Polish cases: nouns and pronouns

Polish cases are the heart of Polish grammar. A case is an ending that shows a word’s job in the sentence: who acts, what is acted on, to whom, with what. Polish has seven cases, and nouns, pronouns and adjectives all decline. That sounds like a wall, but it’s really a staircase: you learn the cases one function at a time, and each one you master makes the language click a little more.

The seven Polish cases and what they do

Nominative (mianownik) is the dictionary form, the subject of the sentence: To jest kot – This is a cat.

Genitive (dopełniacz) means “of”, follows negation and numbers from five up, and comes after words like nie ma (there is no), dla (for), do (to), z (from): Nie ma czasu – There is no time. This is the most used case in Polish, so give it the most attention.

Dative (celownik) marks the receiver: Daję prezent bratu – I’m giving a present to my brother.

Accusative (biernik) marks the direct object: Widzę kota – I see a cat. Also used after na and w in “motion towards” meanings: Idę na pocztę.

Instrumental (narzędnik) is the “with / by” case: Jadę pociągiem – I’m going by train. Also after z (with): z bratem – with my brother, and in sentences like Jestem studentem – I am a student.

Locative (miejscownik) marks location and is only used after prepositions, mainly w, na, o, przy: w Warszawie – in Warsaw, o tobie – about you.

Vocative (wołacz) is for addressing people directly: Mamo! Piotrze! In everyday speech Poles often just use the nominative, so treat the vocative as a bonus.

Cases of Polish personal pronouns

Pronouns decline too, and since you use “me”, “you” and “him” constantly, this table pays off fastest:

Nominative	ja	ty	on	ona
Genitive	mnie	ciebie / cię	jego / go / niego	jej / niej
Dative	mnie / mi	tobie / ci	jemu / mu / niemu	jej / niej
Accusative	mnie	ciebie / cię	jego / go / niego	ją / nią
Instrumental	mną	tobą	nim	nią
Locative	mnie	tobie	nim	niej

Nominative	my	wy	oni	one
Genitive	nas	was	ich / nich	ich / nich
Dative	nam	wam	im / nim	im / nim
Accusative	nas	was	ich / nich	je / nie
Instrumental	nami	wami	nimi	nimi
Locative	nas	was	nich	nich

Where two forms are listed: the short one (mi, ci, go, mu) is the normal, unstressed choice inside a sentence. The long one (mnie, ciebie, jego, jemu) carries emphasis or starts a sentence. The n- forms (niego, niej, nich) appear only after prepositions: dla niego – for him, o niej – about her.

Cases of Polish nouns: the main patterns

Here are the singular and plural patterns for the three genders, using kot (cat, masculine animate), dom (house, masculine inanimate), kobieta (woman, feminine) and miasto (city, neuter):

	Kot	Dom	Kobieta	Miasto
Nominative	kot / koty	dom / domy	kobieta / kobiety	miasto / miasta
Genitive	kota / kotów	domu / domów	kobiety / kobiet	miasta / miast
Dative	kotu / kotom	domowi / domom	kobiecie / kobietom	miastu / miastom
Accusative	kota / koty	dom / domy	kobietę / kobiety	miasto / miasta
Instrumental	kotem / kotami	domem / domami	kobietą / kobietami	miastem / miastami
Locative	kocie / kotach	domu / domach	kobiecie / kobietach	mieście / miastach

Three things to notice instead of memorizing everything at once. Masculine animate nouns (people, animals) have accusative = genitive (widzę kota), while inanimate ones have accusative = nominative (widzę dom). Feminine -a becomes -ę in the accusative (kawa → kawę: Piję kawę). And the locative loves consonant changes (miasto → w mieście, kobieta → o kobiecie); those you’ll absorb from practice, not from tables.

For masculine nouns describing people, the plural has its own forms: student → studenci, prezydent → prezydenci.

Examples

Czy ją kochasz? – Do you love her? (accusative)

Kto mi może pomóc? – Who can help me? (dative)

Nie znam ich – I don’t know them (genitive after negation)

Pójdę z nimi – I will go with them (instrumental)

To jest prezent dla ciebie – This is a present for you (genitive after dla)

Mieszkamy w małym mieście – We live in a small city (locative)

Nie ma kawy – There is no coffee (genitive)

Ona opowiadała nam o Polsce – She was telling us about Poland (dative + locative)

Vocabulary

kochać – to love znać – to know (a person) pomagać / pomóc – to help dawać / dać – to give prezent – present, gift

dla – for z – with / from o – about bez – without do – to, into

Exercises

Put the word in brackets into the correct case.

1. Widzę (kot) ______________ – I see a cat
2. Piję (kawa) ______________ – I’m drinking coffee
3. Nie ma (czas) ______________ – There is no time
4. Jadę (pociąg) ______________ – I’m going by train
5. Mieszkam w (Warszawa) ______________ – I live in Warsaw
6. To jest dla (ty) ______________ – This is for you
7. Czy znasz (oni) ______________? – Do you know them?
8. Daj (ja) ______________ tę książkę – Give me that book
9. Rozmawialiśmy o (ona) ______________ – We were talking about her
10. Idę z (brat) ______________ do kina – I’m going to the cinema with my brother

Answers:

1: kota; 2: kawę; 3: czasu; 4: pociągiem; 5: Warszawie; 6: ciebie; 7: ich; 8: mi; 9: niej; 10: bratem