Lekcja dziewiąta

Temat: Dopełniacz liczby pojedynczej. Odmiana czasownika przez osoby

Lesson nine. Subject: Genitive singular. Conjugation

Klucz do ćwiczeń z lekcji poprzedniej

(Key to exercises from the previous lesson)

Correct present forms of the 2nd sg. and pl. are:

• bić – bije – bijesz – bijecie,
• dać – da – dasz – dacie,
• drwić – drwi – drwisz – drwicie,
• kłuć – kłuje – kłujesz – kłujecie,
• kpić – kpi – kpisz – kpicie,
• kuć – kuje – kujesz – kujecie,
• myć – myje – myjesz – myjecie,
• pędzić – pędzi – pędzisz – pędzicie,
• przedstawiać – przedstawia – przedstawiasz – przedstawiacie,
• ryć – ryje – ryjesz – ryjecie,
• siąść – siądzie – siądziesz – siądziecie,
• sikać – sika – sikasz – sikacie,
• wabić – wabi – wabisz – wabicie,
• wziąć – weźmie – weźmiesz – weźmiecie,
• zamarzać – zamarza – zamarzasz – zamarzacie.

Correct past forms are:

• bić – bił, biło, biła, bili, biły,
• dać – dał, dało, dała, dali, dały,
• dawać – dawał, dawało, dawała, dawali, dawały,
• drwić – drwił, drwiło, drwiła, drwili, drwiły,
• kłuć – kłuł, kłuło, kłuła, kłuli, kłuły,
• kpić – kpił, kpiło, kpiła, kpili, kpiły,
• leżeć – leżał, leżało, lażała, leżeli, leżały,
• lubić – lubił, lubiło, lubiła, lubili, lubiły,
• mieć – miał, miało, miała, mieli, miały,
• myć – mył, myło, myła, myli, myły,
• pędzić – pędził, pędziło, pędziła, pędzili, pędziły,
• przedstawiać – przedstawiał, przedstawiało, przedstawiała, przedstawiali, przedstawiały,
• ryć – rył, ryło, ryła, ryli, ryły,
• siedzieć – siedział, siedziało, siedziała, siedzieli, siedziały,
• sikać – sikał, sikało, sikała, sikali, sikały,
• skakać – skakał, skakało, skakała, skakali, skakały,
• słuchać – słuchał, słuchało, słuchała, słuchali, słuchały,
• stać – stał, stało, stała, stali, stały,
• stawać – stawał, stawało, stawała, stawali, stawały,
• śnić – śnił, śniło, śniła, śnili, śniły,
• wabić – wabił, wabiło, wabiła, wabili, wabiły,
• wiedzieć – wiedział, wiedziało, wiedziała, wiedzieli, wiedziały,
• zamarzać – zamarzał, zamarzało, zamarzała, zamarzali, zamarzali.

Słowa ukryte w diagramie (words hidden in the diagram): alfabet, apostrof, dwukropek, kreska, kropka, nawias, przecinek, pytajnik, średnik, znak.

Deklinacja (Declension)

Przypadki (Cases)

Cases are particular forms of each Polish noun. Cases are known from Latin or Greek, they are present also in German. They are also rudiments of the casual system in English. Just compare my brother (is reading a book) (nominative) – my brother’s book (genitive). Or he can see me (nominative) – I can see him (accusative). The same system is present in Polish but much more developed.

There are 7 cases in Polish. They are (in traditional order):

A particular vocative form exists only for substantives in singular. It means that in fact there is only 6 different cases in plural and only 6 different cases of adjectives, numerals, pronouns. I will use the Polish abbreviations because you can meet them in any Polish dictionary as well (especially if edited in Poland). I will also use lp (liczba pojedyncza) for singular and lm (liczba mnoga) for plural. You have known nominative forms already. Now it is the time for genitive, the most frequent of the other cases in Polish.

Dopełniacz liczby pojedynczej rzeczowników

(Genitive singular of substantives)

Unlike in English, there are some different endings of genitive singular (D lp) in Polish. Here are the most typical instances:

• -a for neuter and more masculine substantives,
• -u for many masculine inanimate substantives,
• -y for hard-stemmed feminine substantives,
• -i for soft-stemmed feminine substantives.

Inanimate means not personal and not animate (describing animals). Hard-stemmed are these substantives whose stems end with hard (ie. non-palatalized) consonants; those with c, cz, dz, dż, rz, sz, ż also belong to this group. The ending -i may exists only after consonants that let i follow them. Thus, if the nominative plural ending is -y or -e after a hard consonant (like in kury, burze, szanse), the genitive singular form ends in -y (kury, burzy, szansy). But if the plural ending is -i or -e after a soft consonant (e.g. gęsi, szyje, panie), the genitive singular ends in -i (gęsi, szyi, pani). There are some more rules you should obey when making genitive singular forms:

• The ending should be added to the stem that you can see in the plural form, e.g. M lp ojciec, M lm ojcowie, hence D lp ojca.
• Especially the changes of ó : o, ą : ę or the loss of the moving e are just the same as in nominative plural, e.g. M lp róg ‘horn; corner’, M lm rogi, hence D lp rogu.
• When the nominative plural is irregular or suppletive, we use however M lp as the basis. Hence dziecko – dziecka (M lp – D lp) even if plural is dzieci, rok – roku even if plural is lata.
• If in M lm of a personal masculine substantive there are consonantal changes, they are not present in D lp, e.g. brat – brata even if the plural is bracia, artysta – artysty even if plural is artyści.
• Most inanimate masculine substantives have -u in D lp but there are also many with -a. Unfortunately you should memorize these (numerous) exceptions.
• The substantives bawół ‘buffalo’ and wół ‘ox’ are exceptional – they have the ending -u in genitive sg. even if they describe animals.
• The substantive lud is inanimate (even if it means ‘people’) and has the ending -u regularly.

Here is the table of all the substantives you have learnt so far (and several new ones – check their meaning!). You should use it to repeat your Polish vocabulary. All difficult genitive singular forms are given in brackets. More remarks below.

The neuter nouns in -ę, -ęta have genitive sg. in -ęcia while those in -ę, -ona have genitive sg. in -enia. The masculine książę is irregular and it misses 1 syllable, hence D lp księcia (you should memorize it). The table gives you examples of them and also of the substantives declined like adjectives.

Genitive conforms, among others, to the English of sth. or sb’s. forms. You must also remember the use of genitive in nie ma X – there is not X here, X is not here, X is absent. Now some examples.

1. Compare dom mamy and Mummy’s house – the substantive in genitive (mamy) usually follows the one in nominative (dom). As if in the house of Mummy.
2. Polish doesn’t like the ji group. If the stem ends with j, we must omit it before the ending -i. Hence Mai without j. The problem lies in spelling only, we read [maji] nevertheless.
3. Telling the date we omit dzień, hence pierwszy maja instead pierwszy dzień maja – it is just like in English the first (day) of May.
4. Many inanimate substantives have the “animate” ending -a instead of -u; unfortunately, you must memorize them all (see the vocabulary). Names of the months belong to this group (but not the names of the days of the week).
5. If a word ends with -ia pronounced [-ja] (like amnestia), the genitive singular ends regularly in double i meaning [ji] (hence amnestii [amnestji]).
6. If a masculine (personal) substantive looks like feminine (ie. it has the -a ending in M lp), the two rules on feminine genitive singular should be used. Hence tata – taty (“feminine” ending even if the noun is masculine).
7. Polish has not renderings for the English articles a / an and the. Hence kwiat maku can mean a flower of a poppy, a flower of the poppy, the flower of the poppy etc. Names of plants are inanimate (hence kwiat maku), names of animals – animate (hence róg barana).
8. If i does not denote [j], it must disappear before the ending -i due to the spelling rules: babcia [bapća] – babci [bapći].

Now try to translate into Polish (the key is in the next lesson):

1. alcohol is absent,
2. book of the poet,
3. boundaries of Afghanistan,
4. cat of the prince,
5. Cherokee’s gift,
6. colour of the carpet,
7. colours of the autumn,
8. days of the week,
9. devil’s horns,
10. dog of the king,
11. doors of the bank,
12. Father’s wardrobe,
13. February 1st,
14. horn of the buffalo,
15. limits of using,
16. Mother’s Day,
17. (first) name is not present,
18. rules of spelling,
19. shoe-lace of the sporting shoe,
20. Semptember 3rd,
21. there is no wine,
22. there is not a mouse,
23. Tom’s foal,
24. use of the apostrophe.

Dopełniacz liczby pojedynczej przymiotników

(Genitive singular of adjectives)

You have surely noticed the two endings of genitive singular of the substantives declinated like adjectives: -ego and -ej. The same endings are used by adjectives:

• -ego for masculine and neuter,
• -ej for feminine.

For the rules of spelling, if the ending of nominative singular masculine is -i, it is preserved as a sign of softness before genitive endings. To make the genitive of mój, nasz, jeden, ten, take the stem from the other forms, e.g. moja, nasza, jedna, ta. Examples:

• młody – młodego, młodej,
• dziesiąty – dziesiątego, dziesiątej
• boży – bożego, bożej,
• gorzki – gorzkiego, gorzkiej,
• miękki – miękkiego, miękkiej,
• trzeci – trzeciego, trzeciej,
• twój – twojego, twojej,
• wasz – waszego, waszej,
• jeden (jedna) – jednego, jednej,
• ów (owa) – owego, owej,
• ten (ta) – tego, tej,
• tamten (tamta) – tamtego, tamtej.

Besides mojego, twojego, mojej, twojej also shorter forms exists: mego, twego, mej, twej. You should learn them as well.

Now please give both forms of genitive singular of bezsilny, czczy, dotyczący, duży, dziąsłowy, kolejny, krótki, mały, nasz, ósmy, pański, piąty, podstawowy, poprzedni, pozostały, pusty, setny, silny, siny, siódmy, stary, szczelinowy, szósty, trudny, twardy, tysięczny, wolny, zadziąsłowy.

If a group adjective + substantive is strict, the substantive can precede the adjective (unlike in English but like in French). As for now, remember the examples język polski ‘the Polish language’, liczba mnoga ‘plural, the plural number’. Now translate into Polish:

1. book of this young artist,
2. canine tooth of a certain dog,
3. cap of that greedy poet,
4. colour of the first kitten,
5. continuation of the ninth lesson,
6. door of our new house,
7. flower of one night,
8. foal of this pretty mare,
9. genitive of the plural number (recall the remark),
10. hands of that good girl,
11. head of a long, cunning snake,
12. horse of another rider,
13. learning of the Polish language (recall the remark),
14. leg of a fast dinosaur,
15. neck of our goat,
16. peacock of a nice lady,
17. your (sg.) long rope is absent,
18. there is not the plural number,
19. trunk of your (pl.) second kid,
20. use of my brain.

Dopełniacz liczby pojedynczej zaimków

(Genitive singular of pronouns)

Remember the abbreviations:

• m. – masculine (rodzaj męski),
• n. – neuter (rodzaj nijaki),
• ż. – feminine (rodzaj żeński).

Remarks:

1. The pronouns ja ‘I, me’ and ty ‘you (sg.)’ do not differentiate the gender, the same is in English, French and much more languages.
2. The pronouns jego ‘his, its’, jej ‘her’ and ich ‘their’ do not differentiate the gender and are not declined at all.
3. Notice that jego is indeclinable and it can mean ‘of him’, ‘of it’ and also ‘his’, ‘its’ as well as ‘of his’, ‘of its’. The same about jej and ich. Just compare:
   • nie ma jej tu – she is not here (genitive of the personal pronoun),
   • jej książka – her book (nominative of the possessive pronoun),
   • nie ma tu jej książki – her book is not here (genitive of the possessive pronoun).
4. We can see different stems in on, ono, ona but jego, jej.
5. The forms jego, niego, go differ in their use. Now you must remember that go is never stressed and you should use it in the phrase nie ma go tu ‘he is not here’. Read it [ńemagotu] with only the 1st syllable stressed. I will explain later when you may use jego and niego.
6. A similar difference is between ciebie and cię. Always speak only nie ma cię tam [ńemaćetam] ‘you are not there’.
7. The forms mojego – mego, mojej – mej as well as twojego – twego, twojej – twej are equal in their meaning. The shorter forms are used mainly in colloquial speach but also in poetry.

Koniugacja (Conjugation)

Modele koniugacji w czasie teraźniejszym

(Models of conjugation in the Present Tense)

You know how to make the forms of 2nd sg. and pl. as well as 3rd sg. of the Present Tense (and the Simple Future Tense if the verb is perfective). Now it is the time to master other forms. There exist 4 main types of conjugation in Polish. I am giving you the patterns in the table below.

The class a verb belongs to is only a little connected with the shape of the infinitive (being the vocabular form of the verb). As you have already known, some verbs are fully regular and you know how they are declined just looking at the infinitive (e.g. pić – pije, robić – robi, słuchać – słucha). But many verbs are less regular and you must remember their shape in the Present (or Simple Future) Tense (e.g. stać – stoi, wiać – wieje, wiedzieć – wie, jeść – je; check the meaning of the unknown words). Here are more important remarks:

• The personal pronouns ja, ty, … (English I, you, …) are not used with verbs as a rule, so I have not given them in the table.
• The verb być ‘be’ does not belong to any of the 4 class. The form of 3rd plural is even built from a different stem. Compare be but am, are, is.
• The Simple Future of być, będzie, goes after the pattern of daje, see below.
• The number of verbs of the 4th class is very scarce. Most verbs in -eć go after the pattern of leżeć. That is why I will inform you of each instances of the 4th conjugation.
• The 2nd conjugation has two sub-classes depending on the vowel i or y in the endings. From your course in the Polish phonetics you know which of the two vowel can be used after each single Polish consonant.
• There are some changes in the 1st sg. and 3rd pl. of some verbs of 1st and 2nd conjugation. Notice stoję but stoi without j due to the spelling rules.
• Notice also robię but robi – the behaviour of i is a result of the spelling rules as well (it must be inserted before ę, ą to preserve the softness of b).

Here is the list of the verbs you have learnt that go exactly after the patterns above:

Here is the list of the verbs you have learnt with the changes in 1st sg. and 3rd pl. We will try to formulate rules later, as for now just memorize the forms.

Remarks:

• mierzić is not used outside 3 sg. (mierzi) hence it is not in the table;
• pędzić, siedzieć are regular only in spelling: notice that there is [dz] in pędzę, pędzą, while there is [dź] in pędzisz, pędzi, pędzimy, pędzicie;
• you must remember dadzą, jedzą, wiedzą as irregularities;
• notice that dają is a form of dawać and not dać;
• notice that wieją is a form of wiać and not wiedzieć.

Find hidden words

Once again, a zoological diagram. Find 21 Polish names of domestic animals. The list of these words is given in the next lesson.

Have you reached your learning goals?

• You know what lp. and lm. mean.
• You know the names of the 7 Polish cases.
• You can make the genitive singular forms of any noun.
• You can make all the forms of the Present / Simple Future Tense of known verbs.
• You can read the following Polish words and you know what they mean: artysta, bawół, granica, język, kolor, książka, litera, poeta, róg, sznurówka, umieć, użycie, wiać, wół.

Please repeat the material until you are sure you can do all what you should.