Polish does not have elements corresponding to English indefinite and definite articles a, an, the. One interprets a noun as definite or indefinite on the basis of context. Hence dom may be interpreted as “a house” or “the house.”

Noun Gender

Polish nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Grammatical gender has nothing to do with natural gender (sex). It is mainly of importance for purposes of grammatical agreement. For example, “feminine” nouns require that a modifying adjective have “feminine” endings, as in dobra lampa (a good lamp); compare to masculine dobry stół (good table) or neuter dobre krzesło (good chair).

While names for males will be masculine in gender, and names for females will be feminine, and barnyard animals are often sexed, as krowa (cow), byk (bull), other objects in the world are divided up according to gender in an arbitrary way. For example, nos (nose) is masculine in gender, and głowa (head) is feminine; słońce (sun) is neuter, while księżyc (moon) is masculine.

Noun Stems

Nouns may end in a consonant or in a vowel; if in a vowel, the stem of the noun, to which endings are added, is obtained by subtracting the vowel, giving a consonant stem.

For example, the stem of głowa (head) is głow-, while the stem of nos (nose) is nos-. The stem of mieszkanie (apartment) is mieszkań- (retracing in reverse the spelling rule ń + e = nie).

Masculine Noun Stems

Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant, for example: nos (nose), stół (table), hotel (hotel), piec (stove), mąż (husband). Some masculine names of persons end in -a, for example, kolega (colleague), dentysta (dentist), and even mężczyzna (man). Often masculine nouns show different stems when there is no ending and when there is an ending, as stół (table), stoły (tables), or mąż (husband), mężowie (husbands).

Plural of Masculine Nouns

Masculine non-personal nouns ending in hard consonants) usually form the plural in -y, for example nos –> nosy (nose), stół –> stoły (table). One writes i after k or g: czek –> czeki (check). Masculine nouns ending in soft consonants usually form the plural in -e, for example hotel –> hotele (hotel), piec –> piece (stove).

Plural of Masculine Personal Nouns

Masculine personal nouns often take special endings in the plural. Usually the ending is -i/y, preceded by the softening of the preceding consonant: student –> studenci (student), Polak –> Polacy (Pole), and so on. With titles and relations, the ending –owie often occurs: pan –> panowie (sir), profesor –> profesorowie (professor), mąż –> mężowie (husband husbands; brat –> bracia (brother[s]) is quite exceptional. A few masculine personal nouns have a plural in –‘e, as Amerykanin –> Amerykanie(American).

Feminine Nouns

Feminine nouns most often end in -a, for example, lampa (lamp), kobieta (woman), krowa (cow), siostra (sister), mama momma), torba (bag), ulica (street). Some feminine nouns end in a soft consonant, for example, twarz (face), kość (bone), noc (night), rzecz (thing). A few feminine personal nouns end in -i, as gospodyni (landlady).

The noun osoba (person) is feminine in gender, whether it refers to a man or a woman.

Plural of Feminine Nouns

Feminine nouns follow approximately the same rules as masculine nouns when forming the plural. Nouns ending in a hard consonant take -y, for example kobiety (women), krowy (cows), siostry (sisters), torby (bags). One writes i after k or g: noga –> nogi (legs). Feminine nouns whose stem ends in a soft consonant usually take -e, for example koleje (rails), ulice (streets), twarze (faces). Some feminine nouns ending in a soft consonant take -y/i, for example rzeczy (things), kości (bones).

Neuter Nouns

Neuter nouns end in -o or (after soft consonants) -e, for example mydło (soap), koło (wheel), piwo (beer), morze (sea), pole (field), zdanie (opinion). Exceptional are nouns like imię (name) and zwierzę (animal), which end in ę. Some neuter nouns, borrowed from Latin, end in -um, for example muzeum (museum).

Plural of Neuter Nouns

Neuter nouns form the plural in -a, for example: koła (wheels), piwa (beers), morza (seas), pola (fields), zdania (opinions). Nouns like imię and zwierzę have plurals imiona (names), zwierzęta (animals). The plural of muzeum is muzea (museums). The noun dziecko (child) is of neuter gender. Its plural is dzieci (children). The nouns oko (eye) and ucho (ear) also have exceptional plurals: oczy, uszy.

Names for People and Their Plurals

babcia grandmother babcie, mąż husband mężowie

brat brother bracia,  narzeczona fiancée narzeczone

chłopiec boy chłopcy,  narzeczony fiancé narzeczeni

ciocia aunt ciocie,  ojciec father ojcowie

córka daughter córki,  osoba person osoby

człowiek man, human ludzie,  przyjaciel  m.friend przyjaciele

dziadek grandfather dziadkowie,  przyjaciółka f. friend przyjaciółki

dziecko child dzieci, sąsiad m. neighbor sąsiedzi

dziewczyna girl dziewczyny, sąsiadka f. neighbor sąsiadki

kobieta woman kobiety, siostra sister siostry

koleżanka f. colleague koleżanki, syn son synowie

kolega m. colleague koledzy, ta pani that lady te panie

krewna f. relative krewne, ten pan that gentleman ci panowie

krewny m. relative krewni, wujek uncle wujkowie

matka mother matki, znajoma f. acquaintance znajome

mężczyzna man mężczyźni,  znajomy m. acquaintance znajomi

A lot of information today, but hopefully interesting.

Do następnego razu! (Till next time…)

a

That proposed ending “-a” makes it very easy to assume that Polish feminine nouns should end in “-a”. And yes, many indeed do. But not all.

There are some nouns that even though they don’t end in “-a”, you can more or less guess that they are feminine in gender. For example:

• pani (plural: panie) – lady, Mrs or Ms.
• gospodyni (plural: gospodynie) – landlady (or a woman who runs a household)
• bogini (plural: boginie) – goddess

Those are the easy ones. And there aren’t that many of them.

The problem is that there’s also a multitude of nouns who look like they might be anything but feminine in gender. They end in a consonant, and there’s no other way, but to simply learn them one by one. And unfortunately, there’s quite a few of them.

Here are some of the most popular ones you may see:

• krew (usually only singular) – blood
• mysz (plural: myszy) – mouse
• twarz (plural: twarze) – face
• rzecz (plural: rzeczy) – thing
• noc (plural: noce) – night
• sól (plural: sole) – salt
• myśl (plural: myśli) – thought
• kolej (plural: koleje ) – railway

And those are still the easy ones. The biggest group of those “odd” feminine nouns end in those goofy soft consonants that most Polish learners grow to hate. And yes, this group is full of commonly used popular nouns.

For example:

• jesień (plural: jesienie) – autumn
• nić (plural: nici) – thread
• wieś (plural: wsie) – village
• kość (plural: kości) – bone
• odpowiedź (plural: odpowiedzi) – answer
• łódź (plural: łodzie) – boat
• powieść (plural: powieści) – novel

There’s plenty more, unfortunately.

And then there are a few nouns that simply can’t decide whether they are feminine of masculine:

• rodzynek (masculine) or rodzynka (feminine)– raisin
• pomarańcz (masculine) or pomarańcza (feminine) – orange

Though with “orange” when you say “pomarańcz” you mean the color orange. Pomarańcza is an orange (fruit). But Polish raisins swing both ways, I guess.

Post from: Polish Blog