Past tense and masculine personal

♂

May 25, 11, 17:25 #1

Can someone tell me if I've got this right? I'm learning this out of Swan's Grammar of Contemporary Polish. In the plural, everything gets the feminine ending unless it's specifically masculine personal, right?

Singular:
gender 'm':
gender 'm-animate':
gender 'm-personal':
Miałem kwiat. (Jestem mężczyzna)
Bob, miałeś kwiat.
Koń, miałeś kwiat.
Stoł miał kwiat.
Koń miał kwiat.
Bob miał kwiat.

gender 'f':
Miałam kwiat. (Jestem kobieta)
Alice, miałaś kwiat.
Ryba, miałaś kwiat.
Piłka miała kwiat.
Alice miała kwiat.

gender 'n':
Krzesło miało kwiat.

Plural:
gender 'm-personal':
Bob, mieliśmy kwiat. (Jestem mężczyzna czy kobieta)
Alice, mieliśmy kwiat. (Jestem mężczyzna)
Bob i Alice, mieliśmy kwiat.
Bob i Alice, mieliście kwiat.
Bob i Alice mieli kwiat.
Bob i Dave mieli kwiat.

gender 'm':
gender 'm-animate':
Stół i zegar miały kwiat.
Koń i kot miały kwiat.

gender 'f':
Alice, miałyśmy kwiat. (Jestem kobieta).
Alice i Eva, miałyście kwiat.
Alice i Eva miały kwiat.
Piłka i ryba miały kwiat.

gender 'n':
Krzesło i mydło miały kwiat.

(I used mieć as a generic example, but I don't think there's anything special about it here, right?)

♂

May 25, 11, 21:20 #2

kgoess

(I used mieć as a generic example, but I don't think there's anything special about it here, right?) -
yes mieć is completely generic in terms of conjugations

you got all examples correct

the only thing

kgoess:

Koń, miałeś kwiat.

should be 'Koniu, miałeś kwiat' (and similarily Rybo, miałaś kwiat). - in sentences like that you sometimes need to use vocative (it is a direct adress) - I think historically you always needed vocative in such cases - now most male first names tend to be used in nominative in such personal adresses, female first names can be used both in vocative or nominative but vocative is perceived as affectionate contrary to vocative in such, then you very often need to use vocative if you are addressing non-persons (animals and objects) cause nominative looks strange (of course you don't see people addressing objects that often ;P)

kgoessThreads: 8 Posts: 11 Joined: Mar 11, 11 ♂	May 26, 11, 05:26 #3
Fascinating, yes, that makes sense about vocative, I learned something unexpected! Thanks for checking my examples, I feel a little more confident that I understand what's going on now.

gumishuThreads: 17 Posts: 3,943 Joined: Apr 6, 09 ♂	May 26, 11, 10:20 #4
gumishu: female first names can be used both in vocative or nominative but vocative is perceived as affectionate contrary to nominative in such, sorry, for the mistake

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