So, if you don’t speak any gender-distinguishing language, you’ll probably need time to get used to calling a carrot a "she." And you’d better put some effort into that; being able to determine the gender of a noun is absolutely crucial to producing grammatically correct Polish sentences. Why? Because other parts of speech that modify the noun can take different forms depending on the gender. Compare:

Ten budynek jest wysoki.
This building (m) is tall.

Ta wieża jest wysoka.
This tower (f.) is tall.

To drzewo jest wysokie.
This tree (n.) is tall.

As you can see, even such a small, innocent word as this changes its form depending on the gender of the noun it points to. Not to mention the different adjective endings!

Are you already looking forward to memorizing dozens of Polish words with their completely arbitrary genders? I hope so. In fact, this task is much less daunting than it appears, since it’s easy to guess the word’s gender looking at how it’s built. Well, easy for native speakers at least, but there are some rules you can learn, and soon you’ll start picking up the patterns.

Let’s start with the

Feminine gender

If a noun ends in –a, it’s most probably (though not always!) femine:

kobieta – woman
marchewka – carrot
torba – bag
szkoła – school
mąka – flour
nadzieja – hope

Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that only words ending in –a are feminine. There’s a couple of feminine nouns ending in consonants:

krew – blood
brew – eyebrow
sól – salt
moc – power
noc – night
oś – axis
północ – midnight
twarz – face
Bydgoszcz – a town in Poland
podróż – travel
miłość – love
radość – happiness
nienawiść – hate
przyjaźń – friendship
pleśń – mould
łódź – boat

…and many more. As you can see, many of them end in particular consonant clusters, such as –ść, -źń or –śń. Getting used to such patterns will make it easier for you to remember the gender, but it’s better to avoid relying on them all the time – for example, while krew and brew are feminine, lew (lion) is masculine. Sól is feminine, but ból (pain) is masculine. Oś is feminine, but łoś (moose) is masculine…

So it’s a lot of fun. How do native speakers handle this? They rely on how the word is inflected. For example, the fact that the genitive singular of krew is krwi indicates that it’s a feminine word. Lew, a masculine noun, becomes lwa. Obviously, without a native intuition to lead you, you can’t rely on this knowledge, so you’ll have to memorize at least a handful of those atypical nouns.

Remember how I said not all nouns ending in –a are feminine? That’s a good moment to have a look at the

Masculine gender

The situation is similar here – there’s a general rule and some interesting exceptions.

If a noun ends in a consonant, it’s most probably (though not always, as you’ve already seen) masculine:

stół – table
kamień – stone
widelec – fork
pies – dog
dom – house
grzyb – mushroom
chłopiec – boy

A rule wouldn’t be a rule without exceptions, right? Have a look at those masculine nouns:

mężczyzna – man, adult male
poeta – poet
artysta – artist
dentysta – dentist
sędzia – judge
kolega – colleague
doradca – advisor
spadkobierca – inheritor
idiota – idiot

They all end in –a and have something in common: they refer to males. Poeta is a male poet, and his female counterpart is poetka. Artysta is male, but artystka is female. Doradca and spadkobierca are male, but doradczyni and spadkobierczyni are female. Kolega is male, but koleżanka is female… Just so that you don’t think transforming these nouns is easy and straightforward ;)

If you’ve already come to terms with how mężczyzna, despite being an indisputably masculine noun, has the same ending as feminine nouns, you can have a look at the last class:

Neuter gender

No nasty surprises here, fortunately – not many, at least. If a noun ends in a vowel other than –a – that is, –o, –e or –ę, it’s neuter:

krzesło – chair
mięso – meat
dziecko – child
jedzenie – food
słońce – sun
morze – sea
imię – name
źrebię – foal
ramię – shoulder

There’s a couple of nouns that don’t conform to this pattern: some Latin borrowings ending in –um. They’re neuter as well:

muzeum – museum
forum – forum
liceum – high school.

You can read more about them here.

If you’ve made it so far,

you should have a rather clear picture of how to distinguish noun genders in Polish. With this knowledge, you can happily start pointing to things and referring to them as either on (he), ona (she) or ono (it). You also know which form of the pronoun this to use: ten (m.), ta (f.), or to (n.).

Is there anything else you need to know? Actually, yes. So far we’ve only been concerned with singular forms of nouns. In the plural, however, things get a bit more complicated: suddenly, you have to use a completely different pronoun to refer to these men and these tables, for example – but we’ll have a look at that some other time!

Some notes on the use of personal pronouns:

On and ona, meaning he and she respectively, can refer to all kinds of nouns, not only people. It depends on the gender of the noun: masculine nouns are referred to as on, and feminine nouns as ona. Ono refers to neuter nouns. It’s the same principle as in, for example, German: every noun has a gender (even though there’s nothing inherent in a potato that makes it masculine) and has to be referred to with the appropriate personal pronun.

Oni (they) refers to a group of people including at least one male. If the group consists of a dozen women and one man, you’ll still have to use oni to talk about them. Which sucks from the feminist point of view.

One (they) refers either to a group of people consisting exclusively of females, or to a group of inanimate beings. Which sucks even more when you realize women are put in the same category as things and stuff.

As an indirect object – when someone is a beneficiary of your action

Czytam dziecku książkę.
I’m reading a book to the child.
Opowiadam historię kobiecie.
I’m telling the story to the woman.
Daję kotu tabletkę.
I’m giving a pill to the cat.
Sprzedaję narkotyki małym dzieciom.
I sell drugs to small children.

With certain verbs

podobać się – to be pleasing to someone, to be liked (cf. Spanish gustar)
Sukienka podoba się kobiecie.
The woman likes the dress.
Piosenka podoba się chłopcu.
The boy likes the song.

przyglądać się – to look at carefully, to watch
Przyglądam się ptakom.
I’m watching the birds.
Nie przyglądaj się kotu!
Don’t watch the cat!

przeszkadzać – to disturb
Nie przeszkadzaj rodzicom!
Don’t disturb your parents!
Kotu nie przeszkadza głośna muzyka.
Loud music doesn’t disturb the cat.

ufać – to trust
Nie ufam kotom.
I don’t trust cats.
Czy ufasz politykom?
Do you trust politicians?

pomagać – to help
Pomagam babci złapać kota.
I’m helping grandma catch the cat.
Pomóż dziecku!
Help the child!

With certain prepositions

dzięki – thanks to
Dzięki twojej pomocy znalazłem pracę.
Thanks to your help I found a job.
Dzięki ciepłemu klimatowi możemy tu uprawiać kukurydzę.
Thanks to the warm climate we can grow corn here.

ku – towards
Wzniósł oczy ku niebu.
He turned his eyes towards the sky.
Kobieta szła ku domowi.
The woman walked towards home.

przeciw – against
Napisała krótki artykuł przeciw aborcji.
She wrote a short article against abortion.
Polityk był przeciw nowej reformie.
The politician was against the new reform.

That’s why I’ve decided to embark on this little quest to describe the use of cases. We’ll start today by looking at the genitive.

Units of measure

kawałek chleba
a piece of bread
butelka wody
a bottle of water
pół roku
half a year

Possession and belonging

zabawka chłopca
the boy’s toy
oczy kobiety
the woman’s eyes
ogon kota
the cat’s tail

Direct object in negative sentences

Nie czytam tej książki.
I’m not reading this book.
Nie mam przyjaciół.
I don’t have friends.
Nie lubimy kawy.
We don’t like coffee.
Nie otwieram drzwi.
I’m not opening the door.

With certain verbs

(Note that the genitive is used both in negative and positive sentences)

bać się – to be afraid of
Boimy się burzy.
We’re afraid of the storm.
Nie bój się psa.
Don’t be afraid of the dog.

potrzebować – to need
Potrzebuję pomocy.
I need help.
Nie potrzebujemy pieniędzy.
We don’t need money.

nienawidzić – to hate
Nienawidzę gramatyki.
I hate grammar.
Nienawidzimy długich lekcji.
We hate long lessons.

uczyć się – to learn, to study
Uczę się polskiego.
I’m learning Polish.
Nie uczymy się innych języków.
We don’t study other languages.

słuchać – to listen
Słuchamy muzyki.
We listen to music.
Słucham wykładu.
I’m listening to the lecture.

szukać – to search, to look for
Szukam nowej pracy.
I’m searching for a new job.
Szukamy przyjaciół.
We’re looking for friends.

After certain prepositions

bez – without
kawa bez mleka
coffee without milk
herbata bez cukru
tea without sugar
dziecko bez matki
a child without a mother
mężczyzna bez nogi
a man without a leg

z – from, out of
Jestem z Polski.
I’m from Poland.
Mój brat wrócił z Warszawy.
My brother came back from Warsaw.
Stół zrobiony jest z drewna.
The table is made out of wood.

With numbers 5 and above

pięć kobiet
five women
sześć ptaków
six birds
sto lat
a hundred years
dwieście książek
two hundred books

What do these words have in common? For one thing, they’re easy to recognize because of their –um ending. Even though the list isn’t comprehensive, you shouldn’t have problems recognizing new words of this type when you see them.

Secondly, all of them follow the same easy pattern for building the nominative plural form: the ending changes from –um to –a. Here’s how the other case forms are created, on the example of the word liceum – high school.

Nom. licea
Gen. liceów
Dat. liceom
Acc. licea
Ins. liceami
Loc. liceach
Voc. licea!

akwarium – aquarium
W klasie są dwa duże akwaria.
In the classroom there are two big aquaria.
Przyglądam się tym akwariom.
I watch these aquaria.

centrum – centre
Centra dużych miast są często niebezpieczne.
Centres of big cities are often dangerous.
Zwiedzamy centra europejskich stolic.
We visit the centres of European capitals.

gimnazjum – junior high school (grades 7-9)
W tym mieście są trzy gimnazja.
There are three junior highs in this city.
Ci chłopcy chodzą do różnych gimnazjów.
These boys go to different junior highs.

hospicjum – hospice
Hospicja opiekują się nieuleczalnie chorymi.
Hospices take care of the terminally ill.
Wiele hospicjów ma problemy finansowe.
Many hospices have financial problems.

kolokwium – test or exam in a university course
W tym tygodniu mamy dwa kolokwia.
We have two tests this week.
Ci studenci rozmawiają o kolokwiach i egzaminach.
These students are talking about tests and exams.

liceum – high school (grades 10-12)
Moje dzieci chodzą do dobrych liceów.
My children go to good high schools.
Przestępczość w liceach jest niepokojąca.
Violence in high schools is worrying.

muzeum – museum
Piszę artykuł o nowych muzeach w moim mieście.
I’m writing an article about new museums in my city.
Nie lubię muzeów.
I don’t like museums.

technikum – vocational high school
Te technika kształcą przyszłych elektryków.
These vocational schools educate future electricians.
Uczniowie którzy nie chcą uczyć się w liceach idą do techników.
The students who don’t want to study in high schools go to vocational schools.