Gender and plural in Polish language

Every Polish noun has a gender: masculine, feminine or neuter. Gender in Polish decides the endings of adjectives, verbs in the past tense and much more, so it pays to learn each noun together with its gender. Luckily, in most cases you can see the gender right in the ending of the word.

How to recognize the gender of a Polish noun

Masculine nouns usually end in a consonant:

dom – house, samochód – car, pociąg – train, kot – cat, stół – table, autobus – bus

Feminine nouns usually end in -A, and a smaller group ends in a soft consonant like -Ć or -Ś:

kobieta – woman, książka – book, droga – road, herbata – tea, miłość – love, wieś – village

Neuter nouns end in -O, -E, -Ę or -UM:

piwo – beer, miasto – city, okno – window, morze – sea, imię – first name, muzeum – museum

There are exceptions (mężczyzna, “man”, ends in -a but is masculine; tata, “dad”, too), but the rules above cover the vast majority of words you’ll meet.

Plural of nouns

Polish has no articles, so the plural carries more weight than in English. The ending depends on the gender and the final consonant.

Masculine nouns with a hard final consonant take -Y, and after k or g they take -I:

samochód – samochody (cars), telefon – telefony (phones), pociąg – pociągi (trains), słownik – słowniki (dictionaries)

Masculine nouns with a soft final consonant (ć, ś, ń, j, l, rz, cz, sz and similar) take -E:

pokój – pokoje (rooms), klucz – klucze (keys), kraj – kraje (countries), hotel – hotele (hotels)

Feminine nouns in -A replace it with -Y, or with -I after k and g:

kobieta – kobiety (women), droga – drogi (roads), książka – książki (books), strona – strony (pages)

Neuter nouns replace -O or -E with -A:

okno – okna (windows), miasto – miasta (cities), morze – morza (seas)

One special case worth knowing early: masculine nouns for people have their own plural forms, often with a consonant change. Student – studenci (students), Polak – Polacy (Poles), kolega – koledzy (colleagues). Polish treats “groups containing men” as a separate category, the same distinction as oni/one from lesson 2.

Gender of Polish adjectives

An adjective changes its ending to match the noun. One adjective, three (and a half) forms:

Masculine: -Y / -I – nowy dom (a new house), wysoki mężczyzna (a tall man)

Feminine: -A – nowa książka (a new book), wysoka kobieta (a tall woman)

Neuter: -E – nowe miasto (a new city), wysokie drzewo (a tall tree)

Plural of adjectives

In the plural, Polish again splits the world in two:

Groups with at least one man (the “masculine personal” form): -I / -Y, often with a consonant change: nowi studenci (new students), wysocy mężczyźni (tall men), dobrzy ludzie (good people)

Everything else (women, things, animals, children): -E / -IE: nowe książki (new books), wysokie kobiety (tall women), dobre psy (good dogs)

If that feels like a lot, remember: the -e form covers most of the plural world. The masculine personal forms you can pick up gradually.

Examples

To jest stary dom – This is an old house

Polskie miasta są piękne – Polish cities are beautiful

Mam nową książkę – I have a new book

Gdzie są tanie sklepy? – Where are the cheap shops?

Te drogi są długie – These roads are long

Moi przyjaciele są bardzo mili – My friends are very nice

Kto jest gotowy? – Who is ready?

Vocabulary

dom – house samochód – car książka – book miasto – city kobieta – woman mężczyzna – man dziecko – child

nowy – new stary – old duży – big mały – small piękny – beautiful tani – cheap drogi – expensive

Exercises

Part A: give the plural of the noun.

1. telefon (phone)
2. książka (book)
3. okno (window)
4. pokój (room)
5. droga (road)

Part B: put the adjective NOWY into the correct form.

1. ______________ samochód – a new car
2. ______________ szkoła – a new school
3. ______________ miasto – a new city
4. ______________ telefony – new phones
5. ______________ studenci – new students

Answers:

A: 1: telefony; 2: książki; 3: okna; 4: pokoje; 5: drogi

B: 1: nowy; 2: nowa; 3: nowe; 4: nowe; 5: nowi