In Polish, the locative case (known as “miejscownik”) is one of the seven grammatical cases used to indicate the location or place where something occurs or exists. It is always used with certain prepositions, such as “w” (in), “na” (on), “o” (about), and “po” (after).
The locative case answers the questions “gdzie?” (where?) and “o kim? o czym?” (about whom? about what?). Unlike other cases, the locative cannot appear without a preposition.
Prepositions used with the locative:
- w (in) → w szkole (in the school)
- na (on) → na stole (on the table)
- o (about) → o książce (about the book)
- po (after) → po obiedzie (after dinner)
Locative Endings
This case is rather indiscriminate regarding noun gender and instead focuses on word endings, specifically soft and hard consonants. Hard consonants (listed in the first two columns of the table: P, B, W, S, P, M, N, Z, F, K, G, R, Ł, CH, H) will take the ending IE or E. Soft consonants, on the other hand (found in the second part of the column: C, DZ, SZ, RZ, Ż, CZ, L, J, I, Ś, Ć, Ń, Ź), will take the ending Y or I. Please be sure to consider letter transformations: T:C D:DZ, K:C G:DZ R:RZ Ł:L
| IE (m) (f) (n) | E (m) (f) (n) | Y (f) | I (f) | U (m) (n) |
| P,B,W,S,P,M,N,Z,F T:C D:DZ | K,G,R,Ł K:C G:DZ R:RZ Ł:L | C,DZ,SZ,RZ,Ż,CZ | L,J,I,Ś,Ć,Ń,Ź | Other consonants |
| klub – klubie kawa – kawie basen – basenie drzewo – drzewie brat – bracie | rower – rowerze szkoła – szkole stół – stole noga – nodze książka –książce biuro –biurze | ulica – ulicy praca – pracy | kuchnia – kuchni sypialnia – sypialni księgarnia – księgarni nić – nici pościel – pościeli | dom – domu hotel – hotelu niedźwiedź – niedźwiedziu pokój – pokoju szpital –szpitalu |
*Check your understanding
