Language/Polish/Grammar/Gender

Genders in Polish

Hi Polish Learners! 😃

➡ In today's lesson we will learn How to use genders in Polish.

Happy learning!

Polish distinguishes between the 3 genders:

1. masculine
2. feminine
3. neutral.

Rules

1. Feminine nouns generally end in -a, in -i, or in a soft consonant (ń, ć…),
2. Neutrals end in -o, -e, -ę or -um,
3. Masculine ends with a hard consonant (spółgłoska) and a few -a.

However, there are many exceptions. Some genders are consistent with the meaning, for example the masculine:

• poeta (poet),
• dziadzio (grandfather),
• wykładowca (teacher),
• dentysta (male dentist and for a woman it would be dentistka).

The masculine is divided into "personal animates" (names expressing a human being), non-personal animates (an animal), inanimate (an object or an idea).

• In the singular, the masculine are distinguished into animate (humans and animals) and inanimate (objects). 
• In the plural, they are distinguished into personal (humans) and impersonal (animals and objects). Often, the plurals of different genders are common, except the personal masculine.

Kind	Male	Neutral	Feminine
The word ends with:	a consonant -a (if male)	-the -and -is -one	-a -ść (abstract nouns) a consonant (rare irregularities)
Examples	table , "table" colleague , "ami"	desk , "bureau" swimming , "natation" name , "nom" museum , "musée"	apokalipsa , "apocalypse" wolność , "freedom" noc , "night"

Examples

ENGLISH	POLISH	PRONUNCIATION IN ENGLISH	BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE
THIS (male)	TEN mężczyzna	tehn mehn zhih chih zhih nah	Esse homem
THIS (female)	TA kobieta	tah koh bih eh tah	Essa mulher
THIS (neuter)	TO dziecko	toh jih eht skoh	Esse bebê
THIS (neuter)	TO krzesło	toh ksheh sou oh	Essa cadeira

Polish is a tough language to learn and that's common knowledge.

The reason behind it is not only the alphabet (which has 32 letters as opposed to English 26) but among other things, gender.

It can be really confusing for non-native speakers that are trying to learn Polish because the language is gendered.

There are three different genders.

Male, female and it.

While male and female are referring to men or women, "it" words refer either to babies or inanimate objects.

A few examples:

• Chair - TO krzesło (the "it" pronoun)
• Baby - TO dziecko (same as above)
• Woman - TA kobieta (female)
• Man - TEN mężczyzna (male)

In Polish it is so important, because verbs must be inflected to every gender.

For example in the past simple in English, we describe only verb+ed or irregular form of this verb.

In Polish past tenses we must add the right letter in the end of verb.

For example :

• verb BYĆ (be)-> JA BYŁ(EM) - It says man / JA BYŁ(AM)- It says woman