Polish overview

Contents

Introduction
Polish facts
Polish alphabet
Polish grammar overview
Useful Polish phrases
Famous Poles

Introduction

Polish, along with Slovak and Czech belongs to the western group of Slavic languages. It is also loosely related to the languages of the east Slavic group - Ukrainian, Belorussian, and Russian and the southern Slavic group - Bulgarian, Macedonian, Slovene, Serbian, and Croatian. As a Slavic language Polish belongs to the eastern division of Indo-European languages.

Back to top

Polish facts

Location: .Central Europe, east of Germany, mostly flat plain; mountains along southern border.

Natural resources: Coal, sulphur, copper, natural gas, silver, lead, salt, arable land

Industries: Machine building, iron and steel, coal mining, chemicals, shipbuilding, food processing, glass, beverages, textiles

Polish alphabet

Basic alphabet and pronunciation

Each of the above letters represent a single sound. There are also two-letter combinations, each of them representing a single sound.

Letters q, v, x  are not part of Polish alphabet but can be found in foreign words.

Back to top

Polish grammar overview

Nouns

Nouns change in different contexts. A noun depends on its case which depends on the gender, number and position of the noun.

Gender

Masculine

Personal
Animate (impersonal)
Inanimate

Feminine

Neuter

Number

Singular or plural

Case

1. Nominative – Co? Kto?
2. Genitive – Czego? Kogo?
3. Dative – Czemu? Komu?
4. Accusative – CO? Kogo?
5. Instrumental – Czym? Kym?
6. Locative – O czym? O kym?
7. Vocative – functions de facto as nominative

Adjectives

Adjectives qualify a noun or a pronoun. Are in the same case, number and gender as the noun or pronoun it describes.  Some adjectives are also used as pronouns.

Types of adjectives

Attributive adjectives
Possessive adjectives
Distributive adjectives
Interrogative adjectives
Relative adjectives
Indefinite adjectives
Numerical adjectives

Pronouns

A pronoun replaces a noun. All pronouns, except reflective pronouns, decline for gender, number and case of the noun which they replace;

Different types of pronouns

Personal pronouns

Ordinary – used when there is no need for emphasis and if it doesn't follow a preposition
Emphatic – used when you put emphases on the pronoun
Prepositional – used after a preposition
 

Reflexive pronouns:  - Used when the object of the verb is the same as the subject, do not decline for number and gender

Possessive pronouns: - Used when expressing a possession of an object, declined as adjectives

Demonstrative pronouns: - Declined as demonstrative adjectives
 
Interrogative pronouns

Distributive pronouns

Relative pronouns

Indefinite pronouns

Numerals

Numerals are flexible, declined accordingly to their…

Gender

Case

Numeral

Types of Polish numerals

Cardinal - one (jeden (m), jedna (f), jedno (n)), two (dwa, dwie, dwa).
Ordinal - declined as adjectives.
Indefinite - a few - paru, several- kilku, many- wielu
Fraction and Decimal - Consist of a cardinal number followed by an ordinal number which is declined as an adjective. In Polish a comma is used  as the decimal point – example 0,5

Half = pół (this is not declinable ) or połowa (what is a noun)
Third = jednatrzecia
Two thirds = dwie trzecie

Verbs

Verbs express activity, state or a change of the state. They come in two forms,

Perfective – completed or single actions

Imperfective – actions still in progress, extending over a longer period of time or repeated actions

Person

1st I (ja)	1st we (my)
2nd you (ty)	2nd you (wy)
3rd he/she/it (on/ona/one)	3rd they (oni/one)

Infinitive

15 different endings - ać, ować, ywać, iwać, awać, ąć, nąć, eć, ieć, ić, yć, uć, ść, źś, c

Verb conjugation groups

4 main categories + some sub-groups

Conjugation group	Verb(s)
1	Nearly all verbs ending in ać (except of ować, ywać, iwać or awać)
2	Some verbs ending in ieć belong into this category.
3a	Verbs ending in awać, iwać, ować or ywać.
3b	Some verbs ending ać, eć, uć or yć.
3c	Verbs in ać, eć, eć, uc, yc and c.
3d	All verbs ending in nąć or ąć belong to this group.
3e	Verbs ending with ść (but not jeść) and źć.
4a	These verbs end in bić, mić, nić, pić or wić.
4b	Most verbs in ić, and a few ending oić, eić or ać.
4c	These usually end in yć and some verbs in eć as well. The verb stem ends usually with cz, szcz, ż, żdż or rz.

Reflexive verbs  - additional pronoun 'sie'
Imperative verbs - Perfective and imperfective – usually used for negative commands
Passive voice – Used to express actions done to a subject
Negation verbs – Particle 'nie' added before the verb

Tense

Past, simple future and conditional (perfective)
Present, past, composite future and conditional (imperfective)

Adverbs

Adverbs express closer characteristics and circumstances of events, they are flexible words.

Regular - Ending -y/-i is replaced by -o (in some cases with -ie). A "s" before -nie changes to the soft ś.

(własny -> właśnie)
długi -> długo (long)
ładny -> ładnie (nice/ly)  

Irregular - add an e

dobry -> dobrze

  Comparative -  ending in -e/-ie add a -j.

(ładnie -> ładniej)

Adverbs ending -o/-io but not -ko/-eko/-oko replace the -o with -ej.

 (tanio -> taniej).

Adverbs ending in ko/-eko/-oko replace their whole ending with -ej. There are also some irregular adverbs.

Superlative – add naj before the comparative of an adverb (ładniej -> najładniej)

Negation – adding nie in the beginning (dobrze -> niedobrze)

Conjunctions

Conjunctions join words, phrases or clause in the sentences

Coordinative – (i, a, oraz, ale, albo, albo i…)

Subordinate – (cause, comparison, concession, condition, purpose, result, time)

Particles

Express emotion and intent. Some examples

Czy – starts yes-no questions
No – express impatience, warning, amazement
Że – adds force to questions or commands
Niech – used in commands and wishes

Back to top

Some useful Polish phrases

Famous Poles

Mikolaj Kopernik  (1473-1543) - Copernicus was a proponent of the theory that the Sun, and not the Earth, is at rest in the center of the Universe.

Jan Kochanowski (1530-1548) - Was the greatest pre-Romantic writer in all Slavdom. He was considered the father of Polish poetry.

Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin (1810-1849) - Composer and pianist.

Maria Sklodowska-Curie  - Born in Warsaw in 1867, winner of two Nobel Prizes, for Physics in 1903 and for Chemistry in 1911. Performed pioneering studies h radium and polonium and contributed profoundly to the understanding of radioactivity.

Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) -1920 - present.

Back to top