The case of the indirect object
Examples:
- Dałem zegarek mamie. (I gave the watch to my mum.) – dative, indirect object: mamie; accusative, direct object: zegarek
- Pokazałaś psa Adrianie? (Have you shown the dog to Adriana?) – dative, indirect object: Adrianie; accusative, direct object: psa
- Muszę przekazać mężowi wiadomość. (I must pass the message to my husband.) – dative, indirect object: mężowi; accusative, direct object: wiadomość
We use the dative case:
- after prepositions: dzięki (thanks to), przeciwko (against), wbrew (contrary to)
- after verbs: dziękować (to thank), mówić (to tell), odpowiadać (to answer), płacić (to pay), podobać się (to appeal to someone), przypominać (to remind), życzyć (to wish)
- impersonal expressions (no subject): smutno mi (I feel sad), głupio mi (I feel stupid), zimno mi (I am cold), trudno ci (it’s hard for you)
💡The sentence: “Zimno mi.” doesn’t have a subject. It translates: It is cold to me. These expressions are impersonal in the Polish Language. Instead of being a subject, the pronoun (or the noun) is an indirect object, hence it takes the dative case.
Endings
Good news! All dative plural nouns have the same ending: OM. Bad news! Masculine nouns can end with OWI or U. It would appear that U is applied to one-syllable words: psu, kotu, panu, Bogu.
| Dative Komu?Czemu? | (m) masculine noun | (m) masculine noun (one-syllable words) | (f) feminine noun | (n) neuter noun | (m) (f) (n) plural |
| Endings: | OWI | U | E | U | OM |
| Examples: | Przyglądam się mężowi. | Daję jeść psu. | Zrobiłam zakupy mamie. | Przyglądam się niebu. | Daję jeść psom. |
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