. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
you have here. The definition of the word
will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Polish nouns have lexical gender and can be masculine personal, masculine animate, masculine inanimate, feminine or neuter. They inflect by number and case. There are 7 cases with the following traditional order:
Masculine nouns
- Regular. There is lot of variance of masculine forms and it is virtually impossible to divide them neatly into a few declension groups. Here they are divided by gender:
Singular:
For inanimate masculine: accusative is always equal to nominative.
For animate masculine: accusative is equal to genitive.
Plural:
For Masculine Personal:
Accusative plural is equal to genitive plural.
For ‘Not-Masculine Personal’:
Accusative plural is equal to nominative plural.
Feminine nouns
Native declension of nouns ending in -a
Basic declension
In the following description, we consider the word without the final -a.
- Genitive singular adds -y.
- Dative singular palatalizes (softens) the final consonant cluster and adds -e, -i or -y. See below for a list of palatalizations.
- Accusative singular adds -ę.
- Instrumental singular adds -ą.
- Locative singular is always the same as dative singular.
- Vocative singular adds -o.
- Nominative plural adds -y, -e or -i depending on the final consonant. If it is k or g, the ending is -i. If the consonant is hard, e.g. n, m, z, the ending is -y. If it is palatalized (soft), such as ni, si, zi, the ending is -e.
- Genitive plural usually does not add anything, but sometimes adds -i depending on the final consonant cluster. A popular cluster that requires -i is wl, found in budowla, hodowla.
- Dative plural adds -om.
- Accusative plural is the same as nominative plural.
- Instrumental plural always adds -ami.
- Locative plural always adds -ach.
- Vocative plural is the same as nominative plural.
List of palatalizations in the dative and locative
- -ba → -bie
- -bia → -bi
- -ca → -cy
- -cha → -sze
- -cia → -ci
- -cza → -czy
- -da → -dzie
- -dza → -dzy
- -dzia → -dzi
- -dża → -dży
- -fa → -fie
- -ga → -dze
- -ja → -ji
- -ka → -ce
- -la → -li
- -ła → -le
- -ma → -mie
- -na → -nie
- -pa → -pie
- -pia → -pi
- -ra → -rze
- -rza → -rzy
- -sa → -sie
- -sia → -si
- -sła → śle
- -sna → śnie
- -sma → śmie
- -sta → -ście
- -sza → -szy
- -ta → -cie
- -wa → -wie
- -za → -zie
- -zda → ździe
- -zia → -zi
- -zła → -źle
- -zma → -zmie
- -zna → -źnie
- -ża → -ży
Moving e
In some words, an e is inserted in the genitive plural to break up a final consonant cluster.
Shift of o to ó
In some words ending in -owa, -oba, -ota, the o in the final syllable shifts to ó in the genitive plural. This change happens in some words and not in others, and is not predictable. Examples include krowa, sowa, budowa, dąbrowa, osoba, robota, sobota, cnota. Counterexamples where this phenomenon does NOT happen include grota, zgryzota.
Latinate feminine noun declension
Many nouns that end in -ia are borrowed from Latin and have a special declension that adds a geminated i.
Declension of nouns ending in a consonant
(to be written)
Feminine ść noun declension
Examples
|
singular |
plural |
|
singular |
plural
|
| Nominative
|
długość |
długośc·i |
|
miłość |
miłośc·i
|
| Genitive
|
długośc·i |
długośc·i |
|
miłośc·i |
miłośc·i
|
| Dative
|
długośc·i |
długośc·iom |
|
miłośc·i |
miłośc·iom
|
| Accusative
|
długość |
długośc·i |
|
miłość |
miłośc·i
|
| Instrumental
|
długośc·ią |
długośc·iami |
|
miłośc·ią |
miłośc·iami
|
| Locative
|
długośc·i |
długośc·iach |
|
miłośc·i |
miłośc·iach
|
| Vocative
|
długośc·i |
długośc·i |
|
miłośc·i |
miłośc·i
|
Neuter nouns