Vocabulary - Słownictwo

Nouns - Rzeczowniki

	In Polish Po polsku	In English Po angielsku
♂	Dom	Home, or House
♀	Szkoła	School
♀	Książka	Book
♂	List	Letter (the ones you send on the post office)
♂	Głos	Voice
pl. ♂	Głosy	Voices

Prepositions - Przyimki

Do - To As in: Idę do szkoły - I am going to school

Verbs - Czasowniki

Present tense - Czas Teraźniejszy

This lesson is very verb intensive, since it’s the lesson for the present tense. So buckle up for a few new and useful verbs:

Now here’s this lesson’s most confusing point. There’s a subtle difference between the two verbs, but once explained, it should be clear. The verb chodzić means “to go” , but more precisely, it means “to go always, often, to attend”. It is close to Present Simple in English where the verb would always be “go” and not “going. On the other hand iść means “to be going”. This means that whoever is the subject is currently moving, in the present time. Chodzić - To go (in general, as a habit, not in the present), or to walk. Present Simple Iść - To be going, or to be walking, in the present time, currently. Present Continuous

For example - Na przykład

Chodzisz do domu	You walk home (as a habit, daily perhaps)
Idziemy do domu	We are going home (right now)
Chodzisz do szkoły?	Do you go to school? (or rather, do you attend school?)
Idę do szkoły	I am going / walking to school (right now, i am on my way to school)
Ja chodzę	I walk (habitually)
Ty i ja idziemy	We are walking / we are going on foot

Genitive - Dopełniacz

You might have noticed but, consider the sentence Duolingo presented us with:

Chodzisz do domu	You walk home (as a habit, daily perhaps)
Idę do szkoły	I am going / walking to school (right now, i am on my way to school)

That -u and -y endings are something we haven’t seen before. It is a new grammatical case (odmiana przypadek) called Genitive (dopełniacz). It is used in general to answer the question “whose?”, but also after certain verbs, prepositions, to count, among other uses. Here’s a complete guide to the genitive case: https://mowicpopolsku.com/polish-grammar/cases/genitive/ In this lesson, we are looking at the preposition “do”, which means “to”. In the above examples, “Idę do szkoły” has a clear english translation: “I am going to school”. However in the case of “Chodzisz do domu” - “You walk home” there would be an implied “to” in English that has to be used explicitly in Polish: “you walk to (your) home”, perhaps would work.

Genitive Singular Nouns

https://mowicpopolsku.com/polish-grammar/cases/genitive/#noun-singular As usual, the endings are different depending on the gender of the noun.

Animate Masculine - Rodzaj Męski Żywotny

All animate masculine nouns in Genitive have the ending -a.

Animate masculine (both people and animals) end in -a. If it doesn’t have a vowel it’s just added at the end:

Kot

Kota

Animate Masculines with diphthong ie

If it has -ie before the last consonant, it is removed and -a is added at the end.

Chłopiec	Chłopca
Pies	Psa

Animate Masculines ending with -ś, -ć, -ń, -ź

If it ends in a soft consonant, replace with their phonological match (-ś, -ć, -ń, -ź to -si, -ci, -ni, -zi) and -a is added at the end.

Koń

Konia

Exceptions: Personal Masculine nouns ending with -a follow Female rules

(for example: Mężczyzna)

Inanimate Masculine - Rodzaj Męski Nieżywotny

Most inanimate masculine nouns in Genitive have the ending -u.

Dom	Domu
Obiad	Obiadu

Exceptions

Some inanimate objects behave like animate objects grammatically. Remember our friend the tomato? Bread is also his friend as well. There is no specific rule for this so… I don’t know how to help...

Chleb	Chleba
Pomidor	Pomidora

Neuter - Rodzaj Nijaki

All neuter nouns in Genitive have the ending -a.

Dziecko	Dziecka
Jabłko	Jabłka

Exception: neuter nouns ending in -ę

neuter nouns ending in -ę get the ending -ta.

Zwierzę

Zwierzęta

Feminine - Rodzaj Żeński

Feminine and Masculine personal ending with -a

For both masculine personal and femenine, if it ends with a, it changes into y

Szkoła	Szkoły
Mężczyzna	Mężczyzny
Kobieta	Kobiety

Feminine and Masculine personal ending with -ka, -ga, ć, ź, l

For feminine nouns with -ka or -ga, the -y is replaced with -i. For ć and ź, the phonological match (ci, zi) replaces them.

Dziewczynka	Dziewczynki
Złość	Złości
Koszula	Koszuli