Polish/Nouns - Gender

Dialogue

Łukasz and Beata are friends who meet on the street and exchange a few quick words.

	Polish	English
Beata	Cześć Łukasz. Jak się masz?	Hi Łukasz. How are you?
Łukasz	Dobrze. A ty?	Well. And you?
Beata	Nieźle.	Not bad.
Łukasz	Miło Cię zobaczyć ale muszę wracać do domu. Porozmawiamy później.	Nice to see you but I must return home. We will talk later.
Beata	Dobrze. Cześć.	Okay. Bye.

Dialogue Notes

• The word cześć means both hi and bye, similar to ciao in Italian.
• The word dobrze is an adverb and can mean fine, well, or okay.
• Cię, meaning you, is capitalized out of respect. Oftentimes, when writing to someone, the pronoun you and your will be capitalized.
• The verb porozmawiamy is not preceded by the pronoun we. Pronouns in Polish are implicit in the verb form and may be dropped just like in Spanish.

Grammar I: Greetings and Farewells

Different greeting and farewells are used depending on the time of day:

• dzień dobry
  • greeting used for good morning, good afternoon, and good day
• dobry wieczór
  • greeting used for good evening
• dobranoc
  • farewell used for good night

The words dobry and dobra mean good and are used for masculine and feminine nouns, respectively. Notice that while dzień dobry and dobry wieczór are written separately, dobranoc is written together.

Other farewells include:

• cześć
  • means both hi and bye
  • very informal; used between friends
• do widzenia
  • standard way to say goodbye
  • lit. means until seeing
• do zobaczenia
  • slightly more cordial and warm than do widzenia
  • lit. means until seeing
• do usłyszenia
  • used when one expects to hear from the other person but not necessarily see them
  • lit. means until hearing
• żegnaj
  • used when saying goodbye forever or a very long time

On the phone:

• halo - hello
• słucham
  • standard way of answering the phone
  • lit. means I am listening
  • the two can be combined into halo słucham

Exercises

Determine the appropriate greeting or farewell in the following cases (Click "▼" to check your answer):

saying hello at 7 PM

dobry wieczór

saying bye at 7 PM

dobranoc

answering the phone

halo, słucham, or halo słucham

saying bye to your best friend

cześć or do zobaczenia

saying bye to your mailman

do widzenia

Grammar II: Introduction to Nouns

Polish nouns can generally be classified into three genders:

• masculine (m) - męski
• feminine (f) - żeński
• neuter (n) - nijaki

The gender of a noun can be usually determined by its ending.

If the noun ends in -a, it is usually feminine.

• ulica - street

Notable exceptions include the word for man and male occupations

• mężczyzna (m) – man
• okulista (m) – eye doctor
• poeta (m) – poet
• kierowca (m) – driver

If the noun ends in -o, -e, -ę, and -um (of Latin origin), it is usually neuter.

• okno - window
• pole - field
• imię - name
• muzeum - museum

If the noun ends in a consonant, it is usually masculine.

• kot - cat

Notable exceptions include Latin-derived words ending in -um which are neuter, words ending in -ść which are feminine, and a few others.

• akwarium (n) - aquarium
• miłość (f) – love
• krew (f) - blood
• noc (f) - night

Exercises

Determine the gender of the following nouns (Click "▼" to check your answer):

zupa

feminine

słońce

neuter

rekin

masculine

godło

neuter

zwierzę

neuter

mężczyzna

masculine

noc

feminine

babcia

feminine

kotlet

masculine

liceum

neuter