

Compounds

In Polish, compounds such as “tomato soup” or “vacation pay” are formed less often than in German, for example. Corresponding constructions are z. B. realized

  • Through an adjective such as:
    • złota rybka (literally: 'golden fish') "gold fish".
  • With a derived adjective ending in -owy , such as:
    • From pomidor "tomato" comes pomidorowy "tomato": zupa pomidorowa "tomato soup".
  • Using a preposition, such as:
    • The pianka "foam" and golenie "shave" become pianka do golenia (literally: 'foam for shaving') "shaving foam".
    • The pieniądze “money” and wakacje “vacation” become pieniądze na wakacje “money saved for the vacation, vacation pay”, kosz na śmieci (literally: 'bin for garbage'), 'trash can'.
    • The pamiątka “souvenir” and podróż “travel” become pamiątka z podróży “travel souvenirs”.
  • By adding a noun in the genitive, such as:
    • bar szybkiej obsługi (literally: 'fast service snack bar') "fast food".
    • komendant policji (literally: 'President of the Police') "Police President".

Feminine forms

The feminine form of masculine personal names is often derived from -ka :

Masculine Feminine meaning
nauczyciel nauczycielka "Teacher"
Niemiec Niemka "German - German"
Polak polka "Pole - Pole"

Diminutive

The diminutive is the diminutive or belittling form, usually expressed in German by '-chen' or '-lein'.

  • The meaning of a Polish diminutive does not always coincide with a literally translated German. For some terms there are several words with and without a diminutive suffix, but their meanings are not exactly the same: wuj / wujek "uncle", żaba / żabka "frog", dziewczyna / dziewczynka "girl". The uterus "mother" also has a diminutive suffix, but the underlying form no longer exists.
  • The Polish diminutive suffix is - (e) k, -ka , but it can also appear in other forms:
    ryby "fish"> rybka "
    little fish", parasol "umbrella"> parasolka "[small] umbrella, knirps", koszula "shirt “> Koszulka “ T-shirt, sports jersey, shirt ”; kurczak "chicken" wieża "tower"> wieżyczka "turrets" hak "hook"> Haczyk "tick" ...

More affixes

  • -ość and -źń (feminine noun): elastyczny "elastic"> elastyczność "elasticity", miłować "love"> miłość "love"; bojaźń "fear, apprehension", jaźń "I", przyjaźń "friendship" ...
  • -nik (masculine noun): parasol "umbrella"> parasolnik "umbrella stand", robotnik "worker", jabłko "apple"> jabłecznik "apple wine", przyroda "nature", przyrodnik "natural scientist" ...
  • -iwy (adjective): bojaźliwy "fearful, fearful"
  • never- is negative: (never) ekonomiczny "(in) economic"; zachęcać "encourage" ↔ zniechęcać "discourage"; oczyszczać "cleanse" ↔ zanieczyszczać " pollute "; nieprzyjaźń "enmity" ...

swell

  • Pons language portal .
  • Parts of the “Syntax” section are based on:
    Joanna Błaszczak: Syntactic puzzles in Slavic languages .
  • Especially for the classification according to tribes and the historical development: A. Leskien: Handbook of the old Bulgarian language . Carl Winter, Heidelberg University Press 1969.
  • Otherwise, this article brings together as much information as possible from foreign language Wikipedia articles about the Polish language and grammar.

Individual evidence

  1. Thorsten Roelcke (Hrsg.): Variation Typologie: A language typological manual of the European languages ​​in the past and present. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-016083-8 . P. 673
  2. Toponymic Guidelines of Poland , Główny Urząd Geodezji i Kartografii, Warszawa 2002. p. 23 (PDF; 267 KB)

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Polish  - explanations of meanings, origins of words, synonyms, translations