Basic word order in Polish is SVO, however, as it is a synthetic language, it is possible to move words around in the sentence, and to drop the subject, object or even sometimes verb, if they are obvious from context.
These sentences mean more or less the same (“Alice has a cat”), but different shades of meaning are emphasized by selecting different word orders.
- “Alicja ma kota” (“Alice has a cat”) standard order
- “Alicja kota ma” – emphasis and accent on “ma” (“has”). Used in an argumentative response to a statement maintaining the opposite: “Alicja nie ma kota.” (“Alice doesn’t have a cat”). Ale ona kota ma!” (“She does, too!” or “Yes, she does!”)
- “Kota Alicja ma” – similar to the word order above.
- “Kota ma Alicja” emphasis on Alicja, the owner of the cat: “Kasia ma kota.” (“Kate has a cat”). “Nie, kota ma Alicja.” (“No, Alice has a cat.” or “No, it’s Alice who has a cat.”)
- “Ma Alicja kota” – rarely useful and often awkward, but still correct. Precise meaning is context- and pronunciation-dependent. This order is often used as a question in spoken / informal language.
- “Ma kota Alicja” – similar to the word order above
Note that each word order could carry a slightly different meaning, which may be difficult for a non-native speaker to completely grasp. There are no rules governing this, and even the emphases listed above could be easily changed with proper pronunciation.
Sometimes if apparent from context, the subject, object or even the verb, can be dropped:
- “Ma kota.” (“has a cat”) – can be used if it is obvious who the subject is
- “Ma.” (“has”) – a short answer for “Czy Alicja ma kota?” (“Does Alice have a cat?”), as in “Yes” or “Yes, she does.”
- “Alicja.” – answer for “Kto ma kota?” (“Who has a cat?”), as in “Alice does”
- “Kota.” (“[a] cat”) – answer to “Co ma Alicja?” (“What does Alice have?”), as in “A cat”
- “Alicja ma.” (“Alice has”), as in “Alice does” – answer to “Kto z naszych znajomych ma kota?” (“Who among our acquaintances has a cat?”) (“Alice does.”).
Note the interrogative particle “czy”, which is used to start a yes/no question, much like the French “est-ce que”. The particle is not obligatory, and sometimes rising intonation is the only signal of the interrogative character of the sentence: “Alicja ma kota?” (see above).
There is a tendency in Polish to drop the subject rather than the object as it is uncommon to know the object but not the subject. If the question were “Kto ma kota?” (Who has [a/the] cat?), the answer should be “Alicja” alone, without a verb.
In particular personal pronouns are almost always dropped, much like the respective Spanish pronouns. This is because other language aspects define the subject easily, for example the verb IŚĆ (“to go”):
- Idę – [I] go,
- Idziesz – [you (singular)] go
- Idzie – [he / she / it] goes – in this case (if not known from the context) personal pronoun should be used for clarification
- Idziemy – [we] go
- Idziecie – [you (plural)] go
Do następnego razu! (Till next time…)
