Locative case declensions are among the hardest in the Polish language due to
the sheer number of declension patterns, so I decided to put together some
descriptions on how they're formed (with a bit of help from my grammar book of
course).
1.1 - MALE AND NEUTER ADJECTIVES (SINGULAR)
Adjectives in the male and neuter locative singular take "-ym"/"-im"-ending. To
form the locative of a male adjective in the singular, simply add an "m" at the
end:
mały -> małym
stary -> starym
tani -> tanim
głupi -> głupim
1. 2 - FEMALE ADJECTIVES (SINGULAR)
The female locative singular form of an adjective can easily be created by
removing the final "y" from the male nominative singular form and by adding "ej" at
the end:
mały -> małej
duży -> dużej
In the event that the male nominative singular form of a noun ends in "-i", keep
this "i" and append "ej" at the end:
lekki -> lekkiej
głupi -> głupiej
1.3 - ADJECTIVES OF ALL GENDERS, PLURAL
To form the plural locative from a male singular nominative adjective, simply add
"ch" at the end:
mały -> małych
stary -> starych
lekki -> lekkich
tani -> tanich
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2 - NOUN DECLENSIONS IN THE SINGULAR
In this part, the locative noun declensions in the singular will be listed. They are
here divided into four different categories: Declensions for all genders and
female-specific genders ending in "-e" (2.1), male and neuter gender declensions
in "-u" (2.2), female gender declensions in "-y"/"-i" (2.3) and neuter gender
specific declensions (2.4). Aside from the endings, vowel transformations (and
also consonant transformations) frequently occur all the way back to the last
vowel of the stem.
POSSIBLE VOWEL TRANSFORMATIONS
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A ===> E (gwiazda -> gwieździe)
Ą ===> Ę (wąż -> wężu)
E ===> - (lew -> lwi)
O ===> e (anioł -> aniele)
Ó ===> O (gwóźdź -> gwoździu)
Ó ===> E (popiół -> popiele)
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2.1.1 - DECLENSIONS COMMON TO ALL GENDERS ("-E"-ENDING)
Nouns whose stems end in a hard consonant (except male nouns in -g, -k and
-ch) have declensions with "-e"-endings of some kind (with the exceptions
of neuter gender nouns in "-ę" and "-ię"). Sometimes consonant- and/or
vowel transformations occur.
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B: choroba -> chorobie [b -> bie]
D: błąd -> błędzie [d -> dzie]
F: szefa -> szefie [f -> fie]
Ł: piła -> pile [ł -> le]
M: prom -> promie [m -> mie]
N: okno -> oknie [n -> nie]
P: sklep -> sklepie [p -> pie]
R: doktor -> doktorze [r -> rze]
S: los -> losie [s -> sie]
T: rata -> racie [t -> cie]
W: piwo -> piwie [w -> wie]
Z: obóz -> obozie [z -> zie]
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2.1.2 - FEMALE-SPECIFIC DECLENSIONS ("-E"-ENDING):
Female gender nouns ending in -ga, -cha, -ka, and -sna are all declined with
"-e"-endings as follows:
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GA: potęga -> potędze [ga -> dze]
CHA: blacha -> blasze [cha -> sze]
KA: Ameryka -> Ameryce [ka -> ce]
SNA: sosna -> sośnie [sna -> śnie]
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2.2 - MALE- AND NEUTER-SPECIFIC DECLENSIONS ("-U"-ENDING):
Male and neuter gender nouns with soft stem endings or so called functionally
soft stem endings along with nouns having hard stem endings in -g, -k or -ch
all take some form of "-u"-ending with softenings occurring as appropriate.
Occasionally some nouns whose nominative forms end in a hard consonant
may have a stem whose ending is soft. These nouns also belong in this
category, e.g. żółw -> żółwiu.
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C: koc -> kocu [c -> cu]
G: stóg -> stogu [g -> gu]
CH: ucho -> uchu [ch -> chu]
J: jajo -> jaju [j -> ju]
K: mak -> maku [k -> ku]
L: szal -> szalu [l -> lu]
Ż: wąż -> wężu [ż -> żu]
RZ: morze -> morzu [rz -> rzu]
SZ: gulasz -> gulaszu [sz -> szu]
CZ: mecz -> meczu [cz -> czu]
DŹ: gwóźdź -> gwoździu [dź -> dziu]
Ć: gość -> gościu [ć -> ciu]
Ń: kamień -> kamieniu [ń -> niu]
Ś: struś -> strusiu [ś -> siu]
IE: wyrażenie -> wyrażeniu [ie -> iu]
IO: dziadzio -> dziadziu [io -> iu]
Subcategories:
IEĆ: paznokieć -> paznokciu [ieć -> ciu]
NIEC: koniec -> końcu [niec -> ńcu]
RZEC: dworzec -> dworcu [rzec -> rcu]
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2.3 - FEMALE-SPECIFIC DECLENSIONS ("-Y"/"-I"-ENDING):
Female gender nouns whose stem end in a soft or functionally soft consonant
are declined in the exact same way as female gender nouns in the genitive.
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C: czarownica -> czarownicy [ca -> cy]
Ż: wieża -> wieży [ża -> ży]
CZ: tęcza -> tęczy [cza -> czy]
RZ: burza -> burzy [rza -> rzy]
SZ: dusza -> duszy [sza -> szy]
Ć: sieć -> sieci [ć -> ci]
JA: Rosja -> Rosji [ja -> ji]
VOWEL + J/JA: aleja -> alei [ja -> i]
L: czapla -> czapli [l -> li]
Ń: przyjaźń -> przyjaźni [ń -> ni]
Ś: wieś -> wsi [ś -> si]
Ź: więź -> więzi [ź -> zi]
IA: szklarnia -> szklarni [ia -> i]
IA*: awaria -> awarii [ia -> ii]
DŹ: miedź -> miedzi [ź -> zi]
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* Words of foreign origin ending in "-ia" take the "-ii"-ending rather than "-i".
2.4 - NEUTER-SPECIFIC DECLENSIONS:
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Ę: zwierzę -> zwierzęciu [ę -> ęciu]
IĘ: imię -> imieniu [ię -> ieniu]
UM*: muzeum -> muzeum [um -> um] (no change)
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* Neuter gender words in "-um" are not inflected in the singular.
2.5 - NOUNS WHICH ARE DECLINED AS ADJECTIVES
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Certain nouns, for example some ending in "-owy" and "-owa", are declined
just as if they were adjectives of genders matching their ending.
Examples:
szeregowy -> szeregowym
krawcowa -> krawcowej
Many common Polish surnames are declined as adjectives, for example:
Kowalski -> Kowalskim (man), Kowalska -> Kowalskiej (woman).
Place names ending in "-e" which are declined as adjectives take "-em"-ending
rather than "-ym"/"-im"- or "-ej"-ending:
Zakopane -> Zakopanem
Szczodre -> Szczodrem
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3 - NOUN DECLENSIONS IN THE PLURAL LOCATIVE (ALL GENDERS)
The plural form of nouns in the locative is normally formed by simply attaching
"-ach" at the end of the stem, or if necessary, -"iach".
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Nouns whose stems end in B, C, D, F, G, CH, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, W, Z,
Ż, CZ, RZ and SZ, have their locative plural forms created simply by adding
"-ach" to the stem, unless they have a soft stem ending not obvious from the
male nominative form, like "żółw" (żółwiach). Examples: droga -> drogach,
stół -> stołach
Nouns ending in Ć, Ń, Ś and Ź have their respective final letter lose their
accent and have "-iach" attached at the end, e.g. ćwierć -> ćwierciach
Nouns ending in "-i" + a vowel have their final vowel removed and "ach" added:
awaria -> awariach, dziadzio -> dziadziach
Neuter gender nouns ending in "-ę" (not "-ię") take the ending "-ętach":
zwierzę -> zwierzętach
Neuter gender nouns ending in "-ię" take the ending "-ionach":
imię -> imionach
A few countries which are in the plural have irregular locative plural forms:
Niemcy -> Niemczech (Germany)
Węgry -> Węgrzech (Hungary)
Włochy -> Włoszech (Italy)
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I hope this makes some sense and that I didn't make too many errors.
Comments are appreciated. Always remember that practice makes perfect.
Good luck!
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