Vocabulary - Słownictwo

As we said before in the Food lesson, in order to search for it in the dictionary, you have to use the male declension of the nominative case of an adjective, so that's what I'll list under here for vocabulary.

	In Polish Po polsku	In English Po angielsku
♂	Dobry	Good
♂	Zły	Bad, Angry, Evil
♂	Duży	Big, Large
♂	Mały	Small, Little
♂	Nowy	New
♂	Stary	Old
♂	Smaczny	Tasty

Grammar - Gramatyka

For more detail you can see the following link: https://mowicpopolsku.com/polish-grammar/word-classes/adjectives/#declension Or here: https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/polish-adjectives/ Adjectives in polish have to follow declension depending on the noun and it’s gender. For now, we just need to know the nominative (mianownik) case. In order to search for it in the dictionary, you have to use the male declension of the nominative case. We can use adjectives before a noun (attributive), for example:

The big dog eats meat

Duży pies je mięso

You can also use the adjective after the noun in the predicate of the sentence (predicative), for example:

This cat is small

Ten kot jest mały

Now, notice how they follow the case of the noun: If the noun is in nominative, the adjective is in nominative. This means that if we were to say "I am a good human - Jestem dobrym człowiekiem", we would have to use the instrumental (narzędnik) case, and that if we were to say “I am drinking this good tea - Piję tę dobrą herbatę”, we would have to use the accusative (biernik) case. In this lesson, however, we are only using the nominative (mianownik). For the nominative (mianownik) case, the rules are easy:

Nominative adjectives - Przymiotniki mianownikowy

For masculine adjectives, the suffix is -y. The exception being if the stem ends in -k or -g, in which case the suffix will be -i. For example: duży, wysoki, drogi. Although for now this is in neither of the vocabulary for the lesson.

Ten pies jest dobry.	This dog is good.
Tamten chłopiec jest zły.	That boy is evil.
Ten ser jest smaczny!	This cheese is good!

For feminine adjectives, the suffix is -a.

Ta jest dobra herbata.	This is good tea.
Tamta kawa jest stara.	That coffee is old.
Duża mysz je ser.	The big mouse is eating cheese.

For neuter adjectives, the suffix is -e.

Nowe wino nie jest smaczne.	The new wine is not tasty.
Tamto zwierzę jest duże	That animal is big.

Accusative adjectives - Przymiotniki biernikowy

For masculine adjectives, again we will see a distinction between animate objects, and inanimate objects. Remember ten and tego? This is similar. The suffix for inanimate objects is exactly as with the nominative, it is still -y/-i depending on the stem (-k and -g for -i, the rest with -y).

Jem duży obiad.	I am eating a big lunch.
Piję dobry sok.	I am drinking a good juice.

For animate objects, we will be using the genitive, a case we haven't seen yet. The suffix for animate objects is -ego.

Tamta stara kobieta je złego chłopca.	That old woman is eating a bad boy.
Mam dużego psa.	I have a big dog.
Lubię tego małego kota.	I like this small cat.
Jem dużego pomidora*.	I am eating a big tomato.

* Remember how our friends the tomatoes are an exception and are somehow animate objects in Poland. For feminine adjectives, the suffix is -ą.

Jem dobrą kanapkę.	I am eating a good sandwich.
Piję dobrą herbatę.	I am drinking a good tea.
Mam złą kaczkę	I have an evil duck.

For neuter adjectives, the suffix is -e.

Piję dobre wino i jem dobry ser.	I am drinking good wine and eating a good cheese.
Mam duże warzywo.	I have a big vegetable.

Other cases

You can see a full table with the suffixes of other cases here: https://mowicpopolsku.com/polish-grammar/word-classes/adjectives/#declension Or here: https://www.clozemaster.com/blog/polish-adjectives/ I would recommend it for the instrumental case, which we already saw in previous lessons, but I haven’t seen it used in Duolingo in the lessons near this one.