Bits of Polish

After you’ve got familiar with the cardinal numbers, it’s time to learn some ordinal numbers. Note that Polish ordinal numbers behave pretty much like adjectives – it means that they have to be inflected so that they agree with the noun they are assigned to. If the noun is masculine, you use the masculine form of the numeral; if it’s feminine – the feminine form; if it’s neuter – the neuter form. If you’re familiar with how adjectives create these gender forms, you shouldn’t have problems with ordinal numbers, as they follow the same pattern. The masculine form is the basic one – the one listed in a dictionary. The feminine ending is –a, and the neuter one is –e. Look at these examples:

1st – m. pierwszy – f. pierwsza – n. pierwsze
3rd – m. trzeci – f. trzecia – n. trzecie
10th – m. dziesiąty – f. dziesiąta – n. dziesiąte

Here are the ordinal numbers in their basic forms:

1st – pierwszy
2nd – drugi
3rd – trzeci
4th – czwarty
5th – piąty
6th – szósty
7th – siódmy
8th – ósmy
9th – dziewiąty
10th – dziesiąty

11th – jedenasty
12th – dwunasty
13th – trzynasty
14th – czternasty
15th – piętnasty
16th – szesnasty
17th – siedemnasty
18th – osiemnasty
19th – dziewiętnasty
20th – dwudziesty

30th – trzydziesty
40th – czterdziesty
50th – pięćdziesiąty
60th – sześćdziesiąty
70th – siedemdziesiąty
80th – osiemdziesiąty
90th – dziewięćdziesiąty

100th – setny
200th – dwusetny
300th – trzechsetny
400th – czterechsetny
500th – pięćsetny
600th – sześćsetny
700th – siedemsetny
800th – osiemsetny
900th – dziewięćsetny
1000th – tysięczny

So far, so good. But what about some more complex numbers? Well, they’re created a bit differently than in English.

• In numbers between 21st and 99th, both parts are ordinal numbers, unlike in English. For example:
  21th: dwudziesty pierwszy (not *dwadzieścia pierwszy)
  58th: pięćdziesiąty ósmy
  99th: dziewięćdziesiąty dziewiąty
• In numbers bigger than 100th, the hundreds and thousands are cardinal numbers, while the tens and ones are ordinal numbers. For example:
  103: sto trzeci
  274: dwieście siedemdziesiąty czwarty
  1931: tysiąc dziewięćset trzydiesty pierwszy
  8111: osiem tysięcy sto jedenasty