Learn more about grammatical gender in Polish
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Intro |
|---|
| Michael: Do adjectives have a gender in Polish? |
| Igor: And does noun gender influence adjectives? |
| Michael: At PolishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ania Andrzejewska and Bartek Baran are talking about what they intend to buy. Ania says, "I want to buy a new car." |
| Ania Andrzejewska: Chcę kupić nowy samochód. |
| Dialogue |
| Ania Andrzejewska: Chcę kupić nowy samochód. |
| Bartek Baran: A ja nową kurtkę. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ania Andrzejewska: Chcę kupić nowy samochód. |
| Michael: "I want to buy a new car." |
| Bartek Baran: A ja nową kurtkę. |
| Michael: "And [I want to buy] a new jacket." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will be asking two questions: |
| Igor: Czy przymiotniki mają rodzaj? |
| Michael: "Do adjectives have a gender in Polish?" and |
| Igor: Czy rodzaj rzeczownika wpływa na przymiotniki? |
| Michael: "Does noun gender influence adjectives?" The answer is that, yes, noun gender influences adjectives, but the adjectives don't actually have a gender. They must agree with the gender, case, and number of the noun they are attached to and are modified in accordance with this. Polish adjectives or |
| Igor: przymiotniki |
| Michael: change their form often. This is because they must agree with the word they are modifying, not only in terms of gender, but in terms of number and case as well. Due to the fact that they are adjectives, the word they are modifying is almost always a noun. |
| Before we begin looking at examples of how noun gender influences the forms of adjectives, I must point out that we cannot simply study the forms that adjectives take based on gender alone. Gender and number both influence the way the adjective changes. For instance, the same adjective will have one form when paired with a singular masculine noun but will have a different form when paired with a singular feminine noun or a singular neuter noun. |
| Let's start by looking at the phrase, "big house": |
| Igor: duży dom |
| Michael: The noun in this construction is masculine and singular, which is: |
| Igor: dom |
| Michael: Therefore, the adjective "big" is: |
| Igor: duży |
| Michael: It takes the masculine singular ending: |
| Igor: -y |
| Michael: However, if one uses the same adjective but with a singular feminine noun like |
| Igor: gruszka |
| Michael: or "pear," this is the result: |
| Igor: duża gruszka |
| Michael: It means "big pear." As you can hear, the adjective now ends with the sound: |
| Igor: a |
| Michael: This is because it is in the feminine form now: |
| Igor: duża |
| Michael: If we pair the same adjective with a neuter noun, like |
| Igor: dziecko |
| Michael: "child," this is the result: |
| Igor: duże dziecko |
| Michael: It means "big child." As you can hear, the adjective now has the ending: |
| Igor: e |
| Michael: This is because it has taken on the neuter form. |
| Adjectives in Polish can take on many declensions and learning these can seem daunting. But, there is good news. Once you are familiar with the general pattern of declensions, it will help you to decline even those adjectives you are seeing or hearing for the first time. Let's look at some of these patterns. |
| We have already discussed how the masculine singular declension of the adjective often results in this strong ending: |
| Igor: -y |
| Michael: However, if the stem of the adjective ends in either of these two consonant sounds: |
| Igor: -k (slight pause) -g |
| Michael: and sometimes in either of these: |
| Igor: -n (slight pause) -p, |
| Michael: then the adjective suffix becomes a soft: |
| Igor: -i |
| Michael: Listen, for example, to how Igor says, "expensive car": |
| Igor: drogi samochód |
| Michael: The adjective in this phrase is: |
| Igor: drogi |
| Michael: Did you hear the softer ending? |
| As we've already discussed, the feminine declension usually ends in the sound: |
| Igor: a |
| Michael: It can also end in: |
| Igor: ia |
| Michael: like the adjective |
| Igor: lwi |
| Michael: meaning something like "lionesque," as in |
| Igor: lwia odwaga |
| Michael: meaning "lionesque courage." |
| When it comes to the declension of neuter adjectives, we've already mentioned the ending: |
| Igor: e |
| Michael: Neuter adjectives can also end in: |
| Igor: ie |
| Michael: Listen to how Igor says, "expensive desk" |
| Igor: drogie biurko |
| Michael: The adjective in this case was: |
| Igor: drogie |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, we discussed the questions: "Do adjectives have a gender in Polish?" and "Does noun gender influence adjectives?" We learned that the answer is noun gender influences adjectives, but adjectives don't actually have a gender. Adjectives must agree with the words that they describe. These are usually nouns and nouns have gender in Polish. The form of the adjective changes if the noun is singular feminine, singular masculine, or singular neuter. |
| So, to sum up, we can say that singular masculine adjectives take these two endings: |
| Igor: y (slight pause) i |
| Michael: Feminine adjectives decline into these two forms: |
| Igor: a (slight pause) ia |
| Michael: and neuter adjectives decline into these two forms: |
| Igor: e (slight pause) ie |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Michael: By now, I'm sure you are wondering what happens to the form of the adjective when the word it modifies is in the plural. So far, we have only discussed the combination of singular and gender. Fortunately, the declensions in the plural are not that complicated. |
| Simply put, there are two genders in the plural—the masculine personal and everything else. What is meant by the masculine personal is that the noun refers to a person or persons and that it is masculine. Let's look at some examples still using the adjective "big." The first phrase is masculine personal in the plural, and it means "big men": |
| Igor: duzi mężczyźni |
| Michael: Did you hear the soft masculine ending? |
| Igor: duzi |
| Michael: Now, let's look at three other examples in the plural, none of which are masculine personal. The first means, "big beavers": |
| Igor: duże bobry |
| Michael: The second means "big goats": |
| Igor: duże kozy |
| Michael: and the third means "big children": |
| Igor: duże dzieci |
| Michael: You will have noticed, I'm sure, that all the forms of "big" are the same: |
| Igor: duże |
| Michael: The adjective ending in the masculine personal plural can be: |
| Igor: y |
| Michael: as we've discussed. For example: |
| Igor: wysocy mężczyźni |
| Michael: which means "tall men." Or it can be: |
| Igor: i |
| Michael: For example: |
| Igor: zdrowi mężczyźni |
| Michael: This means "healthy men." |
| Michael: As for feminine and neuter, plural declensions are either: |
| Igor: e |
| Michael: as we know, or |
| Igor: ie |
| Michael: as in |
| Igor: wysokie żyrafy |
| Michael: meaning "tall Giraffes." |
| Michael: As you can see, the plural declensions are relatively simple. That said, all the declensions I have mentioned thus far are based in the nominative case. There are five other cases in Polish. These are the accusative, instrumental, locative, genitive and dative. The declensions for adjectives are different in each of them. Take, for example, the difference between the nominative and the accusative cases. If one says, "this is hot coffee" in Polish, it will sound like this: |
| Igor: To jest gorąca kawa |
| Michael: The adjective we are looking at is "hot": |
| Igor: gorąca |
| Michael: And, in this instance, it takes the feminine suffix because the noun it modifies is feminine. We know it is in the nominative case because any noun that follows the phrase: |
| Igor: to jest |
| Michael: must be in the nominative case. Now, let's change it to the accusative case where the noun is a direct object. The sentence we will use means "I am drinking hot coffee": |
| Igor: Piję gorącą kawę |
| Michael: As you will have heard, the adjective now takes the ending: |
| Igor: ą |
| Michael: It is common for singular feminine adjectives in the accusative to take this ending. If we were to use the same adjective in another case, it would change again. |
| It will not be possible for me to discuss all the different declensions in all the cases here. Fortunately, there are resources that outline all the declensions and it would be a good idea to try and familiarize yourself with the patterns. Another little piece of good news is that, in the accusative, the neuter singular form of adjectives does not change from the nominative. Take, for example, the nominative sentence meaning "This is a good beer.": |
| Igor: to jest dobre piwo |
| Michael: And the accusative sentence meaning "I drank a good beer.": |
| Igor: Wypiłem dobre piwo |
| Michael: There is no change in the adjectival suffix. I am sure this will come as some relief. |
| There is a lot to learn when it comes to the declension of adjectives according to gender, but once you have internalized the patterns of declension, it will be much smoother sailing from that point. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Igor: Do usłyszenia! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide