Polish nouns respond to questions: kto? (who) and co? (what) and identify or name:
- people, animals, plants – kobieta, kwiat, drzewo
- feelings and concepts – szczęście, miłość, chciwość
- weather phenomenon – wiatr, upał, deszcz
- activities and actions – dzwonienie, chodzenie, pływanie, rozmawianie
- qualities – dobroć, inteligencja, chciwości.
Gender – singular nouns
Masculine nouns end in a variety of consonants. The pronoun that identifies masculine nouns is –ten.
- other: kot, dom, chłopak, zeszyt, długopis
Some nouns end in -a, an ending that is usually attributed to feminine nouns. Although masculine, these nouns decline as feminine.
- a: artysta, dentysta, okulista, mężczyzna, kolega
Feminine nouns usually end in -a, but also in -ść, -i and other endings. The pronoun that identifies feminine nouns is –ta.
- a: córka, kobieta, gazeta
- ść: miłość, wierność, ciekawość
- i: pani, gospodyni
- other: noc, jesień, wieś
Neuter nouns usually end in -o, -e, -um, -ę. The pronoun that identifies the masculine nouns is –to.
- o: drzewo, miasto
- e: życie, morze, mieszkanie
- um: muzeum, gimnazjum
- ę: kocię, zwierzę
Gender – plural nouns
Plural forms in the Polish language are not without their complexity. When we talk about plural forms, we no longer have the three genders to consider: masculine, feminine and neuter. These become two genders: masculine and non-masculine.
- Masculine gender – a group that has at least one adult man in it, for example: żołnierze (soldiers), malarze (painters), goście (guests)
- Non-masculine gender – a group that hasn’t got any adult men in it, for example: koty (cats), domy (houses), miasta (cities), kobiety (women)
💡 Some nouns are in a singular form only or plural form only.
Singular form only:
- uncountable nouns: złoto, ryż, powietrze
- abstract and concepts: miłość, szacunek, duma, uczciwość
- geographic places: Francja, Wisła, Szczecin
- collective: młodzież, mieszczaństwo.
Plural form only:
- nouns that are composed of two symmetric parts: spodnie, usta, widły, nożyce, nożyczki drzwi, skrzypce, szczypce, okulary
- nazwy niektórych uroczystości i obrzędów: urodziny, imieniny, wakacje
- large geographic areas: Tatry, Beskidy, Alpy, Himalaje
Noun declension
Alternations
Alternations occur when we add certain endings to a word (e.g. case ending) and a consonant or vowel within its stem becomes another, for example – mąż: mężem
Common alternations:
e:ø (pies:psa, sen:snu),
ą:ę (mąż:mężem, ząb:zębem),
ó:o (stół:stołu), ł:l (stół:stole),
k:c (ręka:ręce, Polska:Polsce),
g:dz (noga:nodze), g:ż (noga:nóżka),
r:rz (biuro:biurze, chmura: chmurze),
s:ś (sos:sosie), t:ć (lot:locie, tata:tacie)
t:ć* kobita:kobiecie
*accent is often replaced by -i