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

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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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Maybe saying that there are as many date-writing conventions as countries in the world is a bold exaggeration, but it’s not that far from the truth. The Polish way of writing dates isn’t very different from how it’s done in the English-speaking world, but you might want to pay attention to some important details – that is, if you really want to be fully correct. Not that all native speakers are, of course…

First of all, looking at Polish dates, you might have noticed the lonely r. that often appears after the year: 13.12.1987 r. It’s an abbreviation of the word rok, meaning year. If you’re reading this aloud, though, you have to put this word in the Genitive case: roku. And yeah, there’s a full stop after the r. Don’t omit it.

Is this r. compulsory? No, but it’s very common, and many people put it there out of habit.

Secondly, brush up on your Roman numerals, as they are often used to write the month. For example, the previous example can be written as 13 XII 1987 r. Again, this is mostly a matter of habit – I got used to it in school, for example – not something you have to do. This convention is very useful, though, since it obviates any ambiguity that can emerge if both the day and the month are written with Arabic numerals.

Thirdly, remember the punctuation – this is where many people make mistakes. You probably noticed the difference in the examples above. If you write everything with Arabic numerals, you put full stops after the day and the month. You don’t put them there if you’re using a Roman numeral (apart from the full stop after the r. of course).

Finally, if you’re familiar with the Polish months and their declination, you can write out the month. Why do I mention declination? Because you have to put the month in the Genitive case. As for the punctuation, you don’t use full stops here either. For example:

10 stycznia 1999 r.
10 I 1999 r.
10.1.1999 r.

1 października 2004 r.
1 X 2004 r.
1.10.2004 r.

Polish is special among European languages in that it doesn’t use the Latinate names for months you’re already familiar with from English and many other languages, such as German, Spanish, Russian, etc. The Polish month names are, well, typically Polish – they originated from natural phenomenons. The word for July, for example – lipiec – comes from the name for the linden tree, lipa, as this is the period when lindens are in bloom.

So, since the Polish month names are so special, there’s no choice but to learn them! Here are they listed both in their basic, Nominative singular, form, as well as in the Locative singular, which is the case you use to talk about in which month something took place. At the same time you can get familiar with ordinal numbers from one to twelve.

styczeń – January
Styczeń to pierwszy miesiąc roku.
January is the first month of the year.
W styczniu często pada śnieg.
It often snows in January.

luty – February
Luty to drugi miesiąc roku.
February is the second month of the year.
W lutym jest bardzo zimno.
It’s very cold in February.

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