Polish nouns, like all Slavic nouns, are a bit funky. Not only are they marked for gender, they also have cases. Seven of them, in fact, which makes for an interesting learning experience.
But let’s start with the easy bit – gender. There are three:
feminine, as in kobieta (a woman)
masculine, as in mężczyzna (a man)
and neuter, as in dziecko (a child)
Some grammar purists will try to scare you into personal masculine, animate masculine, inanimate masculine, feminine, and neuter. But really? Who needs three different masculine forms? Sometimes one seems like too many already! So, let’s stick to the simple version. There are three genders altogether.
How to distinguish (or guess) which noun is what? There are rules for that, of course, with plenty of exceptions.
Feminine nouns end mostly with an “a”, the great majority of them, anyway. If there is no “a” at the end, but a consonant instead, the noun can still be feminine, for example: mysz (a mouse).
Masculine nouns most likely will end with a consonant, but sometimes with a vowel (as in the example above – mężczyzna).
And the poor neuter ones will have an “o”, or an “e” at the end, or something unusual like “-um”.
But remember, we are talking here about nouns in their singular nominative cases, just as they would be listed in a dictionary.
Confused yet? Don’t worry! It’s actually quite easy to determine what is what. In most instances, you can figure out the gender from the meaning of the noun. All you need is a little practice.
Unfortunately, this whole gender issue is quite important, because it affects other parts of speech, too, like adjectives, verbs and numbers. There’s no skipping or escaping it, and it all starts with a noun. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that in plural, three genders become two! (Well, technically not really, but for most intents and purposes you can think of them as two.)
Comments:
caitlin boswell:
Again Thankyou Anna, makes things alot clearer!!
hoosier41:
Just found you blog and really enjoy it.
Please keep it up…..
Richard Hardesty:
I think this is a great new service…my mother-in-law is Polish, and she’s impressed with what I’ve learned so far…wish I could get someone to teach how to say the ABC’s..
Scott:
@Richard Hardesty Why not your mother-in-law? It’s actually fairly easy, but there are a few extra letters/Sounds. YouTube is another great option.
Ed:
Looking for information about Galicia. My mother came from there, can not find any info about that area.
Anna:
Hi Richard and hoosier! Thanks for your comments!
And Richard, are you hinting at a podcast, perhaps? Give me some time and I’ll see what we can sort out. For now, have you used the word lists from BYKI? I’m playing around with the Arabic one now, and I find it extremely helpful when it comes to learning proper pronunciation. And if you have any particular sounds that give you trouble, just let me know, and I’ll do my best to explain.
🙂
Natalia Veda Russia:
Anna
Thanx a lot for ur GREAT work.
I really enjoed all posts.
Will wait for the next one !
Greetings from Poznan
If u need ones can send u pictures of Poznan and Gdansk made by me 🙂
Anna:
Natalia!
Welcome to the blog! I would love to see your photos. Do you have them on flickr or one of the other photo-sharing sites? And I’m planning to visit my beloved Gdansk next month, maybe even trek down to Poznan, too 🙂
Christian:
Nauczyć się Polskie. Dziękuję za informacji