Polish Case System

Howdely doodely,

I realize I may be asking the impossible, but could somebody either post a link to, or else a breakdown of the polish case system.

I have many books and there is no 1 resource where the whole system is summed up into a diagram. My girlfriend gets annoyed whenever I ask her even a word in polish so I know she won't teach it to me, she may help me to understand if I have some diagram to follow however.

Appreciate any help

Well, I can try.
masculine sing. masc. pl. (table)

Nom. stól stoly
Gen. stolu stolów
Dat. stolu stolom
Akk. stól stoly
Lok. stole stolach
Instr. stolem stolami
Vok. stól! stoly

feminine sing. (book) feminine pl.

Nom. ksiazka ksiazki
Gen. ksiazki ksiazek
Dat. ksiazce ksiazkom
Akk. ksiazke ksiazki
Lok. ksiazce ksiazkach
Instr. ksiazka ksiazkami
Vok. ksiazko! ksiazki

neuter sing. (state, Mr. & Mrs.)

Nom. panstwo panstwa
Gen. panstwa panstw
Dat. panstwu panstwom
Akk. panstwo panstwo
Lok. panstwu panstwach
Instr. panstwem panstwami
Vok. panstwo! panstwo


This is merely a mmost random sampler of only a very few common nouns. A full list of the others (including the exceptions to the exceptions???!!)
Until another post!

Marek

The plurals never appeared!!!
Sorry. Must be my pc.

M.

thats exactly the kind of thing I was looking for,

fantastic, dziekuje bardzo

Prosze bardzo! Your welcome, DannyBoy.
Again, it is BY NO MEANS complete. It should though give you a slight intro. Don't blame your girlfriend for being recalcitrant, by the way.

In college, I knew a Hungarian coed while I was teaching myself some of that language. Although she and I were friends (not romantically involved at the time, however!), she consistently balked at attempts to answer my sundry questions. Sometimes native speakers feel embarrassed by their own lack of non knowledge.

I didn't included adjectives in the chart. Below's only a brief taste: masc. "maly stól" (small table)

N maly stól male stoly
G malego stolu malych stolów
D malemu stolu malym stolom
A maly stól maly stoly
L malym stole malych stolach
I malym stolem malymi stolami
V maly stól male stoly

To be continued, I'm sure!

Marek

Hi again, DannyBoy!

Regrettably, I have no Polish ligatures/key signs on my keypad, that can be fatal in terms of reproducing Polish words accurately

My "list" (for lack of a better word!) did not even begin to include the confusing masculine nouns, e.g. "mezczyzna", "kolega" etc...., with feminine "a"-endings but masculine declensions!!

For another time.
Marek

Hi Dannyboy,

It's nearly a year ago now that you requested some help with cases - but I've just seen it, so anyway, you might find my new blog useful. It's only just started, but I intend to develop it as a generally available resource as I stumble along learning Polish :-)

Anyway, you can find it by googling 'learn polish with bilus blogspot' (I wasn't allowed to post the url here) - and I'd love to hear from you or anybody else who's learning or helping people to learn and might have some great ideas to share!

Cheers, Biluś

OK, I know. It was year ago, but please.

Nom. stól stoły
Gen. stołu stołów
Dat. stołowi stołom (stołowi a nie stołu O.o)
Akk. stół stoły
Lok. stołem, stołami
Instr. stole, stołach
Vok. stole! stoły

People, think before write. Maybe, I didn't write correctly, but Mark made amazing mistakes :|

Everybody on this forum makes mistakes and that is how we learn. However, ja dojdę do stołu albo ja idę ku stołowi does indeed seem better Polish.

Michal, I know. And I make mistakes too. But, if you want help someone, you have to (or just should) be sure. Does it any sense, if you give someone something wrong?

Michał,

I remember hearing from Polish speakers at various consulary functions: "Prośimy Państwa! Prośimy gości do stołu!"

Presumably, they were speaking correct Polish. Far be it from, at best an advanced intermediate non-native such as myself, to correct a native speaker's Polish.

That sounds like weird Polish. Both are grammatically correct. Neither has any significant use in everyday Polish. "Ku" in general is falling out of grace. It is used mostly by the older generations of Poles, and those younger Polish speakers who live abroad and know Polish from their grandparents.

The natural collocations here would be:

- podejść do stołu
- przyjść do stołu

Marek's suggestions are also correct and frequent.