Learn the basic facts concerning grammatical cases in Polish
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Intro |
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| Michael: How many grammatical cases are there in Polish? |
| Igor: And how do they work? |
| Michael: At PolishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Sasha Lee is talking to her friend Damian Dabrowski when she suddenly remembers, "Tomorrow is my brother's birthday." |
| Sasza Lee: Jutro są urodziny mojego brata. |
| Dialogue |
| Sasza Lee: Jutro są urodziny mojego brata. |
| Damian Dąbrowski: Co kupisz swojemu bratu? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasza Lee: Jutro są urodziny mojego brata. |
| Michael: "Tomorrow is my brother's birthday." |
| Damian Dąbrowski: Co kupisz swojemu bratu? |
| Michael: "What will you get for your brother?" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will be looking at the question: How many grammatical cases are there in Polish? The answer is that there are |
| Igor: siedem przypadków |
| Michael: or seven cases in total. This might seem quite intimidating and we don't blame you for feeling that way. However, it all depends on how you look at it. It's true that learning the cases is the most difficult aspect of learning Polish grammar, but once you understand what |
| Igor: przypadek |
| Michael: or "case" is and how it works, things become a lot easier. For this reason, let's look at what we mean when we talk about cases. |
| We will use English examples because, until about a thousand years ago, English also had cases. Nowadays, though, there are only a few instances left of these. They relate mostly to the context of the pronoun in the sentence and this is what it looks like. |
| We can use the word "I" in different positions in an English sentence. We can say, "I own this car," "this car is mine," "this car belongs to me," or "this is my car." The form of the pronoun changes in accordance with the context in which it is used, as you can see. This is what we mean when we talk about 'case'. |
| Now, as we pointed out earlier, there are seven cases in Polish, but the good news is that four of these cases are used ninety percent of the time in Polish. Three of these correspond to the English cases, but, unlike in English, the case depends on the context of the noun in the sentence. Don't worry if it sounds complex—we will look at that later. Let's focus on the most frequently used in Polish, which are the "nominative" or |
| Igor: mianownik |
| Michael: and the "accusative": |
| Igor: biernik |
| Michael: The nominative case is the word you find when looking up the dictionary definition. The nominative and accusative cases account for the majority of case usage in Polish. After these, you would do well to study the genitive and locative cases. In Polish, "genitive" is |
| Igor: dopełniacz |
| Michael: and "locative" is |
| Igor: miejscownik |
| Michael: The nominative, accusative, genitive and locative cases account for 90% of case usage in Polish. The remaining ten percent is accounted for by the three other cases. These are: dative— |
| Igor: celownik |
| Michael: instrumental— |
| Igor: narzędnik |
| Michael: and vocative— |
| Igor: wołacz |
| Michael: Remember to focus on the more common cases initially. This will ease some of the pressure around getting to know all the cases. Also, it will be easier for you to understand cases in Polish if you understand how they are used in English first. Therefore, let's spend some time looking at these. |
| There are three cases in English and they are simplified forms of the nominative, accusative, and genitive cases. In modern English, they are called by different names, which are 'subjective', 'objective', and 'possessive'. |
| Let's look at the nominative case first. In modern English, we refer to the nominative case as the subjective case. We call it this because the pronoun is the subject of the sentence. An example would be if someone says, "I dropped the ball." In this sentence, the word "I" is the subject of the sentence and therefore this pronoun is in the nominative case. |
| In the accusative case, the pronoun becomes the object in the sentence. Consider this sentence: "John called me." Here, the pronoun "me," is the object and, therefore, it is in the accusative case. |
| When we talk about the genitive case, we refer to using the possessive pronoun, as in the sentences: "That is my house" or "That house is mine." |
| Now, you should understand why the nominative, accusative, and genitive cases are called "subjective," "objective," and "possessive" in modern English, which should give you a better understanding also of how they are applied in Polish. |
| Let's see if you notice the change in case in the dialogue from this lesson. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "Tomorrow is my brother's birthday?" |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Igor: Jutro są urodziny mojego brata. |
| Michael: In this sentence, the Polish word for "brother" is: |
| Igor: brata |
| Michael: As I mentioned before, case in Polish depends on the context in which the noun is used. In this situation, it is used in the possessive, which means that it is in the genitive case. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. Do you remember how Damian says "What will you get for your brother?" |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Igor: Co kupisz swojemu bratu? |
| Michael: In this sentence, the Polish word for brother has changed form and now sounds like this: |
| Igor: bratu |
| Michael: This is because it is used in the dative case. The dative case is used when the noun is the indirect object in the sentence. As I mentioned before, it is not one of the more common cases. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson we have learned that there are seven cases in Polish. The nominative, accusative, genitive and locative cases are the most common while the dative, instrumental and vocative cases are less common. Three of those cases—the nominative, accusative and genitive—correspond to the modern English subjective, objective and possessive cases. While you are still in the beginning stages of learning Polish, you might want to focus on studying the most common cases. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: If you're not sure which case needs to be used in a certain sentence or situation, there is one trick to determine the case by asking a few simple questions. |
| For instance, the question to determine the nominative, |
| Igor: mianownik |
| Michael: is |
| Igor: kto? Co? |
| Michael: meaning "who? What?" Let's take the word "wizard," and ask the question for nominative, |
| Igor: kto? Co? |
| Michael: The answer that agrees with this question is |
| Igor: czarodziej |
| Michael: Now, let's have a look at the rest of the cases. The questions for the |
| Igor: dopełniacz |
| Michael: or genitive, are |
| Igor: kogo? Czego? |
| Michael: meaning "whose" and the answer is |
| Igor: czarodzieja |
| Michael: Next is the |
| Igor: celownik, |
| Michael: or dative case, |
| Igor: komu? Czemu? |
| Michael: meaning "who? what?" and the answer that agrees with the dative case is |
| Igor: czrodziejowi. |
| Michael: Next is |
| Igor: biernik |
| Michael: or accusative case, |
| Igor: kogo? Co? |
| Michael: meaning "whom? What?" and the answer is |
| Igor: czarodzieja. |
| Michael: Next is |
| Igor: narzędnik |
| Michael: or the instrumental case, |
| Igor: z kim? Z czym? |
| Michael: meaning "with whom? With what?" And the answer is |
| Igor: z czarodziejem. |
| Michael: Next is |
| Igor: miejscownik |
| Michael: or locative case, |
| Igor: o kim? O czym? |
| Michael: meaning "about who? About what?" and the answer is |
| Igor: o czarodzieju. |
| Michael: The last case, the |
| Igor: wołacz |
| Michael: or vocative case, has no question, although there is one trick to remember this. This is the case, if you want to call someone, |
| Igor: czarodzieju |
| Michael: Try to remember these questions and tips. They will help you in determining the right case for what you want to say. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: Some people wonder what the point is of all these inflections in Polish grammar. They may seem unnecessary, but one important function that they serve is to make Polish word order relatively free. One can often change the word order without changing the meaning of the sentence. English is far more dependent on word order for meaning. For instance, the sentence "I'm watching TV" can't change in English, while, in Polish, it can be either |
| Igor: oglądam telewizje |
| Michael: or |
| Igor: telewizje oglądam. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Igor: Do usłyszenia! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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