To be or to have?

Mar 28

These are probably the most important verbs in any language: to be and to have, or, in Polish: być and mieć. It’s good to memorize their conjugation in the very beginning of your studies, especially since być is an irregular verb! Here they are, conjugated in the present tense:

  być
to be		 mieć
to have
ja
I		 jestem mam
  Jestem tutaj.
I’m here.		 Mam trzydzieści lat.
I’m thirty years old.
ty
you, singular		 jesteś masz
  Gdzie jesteś?
Where are you?		 Ile masz lat?
How old are you?
on / ona / ono
he / she / it		 jest ma
  Kim ona jest?
Who is she?		 On ma duży dom.
He has a big house.
my
we		 jesteśmy mamy
  Jesteśmy z Polski.
We are from Poland		 Mamy dużo do zrobienia.
We have a lot to do.
wy
you, plural		 jesteście macie
  Skąd jesteście?
Where are you from?		 Co macie w tej torbie?
What do you have in that bag?
oni / one
they		 są mają
  Gdzie oni są?
Where are they?		 One mają dużo planów.
They have a lot of plans.

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Nouns that decline only in the plural

Mar 05

Despite the fact that Polish can inflect pretty much everything – and nouns if nothing else enjoy a particular richness of declination options – there are groups of nouns that behave rather unusually. Today we’ll have a look on one of them – nouns that only decline in the plural. Yes, that’s right – the words in today’s list don’t change their form in the singular, no matter the case you fancy to use them in.

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!

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