Demonstrative pronouns - Zaimiki wskazujący

Demonstrative pronouns, like in English, point to things. This dog (ten pies), that girl (tamta dziewczynka), this child (to dziecko) etc. They also change depending on the gender (rodzaj) of the noun.

Nominative - Mianownik

Below is a table of the basic demonstrative pronouns in nominative (mianownik) (their basic form, when they're not being changed by anything), and in singular (liczba pojedyncza). There is a full guide of this at Clozemaster, but for now let's see what's in the lesson currently. (https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/polish-demonstrative-pronouns/)

To give it distance, we just add the tam- suffix to it. In Clozemaster, they make an interesting point. The simplest way to express the difference between ten and tamten would probably be: ten = the one here tamten = the other one / the one over there This is reflected in the very structure of the word tamten: it is actually the demonstrative pronoun ten combined with the word tam, which means “there / over there”. Because this is nominative, it only works to point to something and stating what it is as a subject. We could use them as answers to any question of an object, or as the subject of a sentence with another object. For example - Na przykład Which tea do you like? Ta herbata - This tea Which cat is the fluffiest one? Ten kot - This cat Which fruit did you take? To jabłko - This apple

Tamta mysz je śniadanie.	That mouse is eating breakfast.
Tamten mężczyzna jest człowiekiem.	That man is human.
Tamta dziewczyna jest kotem.	That girl is a cat.
Tamto dziecko nie jest człowiekiem.	That child is not human.
Ten pomidor jest smaczny.	This tomato is tasty.

And so on.

Accusative - Biernik

https://mowicpopolsku.com/polish-grammar/cases/accusative/ Now, in order to use these words in a sentence as a direct object, we need to use the accusative case (biernik) of the nouns AND pronouns. Some of the pronouns change when used in accusative: For example - Na przykład

Pijesz tamtą herbatę	You are drinking that tea.
My lubimy tę mysz	We like this mouse.
Mamy tamtą zupę	We have that soup.
Piję tę herbatę	I am drinking this tea.
Mam ten chleb	I have this bread.
Mam tego* psa	I have this dog.
Mam tego* pomidora**	I have this tomato.

* In accusative, male pronouns get split into inanimate and animate objects, ten / tego ** Pomidor / Pomidora was discussed earlier as an exception to accusative rules. This is because tomatoes, among other exceptions, are somehow animate objects in Poland. Below is a table of the basic demonstrative pronouns in accusative (biernik), and in singular (liczba pojedyncza).

Note the difference between masculine inanimate, and masculine animate objects. This comes into practice later on in Duolingo, but currently I don’t know where to put it, since this lesson would be the most appropriate place to do it. Let’s practice some: Practice exercises - Ćwiczyć ćwiczenia

Mam tego psa.	I have this dog.
Lubię tego kota.	I like this cat.
Ta dziewczynka lubi tamtego konia	This girl likes that horse.
Ten kot lubi tamtego chłopca	This cat likes that boy.
Ten pająk je tamtego ptaka	This spider is eating that bird.

Now you’re probably thinking, how did that chłopca, psa, konia, ptaka and kota change? Well, as we said before, in accusative (biernik), males don’t have a specific rule, but they can stay in their nominative (mianownik) forms, or change into genitive (dopełniacz) form. For more detail you can see the link below. However, as a general rule, add the ending -a, and remove -ie whenever it appears, as well as changing soft letters into their phonological match (-ś, -ć, -ń, -ź to -si, -ci, -ni, -zi). https://mowicpopolsku.com/polish-grammar/cases/genitive/#noun-singular-masculine