{"id":31,"date":"2008-06-27T00:48:42","date_gmt":"2008-06-27T04:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=31"},"modified":"2008-06-27T00:48:42","modified_gmt":"2008-06-27T04:48:42","slug":"cases-in-polish-genitive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/cases-in-polish-genitive\/","title":{"rendered":"Cases in Polish: Genitive"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s time for some grammar now, don\u2019t you agree? And since we\u2019ve already started with nouns and declensions a couple of weeks ago, I think we should continue.<\/p>\n

The case we\u2019re going to discuss today is my least favorite. Why? Because on the surface, it seems deceptively easy. Almost too easy, in fact. Yet when you start looking at it up close, it\u2019s anything but. Of course, in everyday speech we don\u2019t stop to think, \u201coh gee, there\u2019s a genitive in this sentence\u201d<\/em>. We just say what we need to say without paying much (or any) attention to the grammatical bits and pieces.<\/p>\n

And yes, it\u2019s time for the GENITIVE case<\/strong> today.
\ndope\u0142niacz<\/a><\/strong> = genitive<\/p>\n

You all know what the genitive case does in English. It shows that one noun is the possessor of another noun. And it also indicates various relationships other than who owns whom or what. In English, in it most basic form it\u2019s done by the handy construction of \u201capostrophe plus s\u201d<\/em>. Like this one:
\nAgata<\/strong>\u2019s cat.<\/p>\n

Actually, as several generations of Polish children know, it\u2019s not Agata<\/strong>, but Ala<\/strong>, who has a cat. So let\u2019s keep the tradition alive and add Ala<\/strong> to our examples:
\nAla<\/strong>\u2019s cat.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s in English, stick an apostrophe and an \u201cs\u201d and your work is done. In Polish it\u2019s not quite as simple, because to decline a noun you need to change its ending. In this example, our nouns are two lovely ladies named Agata<\/strong> and Ala<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So this is how it would look it Polish:
\nKot Agaty<\/strong>.
\nkot<\/strong> = cat
\nAnd see what happened to the name “Agata<\/strong>“? It changed to \u201cAgaty<\/strong>\u201d. That \u201c-y<\/strong>\u201d ending signifies the fact that the cat belongs to Agata<\/strong>, and that Agata<\/strong> is in genitive.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now, let\u2019s give Ala<\/strong> a cat, too.
\nKot Ali<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The name \u201cAla<\/strong>\u201d changed to its genitive form \u201cAli<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

How the ending changes depends on the gender of the noun in question (in our example, both ladies were feminine, naturally) and number.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a handy cheat-sheet.<\/p>\n