Polish/Nominative case

The nominative case is used in the following situations:

1. Indicates the subject of a sentence.
   • Gosia pisze książkę. - Gosia is writing a book. (Gosia in nominative because she is the subject of the sentence)
2. Used for most lone adjectives and sentences of the type "to jest …".
   • Piotr jest przystojny. - Piotr is handsome. (przystojny is in the nominative)
   • To jest moja żona. - This is my wife. (moja żona is in the nominative)
3. Out of context (such as in a dictionary)

The nominative answers the questions who? (kto?) and what? (co?).

Singular

This is the form that is found in dictionaries, so it is generally what is memorized when learning vocabulary. The greatest part of learning the cases is converting from the singular nominative to other cases.

Noun Declension

Gender	Ending	Examples
Masculine	-Ø (no ending)	chłopak, kot, pies, komputer, stół
Neuter	-o, -e, -ę, -um	dziecko, piwo, spotkanie, imię, muzeum
Feminine	-a, -i, -Ø *	dziewczyna, kawa, mrówka, pani, miłość, mysz

*Stems ending in -ń, -ś, -ść (particularly abstract nouns), and some ending in -sz (mysz) and -c (noc)

Adjective Declension

Gender	Rule	Ending	Examples
Masculine	After most stems	-y	duży, mały, dobry
	After stems ending in -k or -g	-i	wysoki, długi, drogi
Neuter	After most stems	-e	duże, małe, dobre
	After stems ending in -k or -g	-ie	wysokie, długie, drogie
Feminine	After all stems	-a	duża, mała, dobra, wysoka, długa, droga

Plural

In the plural form, nouns in Polish are declined based on gender, either as virile (masculine personal) or nonvirile (masculine animate, masculine inanimate, feminine, and neuter).

Noun Declension

The apostrophe indicates historical softening. Before continuing, it may be helpful to reference the table of hard and soft consonants.

Gender	Rule	Ending	Examples	Exceptions
Virile	After stems ending in hard consonants other than k, g, or r	-'i (stems change)*	mężczyźni, chłopi
	Titles, jobs, family members, surnames, some nationalities	-owie	panowie, mężowie, Belgowie, profesorowie	bracia, księża
	After nationalities ending in -in	-ie (replaces -in)	Rosjanie, Amerykanie
	After stems ending in rz, sz, cz, j, l, ć, ń, and ś	-e	lekarze, słuchacze, górale	królowie
	After stems ending in c, ca, g, k, r	-'y (stems change)*	kierowcy, kalecy, koledzy, inżynierzy,	ludzie
	After stems ending in iec, niec	-(ń)cy (replaces -(n)iec)	chłopcy, Niemcy, mieszkańcy
Nonvirile	After non-neuter stems ending in k, g, ść	-i	boki, nogi, kości	ręce
	After non-neuter stems ending in c, cz, ż, j, l, a, ż, rz	-e	piece, mecze, garaże, kije, hotele, idee, podróże, burze
	After non-neuter stems ending in ć, ń, ni, ś, ź	-ie (diacritic before i is omitted)	płcie, konie, panie, łosie, gałęzie	dni
	Neuter nouns ending in um, o, e	-a (replaces -um, -o and -e)	muzea, miasta, rozwiązania	oczy, uszy, dzieci
	Neuter nouns denoting animals and people ending in ę	-ta	dziewczęta, zwierzęta, kocięta
	All other neuter nouns ending in ę	-iona (-io- replaces -ę)	imiona, plemiona, ramiona
	Animals ending in w and nouns ending in kiew, giew	.-ie (-wie replaces -iew)	żółwie, żurawie, pawie, chorągwie, cerkwie
	In all other instances	-y	dziewczyny, komputery

*Stems ending in certain hard consonants change as follows:

Stem ending	Nominative plural ending	Examples
-ch	-si	Czesi, Włosi
-d	-dzi	sąsiedzi, Szwedzi
-ł	-li	diabli
-st	-ści	dentyści, specjaliści
-t	-ci	studenci, poeci
-g	-dzy	koledzy, Norwedzy
-k	-cy	kalecy, Polacy
-r	-rzy	inżynierzy, doktorzy

Adjective Declension

Gender	Rule	Ending	Examples
Virile	After stems ending in -d	-dzi	młodzi
	After stems ending in -g	-dzy	drodzy
	After stems ending in -k	-cy	brzydcy
	After stems ending in -(z)ł	-(ź)li	źli
	After stems ending in -n	-ni	smutni
	After stems ending in -r	-rzy	starzy
	After stems ending in -sz or -ch	-si	lepsi, głusi
	After stems ending in -t	-ci	bogaci
	After stems ending in -w	-wi	ciekawi
	After stems ending in -ż	-zi	duzi
Nonvirile	After most stems	-e	młode, złe, smutne, stare, lepsze, bogate, ciekawe, duże
	After stems ending in -k or -g	-ie	drogie, brzydkie

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

English	Nominative
nothing	nic
no one	nikt
I	ja
you (singular)	ty
he	on
she	ona
it	ono
you (formal masculine)	pan + 3rd person singular verb
you (formal feminine)	pani + 3rd person singular verb
we	my
you (informal plural)	wy
you (formal masculine plural)	panowie + 3rd person plural verb
you (formal feminine plural)	panie + 3rd person plural verb
you (formal mixed gender plural)	państwo + 3rd person plural verb
they (masculine or mixed gender)	oni
they (feminine)	one

Possessive pronouns

	Gender	my, mine	your, yours (singular)	your, yours (plural)	our, ours
Singular	Masculine	mój	twój	wasz	nasz
	Neuter	moje	twoje	wasze	nasze
	Feminine	moja	twoja	wasza	nasza
Plural	Virile	moi	twoi	wasi	nasi
	Nonvirile	moje	twoje	wasze	nasze

Interrogative pronouns

English	Nominative
what?	co?
who?	kto?
where?	gdzie?
when?	kiedy?
How?	jak?
How much?	ile?

Relative, demonstrative, and intensive pronouns

	Gender	which / who	what / what kind	this / that	self / same
Singular	Masculine	który	jaki	ten	sam
	Neuter	które	jakie	to	samo
	Feminine	która	jaka	ta	sama
Plural	Virile	którzy	jacy	ci	sami
	Nonvirile	które	jakie	te	same