Difference between revisions of "Language/Polish/Grammar/Gender"
| Line 6: | Line 6: | ||
Happy learning! | Happy learning! | ||
__TOC__ | |||
Polish is a tough language to learn and that's common knowledge. | Polish is a tough language to learn and that's common knowledge. | ||
| Line 13: | Line 15: | ||
It can be really confusing for non-native speakers that are trying to learn Polish because the language is gendered. | It can be really confusing for non-native speakers that are trying to learn Polish because the language is gendered. | ||
Polish distinguishes between the 3 genders: | Polish distinguishes between the 3 genders: | ||
Revision as of 16:23, 30 December 2021
Hi Polish Learners! 😃
➡ In today's lesson we will learn How to use genders in Polish.
Happy learning!
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.
Polish distinguishes between the 3 genders:
- masculine
- feminine
- neutral.
Rules
While masculine and feminine are referring to men or women, "neutral" words refer either to babies or inanimate objects.
- Feminine nouns generally end in -a, in -i, or in a soft consonant (ń, ć…),
- Neutrals end in -o, -e, -ę or -um,
- 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 | Masculine | Neutral | Feminine |
| The word ends
with: |
a consonant
-a (if male) |
-o
-e -ę -um |
-a
-ść (abstract nouns) a consonant (rare irregularities) |
| Examples | stół, "table"
kolega, "friend" |
biurko, "desk"
pływanie, "swimming" imię, "name" muzeum, "museum" |
apokalipsa , "apocalypse"
wolność , "freedom" noc , "night" |
Examples
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
| ENGLISH | POLISH |
| THIS (masculine) | TEN mężczyzna |
| THIS (feminine) | TA kobieta |
| THIS (neutral) | TO dziecko |
| THIS (neutral) | TO krzesło |