Language/Polish/Grammar/Adjectives
Hi Polish Learners! 😃
➡ In today's lesson we will learn How to use Adjectives in Polish.
As you probably assume, if adjectives are to be matched with the gender (feminine, masculine, neuter) of the noun "described", adjectives must also decline "case of the noun".
The adjectives that you have learned so far are in the base case - the nominative:
- duży (large, m)
- Mala (small, f)
- krótkie (short, n)
For the other "cases" I will try to present all the possibilities in the tables in this chapter.
Happy learning!
Cases
| Case | Singular | Plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feminine | Masculine personal AND masculine animated | Masculine inanimate | Neutral | Masculine personal | Others | |
| Nominative | -a/-ia | -y/-i | -e/-ie | -i/-y | -e/-ie | |
| Genitive | -ej/-iej | -ego/-iego | -ych/-ich | |||
| Dative | -ej/-iej | -emu/-iemu | -ym/-im | |||
| Accusative | -ą/-ią | -ego/-iego | -y/-i | -e/-ie | -ych/-ich | -e/-ie |
| Instrumental | -ą/-ią | -ym/-im | -ymi/-imi | |||
| Locative | -ej/-iej | -ym/-im | -ych/-ich | |||
Masculine Adjectives
1.) Ending with '-y':
| Noun case | Adjective | Noun |
| Last name. | Duž y (big) | car (a car) |
| Gen. | big ego | car u |
| That. | large emu | car those |
| Acc. | big y | car |
| Into the. | (z) Duž white | car em |
| Place. | (a) Duž white | car zie |
2.) Ending with '-i':
| Noun case | Adjective | Noun |
| Last name. | niski (short, low) | fence |
| Gen. | low iego | fence u |
| That. | LOW iemu | fence u |
| Acc. | low and | fence |
| Into the. | (z) low im | fence em |
| Place. | (o) low im | fetal of |
As you can see, the main difference is that in adjectives ending in "-i" the "i" remains before the ending and adjectives ending in "-y" the "y" is deleted (at the exception of the last two cases).
Feminine Adjectives
1.) Having '-y' at the end of the masculine (ładna - m. Ładn y ):
| Noun case | Adjective | Noun |
| Last name. | nice and (pretty, beautiful) | girlfriend a (a girl) |
| Gen. | Loved the above | girls y |
| That. | Loved the above | girl ie |
| Acc. | pretty ± | girls ę |
| Into the. | (z) PRETTY ± | girls ± |
| Place. | (a) pretty small | girl ie |
2.) Having '-i' at the end of the masculine (długa - m. Dług i ):
| Noun case | Adjective | Noun |
| Last name. | debt a (long) | droga (a way, a road) |
| Gen. | debt iej | road and |
| That. | debt iej | dro money |
| Acc. | debt ± | way ę |
| Into the. | (z) debt ± | way ± |
| Place. | (a) debt iej | dro money |
Neutral Adjectives
1.) Having the ending '-y' in the masculine (trudne - m. Trudn y ):
| Noun case | Adjective | Noun |
| Last name. | trudn e (difficult) | Form E (a task) |
| Gen. | difficult ego | tasks and |
| That. | difficult emu | the task at |
| Acc. | difficult e | tasks e |
| Into the. | (with) difficult white | task I |
| Place. | (a) Difficult white | the task at |
2.) Having '-i' ending in the masculine (szerokie - m. szeroki):
| Noun case | Adjective | Noun |
| Last name. | wide e (large) | okn o (window) |
| Gen. | wide iego | windows a |
| That. | wide iemu | okn u |
| Acc. | wide e | okn o |
| Into the. | (z) wide to them | OKN I |
| Place. | (a) wide to them | OKN e |
In fact, it was not necessary to make these two tables, because as you can see the neutral adjectives are declined exactly like the masculine adjectives. Their endings vary only in the nominative and the accusative. The "vocative" case which did not appear in all the tables takes the nominative form.
Plural Adjectives
1.) Having the ending '-y' in the masculine singular (brudne - sing. M. Brudn y ):
| Noun case | Adjective | Last name |
| Last name. | dirty e (sale) | szklan ki (glasses) |
| Gen. | a dirty Pieces | glass ek |
| That. | a dirty white | glass com |
| Acc. | dirty e | glass ki |
| Into the. | (z) a dirty young | glass arms |
| Place. | (o) a dirty s | glass hands |
2.) Having '-i' ending in the sing. masculine (wysokie - sing. m. wysoki):
| Noun case | Adjective | Noun |
| Last name. | wysok ie (large) | drzew a (trees) |
| Gen. | high them | trees |
| That. | high they | trees of om |
| Acc. | high and e | trees a |
| Into the. | (with) high name | ami trees |
| Place. | (o) high theirs | trees ah |
Comparative Adjectives
The main rule for comparing adjectives in Polish is that the adjective takes "-szy" at the end for the comparative and "Naj-" as a prefix and "-szy" at the end for the superlative. However, the formation of the comparative is sometimes more difficult, because in the stem of the adjective (the part between the prefix and the end) several alternations can occur, letters change, some disappear and some new letters appear. Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| nice | order the st | most order it st |
| gruby (fat) | grub st | most grub st |
| jasny (clear) | I rly st | most I rly st |
| drogi (expensive) | dro f st | most yeast f st |
Some general rules:
- If an adjective ends with "by, dy, (c) hy, ky, ry, ty", and "wy" in comparison the letter before 'y' does not change and the adjective takes the ending "-szy" in instead of "-y", ex: stary - star szy (old), blady - bl e d szy (pale).
- Adjectives that end with "-ny" change their ending to "-niejszy", for example: ładny - ład niejszy , ważny - waż niejszy (important).
- Adjectives that end with "-cy" in the comparative change the letter "c" by the letter "t", eg gorący - gorę t szy (hot).
- Adjectives that end with "-ły" change their ending to "-lszy" in the comparative, eg: biały - bie l szy (white).
- Adjectives that end with "-pi" take the same ending as the first rule "-szy", eg: głupi - głup szy
- If an adjective ends with "-gi" or "-ki" its ending will be "-ższy" for comparison, eg długi - dłu ż szy (long).
As you can see, there too often occur alternations in the middle of the adjective ("the stem" before the end). They are similar to those you have already discussed when creating the plural or for the declension in noun cases:
- "a" becomes "e" as in 'blady - bl e dszy'.
- "ą" "becomes" ę "" as in 'gorący - gor ę tszy'.
There are adjectives of which comparative and superlative cannot be created, for example, blogi (happy). We cannot say "błoższy". In such cases, we have to use the comparative or superslative form of the adverb 'bardzo' (very), which is 'bardziej' and 'najbardziej' (increasingly translated). For example: "bardziej blogi" (happier) and "najbardziej blogi" (happiest).
Irregular Comparative Adjectives
In Polish, like in almost every language, there occur cases of adjectives with irregular comparative and superlative forms. Here are some most popular examples (I listed only the comparative, because the superlative form is exactly the same, just 'naj-' at the beginning): In Polish, as in almost all languages, there are cases of adjectives with irregular comparative and superlative forms. Here are some popular examples (I listed only the comparative, because the superlative form is exactly the same, just with "Naj-" at the start):
| Positive | Comparative |
| big (grand) | greater |
| small (petit) | smaller |
| zły (bad) | worse |
| good (bon) | better |
Examples
Adjectives in Polish
| ENGLISH | POLISH | PRONUNCIATION IN
ENGLISH |
BRAZILIAN
PORTUGUESE |
| big (m) / | duży (m) / | dou zheh | grande / |
| big (f) | duża (f) | dou zhah | grande (fem) |
| other (m) / | inne (m) / | ihn neh | outro / |
| other (f) | inna (f) | ihn nah | outra |
| large (m) / | duży (m) / | dou zheh | largo / |
| large (f) | duża (f) | dou zhah | larga |
| heavy (m) / | ciężki (m) / | chehns keh | pesado / |
| heavy (f) | ciężka (f) | chehns kah | pesada |
| small (m) / | mały (m) / | mah ou eh | pequeno / |
| small (f) | mała (f.) | mah ou ah | pequena |
| short (m) / | krótki (m) / | kroot keh | curto / |
| short (f) | krótka (f) | kroot kah | curta |
| thin (m) / | cienki (m) / | chehn keh | magro / |
| thin (f) | cienka (f) | chehn kah | magra |
| good (m) / | dobry (m.) / | doh breh | bom / |
| good (f) | dobra (f) | doh brah | boa |
| dry (m) / | suchy (m) / | sou heh | seco / |
| dry (f) | sucha (f) | sou hah | seca |
| dirty (m) / | brudny (m.) / | brood neh | sujo / |
| dirty (f) | brudna (f) | brood nah | suja |
| wet (m) / | mokry (m) / | moh kreh | úmido / |
| wet (f) | mokra (f) | moh krah | úmida |
| correct (m) / | poprawny (m) / | poh prahv neh | correto / |
| correct (f) | poprawna (f) | poh prahv nah | correta |
| old (m) / | stary (m.) / | stah reh | velho / |
| old (f) | stara (f) | stah rah | velha |
| new (m) / | nowy (m) / | noh veh | novo / |
| new (f) | nowa (f) | noh vah | nova |
| full (m) / | pełny (m) / | peh ou neh | cheio / |
| full (f) | pełna (f) | peh ou nah | cheia |
| cold (m) / | zimny (m) / | zhihm neh | frio / |
| cold (f) | zimna (f) | zhihm nah | fria |
| warm (m) / | ciepły (m.) / | cheh pou eh | quente / |
| warm (f) | ciepła (f) | cheh pou ah | quente (fem) |
.
Some cases
Polish adjective declines depending on case, number and gender.
| Declination of mały | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Singular | Plural | |||
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Person-masculine | Other genders | |
| Nominative | mały | mała | małe | mali | małe |
| Genitive | małego | małej | małego | małych | |
| Dative | małemu | małemu | małym | ||
| Accusative | mały/małego | małą | małe | małe | małe |
| Instrumental | małym | małym | małymi | ||
| Locative | małej | małych | |||
| Vocative | mały | mała | małe | mali | małe |
| Declination of letni | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Singular | Plural | |||
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Person-masculine | Other genders | |
| Nominative | letni | letnia | letnie | letni | letnie |
| Genitive | letniego | letniej | letniego | letnich | |
| Dative | letniemu | letniemu | letnim | ||
| Accusative | letni/letniego | letnią | letnie | letnie | letnie |
| Instrumental | letnim | letnim | letnimi | ||
| Locative | letniej | letnich | |||
| Vocative | letni | letnia | letnie | letni | letnie |
| Declination of wielki | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Singular | Plural | |||
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Person-masculine | Other genders | |
| Nominative | wielki | wielka | wielkie | wielcy | wielkie |
| Genitive | wielkiego | wielkiej | wielkiego | wielkich | |
| Dative | wielkiemu | wielkiemu | wielkim | ||
| Accusative | wielki/wielkiego | wielką | wielkie | wielkie | wielkie |
| Instrumental | wielkim | wielkim | wielkimi | ||
| Locative | wielkiej | wielkich | |||
| Vocative | wielki | wielka | wielkie | wielcy | wielkie |