Polish Grammar

Learning grammar will help you communicate more fluently in any language, and Polish grammar is certainly no exception to that. Since Polish is a comparatively complicated language, it would be helpful to get a broad overview of its constituent parts before we begin to dissect them. Essentially, the grammar of Polish can be broken down into those parts of speech that are conjugated (verbs), and those parts of speech that are “declined” (nouns, adjectives, numbers, and pronouns). There are singular and plural forms of most of these parts of speech, as well as masculine, feminine, and neuter genders. There are also parts of speech in Polish that only appear in one form, and these include conjunctions, particles, exclamations, and prepositions.

Among the parts of speech that are “declined” in Polish grammar, the factors to consider (in order) are gender, number (whether it’s singular or plural), and case. There are seven cases in Polish:

• Nominative
• Genitive
• Dative
• Accusative
• Instrumental
• Locative
• Vocative

The nominative case is the most common. The genitive is used to indicate possessiveness, measurement, and dates. You would think the dative case would be used to indicate dates, given its name. However, it is actually used for indirect objects. Accusative is also a very common case, and it can either be an implied case, or it can be used for a direct object after a transitive verb. The instrumental case is most often used for the direct objects of passive verbs. The locative case is always implied by a preposition. It’s never implied by a verb. Vocative is mostly used in greetings, farewells, and correspondence.

Verbs in Polish grammar use the same three tenses that verbs in English do: past, present, and future. However, in Polish, more than just tense must be considered in order to make sure that you are using verbs properly. Polish verbs also have a feature called “aspect” to think about. A verb’s “aspect” has to do with whether or not its action has been completed. There are also three different verb “moods:” indicative, imperative, and conditional.

Of course, there’s a lot more to learn about Polish grammar than the small amount of information we’ve been able to share with you in this article. Still, we believe we’ve been able to lay a good foundation for you. The subjects we’ve scratched the surface of here should be explored further, and there are additional concepts to learn as well. When you’re ready to proceed, we’ll be here for you.