Appendix:Polish adjectives

Adjectives (przymiotnik sg m in Polish) decline very regularly depending on case, number, and gender. They may also be used as nouns. There is only one pattern, but final consonant group takes slightly different endings. The vocative case always has the same form as the nominative.

Colors:

• White - feminine singular nominative
• Green - second form (with "i") in the case of adjectives ending in "ka", "ga" or "ia" in the base form, first form (without "i") otherwise
• Blue - second form (with "i") in the case of adjectives ending in "ia" in the basic form, first form (without "i") otherwise
• Red - final consonant group must be palatized (or "softened"), and "i" or "y" must be added, depending on result

Some softening rules also apply.

Remarks:

• Very few masculine adjectives have in nominative singular and in accusative singular of masculine inanimate nouns alternative forms with zero ending (ending in consonant): ciekawy – ciekaw, godny – godzien, gotowy – gotów, łaskawy – łaskaw, miłościwy – miłościw, pełny – pełen, pewny – pewien, syty – syt, świadomy – świadom, warty – wart, wesoły – wesół, winny – winien, zdrowy – zdrów.
• Two adjectives appear only in nominative (in all genders and numbers) and have in nominative zero ending: rad and kontent.
• Some adjectival pronouns have also other irregularities in their declensions, e.g. sam, ów (neuter: samo, owo).
• There is some group of indeclinable adjectives (usually of foreign origin).

Remarks:

• Adjectives ending with -i in nominative form masculine-personal nominative forms with such alternations:

• -gi → -dzy (drogi → drodzy)
• -ki → -cy (wielki → wielcy)

and feminine forms:

• -gi → -ga in nominative and → -gą in instrumental
• -ki → -ka in nominative and → -ką in instrumental

• Masculine adjectives ending with -y in nominative form masculine-personal nominative forms with such alternations:

• r → rz (stary → starzy, mądry → mądrzy)
• s → ś (żałosny → żałośni)
• -ty → -ci (popielaty → popielaci)
• -ły → -li (biały → biali)
• -ny → -ni (wolny → wolni, czytany → czytani)

Sometimes o → e alternation may occur in an adjective stem, especially in passive adjectival participles (wesoły → weseli, robiony → robieni):

In expressions with the preposition po: po polsku, po francusku, po niemiecku, po ojcowsku etc occur adjectives in an old dative form which was created by adding the -u ending to an adjective stem. In other cases the new forms are used (polskiemu, francuskiemu, niemieckiemu, ojcowskiemu).

Long forms are far more common.

Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are used to compare degree of intensity of the same feature described by the adjective. Adjectives constitute three degrees of comparison - positive: ładny (pretty), comparative: ładniejszy (prettier) and superlative: najładniejszy (the prettiest). In Polish there are three different types of comparison: regular, irregular and descriptive.

Superlative is always formed by adding a prefix naj- to the comparative form or, if the adjective is compared in a descriptive way, by using the word najbardziej instead of comparative bardziej

Comparative of adjectives is formed by adding the ending -szy:

• -y → -szy (nowy → nowszy, młody → młodszy)

which is often accompanied by alternatiom of an adjective stem:

• -ąc-y → -ęt-szy (gorący → gorętszy)
• -ad-y → -ed-szy (blady → bledszy)
• -ł-y → -l-szy (trwały → trwalszy, miły → milszy), additionaly:
  • -iał-y → -iel-szy (biały → bielszy, śmiały → śmielszy)
  • -oł-y → -el-szy (wesoły → weselszy)

or the ending -ejszy (with alternation in a stem):

• -ł-y → -l-ejszy (ciepły → cieplejszy)
• -n-y → -ni-ejszy (ciemny → ciemniejszy, kwaśny → kwaśniejszy, śmieszny → śmieszniejszy)
  • -sn-y → -śni-ejszy (jasny → jaśniejszy, ciasny → ciaśniejszy)
• -r-y → -rz-ejszy (mądry → mądrzejszy)
• -t-y → -ci-ejszy (żółty → żółciejszy)
• -w-y → -wi-ejszy (łatwy → łatwiejszy)

There is a number of adjectives which have an irregular comparative form. Compare:

Some adjectives form comparatives and superlatives by using the adverbs bardziej and najbardziej (which themselves are comparative and superlative of the adverb bardzo respectively) before an adjective.

It is possible to form comparatives and superlatives this way even for adjectives whose comperative can be formed regularly or irregularly (as described earlier). For instance: nerwowy (nervous) → bardziej nerwowy (more nervous) → najbardziej nerwowy (the most nervous).

Adjectives derivied from nouns (e.g. drewniany (wooden), metalowy (metal)) do not form comparatives and superlatives. Additionaly, adjectival participles, adjectival pronouns and ordinal numerals do not either.

Adjectives in their comparative and superlative forms are declinable. They are declined in accordance to the earlier mentioned pattern. Analogously, they depend on gender, number and case and receive similar case endings.

If the adjective is placed before the noun, it plays the role of describing the character or trait of the noun. Otherwise - if the adjective follows the noun - then the attribute is classifying (extracting).

Examples:

• "Biały niedźwiedź" (white bear) - a bear that is white, but it may be an albino grizzly, a teddy-bear made of white cloth, or even a black bear that is covered with snow or flour, or has its fur whitened. In the contrary, "niedźwiedź biały" is a nickname for polar bear, "niedźwiedź polarny" (polar bear) - a species of bear.
• "Attaché kulturalny" means "cultural attaché" (type of attaché). But if you say "kulturalny attaché", it means "an attaché (an employee of an embassy) who is by the way a cultural person".
• "Sok pomarańczowy" = "orange juice" (made of oranges), while "pomarańczowy sok" = "orange-coloured juice" (it may be carrot + banana juice as well).

However, the rule is not always observed in poetic license.

Adverbs are derived by removing an adjective ending (usually -y/-i, -a or -e in nominative) and replacing it with the -o or -e ending.

Examples:

• szybki → szybko, jasny → jasno etc.

If an adjective ends in -r-y, the adverb receives the -rz-e ending:

• dobry → dobrze, mądry → mądrze etc.

More about adverbs

• Polish declensions
• Polish Adjectives in Wikibooks.
• Aneks:Język_polski_-_przymiotniki
• Aneks:Język_polski_-_zaimki