Cases in Polish

Polish is one of the languages that uses grammatical cases. They can be quite challenging for people learning Polish as a foreign language, but don’t worry! The devil is not as scary as he is painted, and with our tips, you will master them with ease!

Polish has seven grammatical cases. Not many, right? However, it is important to remember that each case can have several endings. Cases in Polish affect nouns (e.g., dom – house, pies – dog, chleb – bread), adjectives (duży – big, zielony – green), adjectival participles (mówiący – speaking, przyszły – future), some numerals (dwoje – two, troje – three), and pronouns (mój – my, twoja – your). Declension is the term for changing words according to cases. One of its great advantages is that it allows for flexible word order in sentences!

Polish Grammatical Cases:

Nominative (Mianownik, Latin: nominativus) – answers the questions: kto? co? (to jest). Dictionaries always list words in the nominative.

Genitive (Dopełniacz, Latin: genetivus) – answers the questions: whom? what? (nie ma). Often used in negative sentences (e.g., Wojtek didn’t break the window) or to show possession, e.g., Basia’s toy, Tomek’s car.

Dative (Celownik, Latin: dativus) – questions: komu? czemu? (przyglądam się). Used relatively rarely; mainly expresses giving. Appears with verbs like dawać, mówić, sprzedawać, oddawać, pomagać, obiecywać, dziękować and prepositions dzięki, przeciw, wbrew.

Endings:

• Masculine: -owi (nauczycielowi), -u (bratu, kotu)
• Feminine: -i (nadziei), -e (kobiecie)

·Accusative (Biernik, lat. accusativus) – questions; kogo? co? (widzę).

Many verbs require Accusative; after negation, use Genitive:

• Słyszę (co?) śpiew.
• Nie słyszę (czego?) śpiewu.

Preposition przez always takes Accusative.

· Instrumental (Narzędnik, lat. instrumentalis) with kim? z czym? (idę). Shows tools (młotkiem, pędzlem, ołówkiem), transport (samochodem, samolotem), describes interests (Interesuję się teatrem), professions (Jestem kierowcą/informatykiem/kobietą). With z, pod, nad.

Nouns in the singular have the endings: -em, -ą, and in the plural: -ami.

· Locative (Miejscownik, Latin: locativus) – answers the questions o kim? o czym? (myślę). It is used to describe location and always requires a preposition. Nouns have the ending -e (o kocie) or -u (w styczniu). Nouns ending in k, g, ch take -u (rogu, smoku). In the plural, nouns in all three genders take -ach (exceptions: na Węgrzech, w Niemczech).

· Vocative (Wołacz, Latin: vocativus) – This is the only case that has no question. It is used for exclamations and direct address. Today, it is often replaced by the nominative; for example, Staszku! becomes Staszek!.

Statistically, the vocative and dative are the least frequently used cases.

The most important thing is to approach the cases systematically and in context. Instead of memorizing tables of endings, focus on the functions of the cases in a sentence and the prepositions that go with them. In Polish, it is verbs and prepositions that dictate which case to use. For example, knowing that the verb używać always takes the genitive (e.g. używać (what?) telefonu) helps you avoid mistakes. Similarly, knowing that the preposition dla takes the genitive, while przed takes the instrumental, makes building correct sentences much easier. Regularly practicing such patterns — rather than dry tables — is the key to fluency.

Polish cases can be challenging, but understanding their role and practicing intensively is the key to fluent and accurate communication. Although learning declension is a process that usually requires time and patience, we offer the safest and fastest way to master it — under the attentive guidance of an experienced teacher.

Our specialized course is entirely dedicated to declension. In just five two-hour online sessions (5 × 120 minutes), we will break down the entire logic of the cases. We explain the rules clearly and without unnecessary complications, in English.

Thanks to the precise program and the experience of our qualified teachers, Polish cases will stop being chaos and will become a logical system.

You can find more information about the course and register here.

We wish you fruitful learning 🙂

Aneta Kawa