A brief Polish Grammar lesson

NOUNS:
There are no definite or indefinite articles in Polish. "Dom" means "house, a house, the house".

There are three genders in Polish:
Masculine nounds usually end in a counsonant
feminine nounds usually end in -a
neutral most often in -o or -e.

Some nouns take a plural form for no obvious reason (like scissors or trousers in English)
Skrzypce violin
Dzieje history
Drzwi door
Urodziny birthday

This also is true of many names of countries:
Niemcy Germany
W Nieczech In Germany
Włochy Italy
Chiny China
Indie India
Węgry Hungary
Na Węgrzech In Hungary

And some cities are also in the plural for some reason:
in Poland -
Kielce
Katowice ...

And elsewhere -
W Helsinkach in Helsinki
W Atenach in Athens

VERBAL NOUNS:
Polish tends to use a noun form of a verb in many instances where a verb would be used in English. They end in:
-anie (for verbs ending in -ać),
-enie (for verbs ending in -eć or -ić or -yć in multisyllabic verbs),
-cie for mono-syllabic verbs ending in -uc, -ić,-yć, and verbs ending in - ać or -nąć.
Czytać-czytanie read-reading
Zobaczyć-zobaczenie see-seeing
Pić- picie drink-drinking
Do you have something to say? Czy masz coś do powiedzenia?

PRONOUNS:
I- ja
You- ty
He- On
She- ona
We- My
You- Wy
They- oni, one

DIMINUITIVES:

masculine diminuitives end in -ek, szek, -eczek, -ik, -yk, czyk
Kot-kotek cat-kitten
Brat-braciszek brother, little brother
Worek-woreczek sack (little _)
Kon-konik horse-pony
Chłopiec-chłopczyk boy-little boy
Kosz-koszyk basket-(litte _)

Feminine endings -ka, -ska, -eczka, -uchna, -usia
Głowa-głowka head
Mucha-muszka fly
Córka-córeczka daughter
Córka-córuchna
Mama-masusia Mom-mommie

Neutral endings -ko, -sko, (e)czko, -atko
drzewo-drzewko tree
Serce-serduszko heart
Oko-oczko eye
Dziecię-dzieczątko child

The opposite of a diminuitive (rarely used) often confers a pejorative meaning
End in -isko, -ysko, czysko, ina, yan, -ak
Pies-psisko dog-big dog
Biedak-biedaczysko poor man
Pies-psiak dog-cur

CASES:

There are seven cases in Polish.
NOMINATIVE - the straightforward dictionary entry of a word - used as a subject in a sentence.
GENETIVE - the second most popular case, usually meaning 'of, belonging to', but also must be used after certain prepositions and verbs
DATIVE - 'to' (and after certain prepositions and verbs)
ACCUSATIVE - The direct object of a sentence.
INSTRUMENTAL - 'with, by means of'
LOCATIVE - after certain prepositions - mostly 'in, at, about'
VOCATIVE - used when literally talking to the person or thing in question (this is obviously limited almost entirely to people's names, as most of us do not often find ourselves talking to doors, chairs and cardboard boxes)
lots of this will be familiar to those of you who speak Latin, Russian, German, but there are some strange quirks in the Połish cases.
I.
One of the most curious aspects of Połish grammar is the use of the instrumentał case for the second part of a sentence invołving the verb BE or BECOME, instead of the simpłe nominative.

I am an American - is NOT 'Jestem Amerikanin, but 'Jestem Amerikaninem.'
This has an unusual twist - the sentence 'Jestem samochodem' normally means 'I came by car' (literally "I am with a car"), but grammatically also means 'I AM a car:'
II.
The accusative of words relating to people or animals is identical to the genitive: The accusative of inanimate objects is the normal accusative:

III:
Direct objects after negative verbs don't take the accusative, but the genitive form.

Widzę dom. I see the house.
Nie widzę domu. I don't see the house.
! The word 'nic' is an exception and remains unchanged - Nic nie widzę.

CONJUNCTIONS:

A albo ale (but)
ani...ani (neither...nor)
bądź...bądź (both..and)
Czy (whether, if)
i (and)
jednak (however)
lecz (but)
lub (or)
Skoro, także (also)
też (also)
więc (therefore)
Nie tyle...ile (not as many as)
Nie tylko...lecz także (not only...but also)
podczas gdy (whereas)
To jest (i.e.)
Bo bowiem dyż ponieważ (given that)
Dlatego, że (because)
Dzięki temu (thanks to)
Jak (as)
jak gdyby (as if)
tak jak (just like)
mimo że (even though)
nawet jeśli (even if)
pod warunkiem, że (provided that)
dopóki (until)
jak tylko (as soon as)
zanim (before)



HAVE FUN LEARNING!!!

Holy smoke FISZ. That's the kind of thing I've been hoping a teach yourself book would provide, and it never has...you want to write a bit more down, send it of to a publisher then move a tropical island with the money you make!

Brilliant. Thanks man, copied to the Hard Drive.

They don't. From what I've discovered, it's mostly basic sentences and vocabulary. This stuff is a handfull It's not mine either. Just thought it would be helpful here.
Hope it is.

Really good stuff, cheers Fisz!!

Great, Fish! Even for a Pole like me..

ale jaja!!!!!!!!!!

^^ They're having hosting issues here you know mate...have a shower not a bath type thing...

Hey Fisz, that really is a great read...have you got any more goodies up your virtual sleeve or is that our lot?

Gee, kind of an effort to do sth like this, respect... But I would correct some typing errors in Polish words, because some people may not notice... :

"W Nieczech" -> W Niemczech
"masusia" -> mamusia
"-atko" (suffix) -> -ątko
"Amerikanin", "Amerikaninem" -> Amerykanin, Amerykaninem
"dyż" -> gdyż

"! The word 'nic' is an exception and remains unchanged - Nic nie widzę."
Actually, you're not right. The gramatically correct form is "Niczego nie widzę", so this is absolutely regular, BUT, in everyday language, we all sometimes say e.g. "Nic nie widzę", "Nic od ciebie nie chcę" ("I don't want anything from you"), "Nic dla ciebie nie mam" ("I don't have anything for you"), etc.

"rispekt" again,
pozdrawiam,
Gustaw

Gustaw- Any corrections would be appreciated. I'm also in the learning process, so please correct errors.

Particles:

lightning.prohosting.com/~popolsku/Particles.htm

This is absolutly great you guys, it brings back a lot of what I've forgot over the years.

This should be a daily read......First class!

this are very old-fashioned words.i would say
1.gdzie byles?
2.przestan juz! or no przestan juz!

correct me if i am wrong but i would say "kochasz mnie?"

correct:)

Thanks for bumping this belial :)

and corrections

Thanks indeed for this :) I hadn't noticed it before now.
Nice one Fisz.

Excellent.. As said before the books do not give you what you need. This is absolutely enlighting stuff!!

how about polish for dummies, anyone got some suggestions, having trouble picking it up.

Here's a website I just found that gives a basic intro to Polish grammar, and some self help tests..., not quite for dummies ;) Doin the questions now.
polishgrammar.com

Well Hal that lost me so i'm definately a dummy lol

No, really, try it. 1000 questions to test and teach the user grammar. Multiple choice questions, just point the mouse and shoot, one in four chance of getting the right answer, heh.

i get depressed leaning polish as its such a gobbledegook langauge for me or maybe im dense

im learing the words but cant say a sentence

snap janice. it's when they use male and female for things that throws me.
i'm starting to pick out words so time will tell.

Hal i just did the questions. I didn't do too bad, suprised myself.

Infinitives. Aspect. Future Tense

slavic.uiuc.edu/gladney/Elementary_Polish/06_Infinitive.html

This may be better: All lessons

slavic.uiuc.edu/gladney/Elementary_Polish/Start.html

Hal i just did the questions. I didn't do too bad, suprised myself.

All 1000!
Well done, I've just barely done a little over a hundred so far...
So, Polish isn't so difficult after all :)

This is very helpful, one of the best articles on here, the conjunctions especially, i use them a lot in english, so, this has really helped!!! .... po polsku, nie wiem!!!

i have a book that has all polish verbs fully conjuncted :) massive help and its on amazon :)

wot!!!!!!!! only did 100 where are the others?