Genders (nouns, adjectives, pronouns)
Gender of nouns
In Polish there are three genders (types) of nouns: masculine, feminine and neuter.
They are not natural genders but grammatical ones. This means that we decide what gender a noun is on the basis of the word ending. Underneath we can see a few examples and exceptions:
| Gender | Rules | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | the majority of words: ending in a consonant | dom, pies, nauczyciel, długopis |
| words ending in the letter “a” | mężczyzna, kolega, dentysta, poeta, tata, kierowca | |
| Feminine | the majority of words: ending in the letter “a” | siostra, koleżanka, mama, kawa, kuchnia, lekarka, lampa |
| words ending in the letter “i” | pani, gospodyni | |
| words ending in a consonant | sól, mysz, noc, kość, krew | |
| Neuter | words ending in “o” | dziecko, okno, piwo, wino |
| words ending in “e” | słońce, mieszkanie | |
| words ending in “ę” | imię, cielę | |
| words ending in “um” | centrum, muzeum, liceum |
Adjectives, demonstratives, possessive pronouns, numerals, and verb forms in the past tense have to be in accordance with the gender of the noun/ pronoun.
If we want to substitute a noun with a personal pronoun, masculine ones would be changed into “on”, feminine ones into “ona” and neuter ones into “ono”, e.g.:
To jest dom. On jest mały.
To jest książka. Ona jest nowa.
To jest drzewo. Ono jest wysokie.
Gender of adjectives
| Gender | Rules | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | words end in “y” words end in “i” (if the last consonant in the word is “k” or “g”) | duży, stary wysoki, słodki |
| Feminine | words end in “a” (no matter what the last consonant in the word is) | duża, stara, wysoka, słodka |
| Neuter | words end in “e” words end in “ie” (if the last consonant in the word is “k” or “g”) | duże, stare wysokie, słodkie |
If a noun is masculine, we need to add a masculine ending to the adjective, too. The same rule applies to feminine and neuter adjectives, e.g.:
- masculine: duży dom
- feminine: stara szafa
- neuter: słodkie wino
Gender of demonstratives
The English demonstrative “this” could be translated into Polish as “ten, ta, to” depending on the gender of the noun it precedes. “That” is translated as “tamten, tamta, tamto”.
| Gender | Demonstrative | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | ten tamten | ten pies tamten samochód |
| Feminine | ta tamta | ta kobieta ta praca |
| Neuter | to tamto | to mieszkanie tamto muzeum |
Gender of possessive pronouns
| Gender | Possessive pronoun | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | mój, twój, jego, jej, nasz, wasz, ich | mój kolega, twój samochód, jego dom, jej kot, nasz tata, wasz nauczyciel, ich brat |
| Feminine | moja, twoja, jego, jej, nasza, wasza, ich | moja mama, twoja szkoła, jego siostra, jej kawa, nasza nauczycielka, wasza praca, ich książka |
| Neuter | moje, twoje, jego, jej, nasze, wasze, ich | moje krzesło, twoje auto, jego piwo, jej imię, nasze mieszkanie, wasze radio, ich wino |
The possessive pronouns “jego, jej, ich” are the same for all the genders and don’t change their forms.
Gender of verb forms in the past and future tense
This issue will be discussed in greater detail in the part concerning verbs.