Using e or ę at the end of words

Hi all,

I'm rather confused as to when I should use ę or e at the end of words. For example, if I want to say: "Nie wiem ile to kosztuje" I never know if it's supposed to be e or ę. If someone can explain this to me in a nutshell, I'd be very thankful. :)

Thanks in advance!

If you have "to kosztuje" then it's the third person singular ('to'=it), thus you'll never need to use the letter 'ę' at the end. You need to use it in the first person singular (e.g. ja rysuję [but on rysuje] [I'm drawing/he's drawing]).
When it comes to nouns, you can encounter 'ę' at the end of words in the accusative case (in the feminine gender), e.g. Kupię książkę (I'll buy a book).

Sound advice, I'd roll with that

Ah, now I see. :) Thank you!

Just adding to Jova's explanation,
The ę (1st person singular) and e (3rd person singular) endings aren't, unfortunatelly, the only ones that exist in the present tense.
"ę" is not used in every verb in 1st person, some verbs (like in your sentence "nie wiem") have the -em ending,
(ja) wiem, rozumiem (but in 3rd person it's more regular "(on/ona/ono) wie, rozumie"), many people with bad education say "(ja) wię, and especially rozumię", but don't follow them, it's incorrect :)

some verbs end in -am
czytam, słucham (and in the 3rd person they lose the final m: on/ona czyta, słucha)

on the other hand, some verbs that have the "ę" in 1st person (patrzę, słyszę) do not have the "e" in 3rd person: (on/ona) patrzy, słyszy

Yeah, that's a good point! Don't say "ja rozumię" - it sounds more than awful!!! ;)
Still, I know many educated people who use this form! :/ It's a plague!

So as -e and -ę sound the same (with many speakers, so I believe), is it advisable to include the word ja, on, ona, or whoevers name it is doing the verb to avoid ambiguity.


* Donkey consults the Bible for its various plague references *

Only when the context is unknown. Otherwise it's unnecessary and sounds unnatural (unless for emphatic purposes, which you already know).

Hmm, that is a good heads up. :) Are there any set rules for verbs that take the -em ending, or do these have to be memorized?

Someone with a good grammar book should be able help you :)

I guess there must be rules, I just don't know them (or more precisely: I know them and use them intuitively, but I don't realize what they are). If you don't find any information after a while, we could try and write the rules for you, it just takes time to analize some verbs and draw conclusions, so I wouldn't start this before you check some existing sources.

Heh, true. I was hoping it would only be a small handful verbs that took the -em ending, but it looks like I'll have to do some digging. ;P

Thanks!

Ę is tipcally used at the end of 1st person verb forms (JA idę, będę) and 4th case female gender nouns (widzę kobietę, rybę). Another issue is that it is commonly pronounced as the regular e...