Oscar E. Swan -- Polish Grammar in a Nutshell.pdf

Polish

Grammar in a

Nutshell

University of Pittsburgh

2003

Information on Polish sounds and grammar

which should be mastered by the

intermediate-level student of the

language.

POLISH GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL

540

POLISH GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL

CONTENTS

The Polish Alphabet and Sounds 5

Notes on Spelling and Pronunciation 6

Sound Changes 8

Nouns 9

Noun Gender 9

Cases and Case Use 11

Noun Phrases 13

Regular Noun Endings 15

Distribution of Endings 16

Noun Endings Depending on the Hard-Soft Distinction 17

Noun Declensions 19

Days of the Week 23

Compass Directions 23

Months 24

Pronouns 24

Personal Pronouns 24

Possessive Pronouns 26

Demonstrative and Relative Pronouns 27

Intensive Pronoun 28

Reflexive Pronoun 28

Distributive Pronoun 29

Adjectives 30

Adjective Declension 30

Adjective-Noun Order 30

Comparison of Adjectives 31

Adjective Opposites 31

Adverbs 33

Comparison of Adverbs 33

Non-Adjectival Adverbs 35

Numerals 37

Cardinal Numerals 37

Compound Numbers 38

Declension of Cardinal Numerals 38

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POLISH GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL

Collective Numerals 41

Reified Numerals 42

Indefinite Numerals 42

Counting People 42

Ordinal Numerals 43

Time of Day 43

Dates, Years, Expressing ‘How Old’ 44

Prepositions 45

Prepositions Arranged According to Case 46

Prepositions Expressing 'at', 'to', 'from' 47

Expressions of Time 47

Polish Translations of 'For' 48

Conjunctions 50

Verbs 51

Finite Verb Categories 53

Present Tense 53

Summary of Verb Classes 56

Imperative 57

Past Tense 58

Future Tense 60

Perfective and Imperfective Aspect 60

Verbs of Motion 62

Conditional Mood 63

Participles and Gerunds 64

Passive Voice 66

Impersonal Verbs 67

Reflexive Verbs 68

Important Sentence Constructions 71

Constructions with the Infinitive 71

Modal Expressions 71

‘Introducing’ Sentences 71

Expressing 'There Is' 72

Predicate Nouns and Adjectives 72

Yes-No Questions 72

Negation 72

Word Order 73

Sentence Intonation 73

542

POLISH GRAMMAR IN A NUTSHELL

THE POLISH ALPHABET AND SOUNDS

Here is the Polish alphabet: a, à, b, c, ç, d, e, ´, f, g, h, I, j, k, l, ∏, m, n, ƒ, o ,

ó, p, r, s, Ê, t, u, w, y, z, ê, ˝.

SOUND VALUES OF THE LETTERS

APPROXIMATE

LETTER

ENGLISH SOUND

EXAMPLE

a f a ther tak thus, so, yes, raz once

à d ome sà they are , wà˝ snake

The sound à is pronounced like om , except that the lips or tongue are not

completely closed to pronounce the m , leaving a nasal resonance instead.

b b ig bok side, aby so that

bi- b eautiful bieg course, run, race, tobie to you

c fi ts co what , noc night , taca tray

ch h all chata cottage, ucho ear, dach roof

The sound of ch is much raspier and noisier than English h .

ci-

ch eek

ciasto cake , cicho quiet

ch alk

czas time, gracz player, t´cza rainbow

ch eek

choç although, niçmi thread (Inst. pl.)

The letters ç and ci- are pronounced the same. The combination ci- is used

before a vowel. The letter c before i is pronounced like ç/ci-. The sound of

ç / ci- , pronounced with the mouth in the position of English )y), is different

from that of cz , pronounced with the mouth in the position of English "r".

d d o data date, lada counter

dz o dds cudzy foreign, wodze reins

dzi- j eans dziadek grandfather, ludzie people

dê j eans wiedêma witch. ludêmi people-Instr.pl.

d˝ j aw d˝ez jazz, rad˝a rajah

The letters dê and dzi- are pronounced the same. The combination dzi- is

used before a vowel. The letters dz before i are pronounced like dê/dzi-.

The sound of dê / dzi- , pronounced with the mouth in the position of English

"y", is different from that of d˝ , pronounced with the mouth in the position of

English "r".

e e ver ten this (masc.), ale but , Edek Eddie

´ s en se g´Ê goose, t´skniç long for

The sound ´ is pronounced like em , except that the lips or tongue are not

completely closed to pronounce the m , leaving a nasal resonance instead. At

the end of a word, the letter ´ is normally pronounced the same as e :

naprawd´ "naprawde".

f elt

farba paint, lufa rifle-barrel, blef bluff

g et

guma rubber, noga leg, foot

gi-

bu g y ou

gie∏da stock-market, magiel mangle

h all

hak hook, aha aha!

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