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

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As we saw in the previous post, small words can be problematic and ambiguous – and at the same time interesting! Today we’ll have a look at another one – czy. It has more than one use, and because it fulfills important functions, it’s very common and you can see it in different contexts. Let’s start with what I think is the easiest – and most imporant – one.

Yes/no questions

Transforming statement into yes/no questions is a piece of cake. You take your sentence, stick a czy in the beginning, a question mark in the end and you’re done. No troublesome changes in the word order, weird auxilary verbs and other nightmares of English learners!

Ta książka jest bardzo droga.
This book is very expensive.

Czy ta książka jest bardzo droga?
Is this book very expensive?

Anna lubi wszystkie koty.
Anna likes all cats.

Czy Anna lubi wszystkie koty?
Does Anna like all cats?

Twoje dzieci jedzą dużo czekolady.
Your children eat a lot of chocolate.

Czy twoje dzieci jedzą dużo czekolady?
Do your children eat a lot of chocolate?

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I remember that when I started learning English, I had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that two Polish words that I perceived as quite different, i and a, had just one English equivalent: “and.” I guess if you’re doing it the other way round, looking up “and” in an English-Polish dictionary, you might get a bit confused, as the two words are used in different situations. What are the main differences?

i

The very basic word for “and.” You stick it between two words that go together:

Mama i tata siedzą w ogrodzie.
Mom and dad are sitting in the garden.

Tekst jest długi i nudny.
The text is long and boring.

Lubię gramatykę i ortografię.
I like grammar and orthography.

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We’ll have a look at cardinal numbers today, from 0 to 1000. I guess many of you will find the very look of the numerals intimidating, with all the dz and sz sounds, so there are audio files accompanying every section. You can listen and decide for yourself if they’re really so scary!

Let’s start with the basic numerals. Make sure you have them memorized before you move on:

0 zero
1 jeden
2 dwa
3 trzy
4 cztery
5 pięć
6 sześć
7 siedem
8 osiem
9 dziewięć
10 dziesięć

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(as well as one H)

The six interrogative adverbs who, what, when, where, why and how are crucial for asking questions. Their Polish equivalents might not be easy to learn since, unlike in English, they don’t even start with the same letter – but on the other hand, they’re very common, so you shouldn’t have problems getting used to them. They’re small, useful words, so go through this list and check if you know them all:

Kto – Who?
Kto to jest?
Who’s this?
Kto to powiedział?
Who said this?
Kto napisał ten artykuł?
Who wrote this article?

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