Which case for adjectives?

yup - by introducing some correct but never used forms in our lovely language....

You are right. I will never do it again.

Merged:Moja, moją, moje, mój. Am I using them in the right way?

Can I say "moja" mama.

Can I say "moją" dom.

Can I say "moje" gitara.

Can I say "mój" wakacje.

I never know which one to use in the right place :(

the first one is correct.
the second one would be "mój dom"
the third one "moja gitara"
the fourth one "moje wakacje"

The possessive pronoun should match the gender of the noun.
mój brat (male, ends in a consonant)
moja mama (female, ends in an a)
moje okno (ends in a vowel or in -um, eg centrum)

depending on the case on the noun, the endings will change e.g. (Masz brata? you have a brother) which may confuse you as to which gender a noun is. But it's not too hard.

Lots of examples here...

polishgrammarPolish-Grammar-5Q.php

Watch out for moi rodzice but moje książki in the plural form.

Merged:Applying declensions to English/foreign words

Hi,

I was wondering, let's say that I have a word or name in English, and using it in a Polish conversation, how would I go about declining it to work with the context of the sentence? Specifically in writing, would I need to somehow show that the case ending isn't part of the word? Let me give an example.

If I have a friend named Mike, would saying "To jest Mike'a książka" be correct? Also, is it necessary to throw in that apostraphe to distinguish the case ending, (since two vowels like that next to each other look slightly strange) or is it up to preference?

Thanks in advance!

in general it's ok, although I'd say "to jest ksiazka mike'a". The apostrophy should be used.

A sample of English with Polish declensions:

Boys'y fight'owali sie na sidewalk'u.

"Mike'a książka"

'książka Mike'a' is better. IME the apostrophe is used primarily:

a) between a 'silent e' and the ending (Mike'a, software'u etc) I think it's required in these kinds of words.

b) after a word final -y (Kennedy'ego, Romney'a) I think its more necessary in the second but I could be wrong

Using it after nonce loans (ending in a consonant) happens but isn't necessary and it might be considered incorrect. My idea is that it's definitely incorrect once a loan has become nativized, "ma powera" not "ma power'a".

you can find the rules here (divided in several paragraphs):
so.pwn.pl/zasady.php?id=629617 - Dictionary (Słownik Ortograficzny PWN)

It concentrates on surnames, but for first names you can apply similar rules, just look for the ending similar to the one you need or read the rules for first names:

so.pwn.pl/zasady.php?id=629610

The usage of apostrophe is complicated :)
In male names ending with a consonant there's no problem, Stan - Stana - Stanem etc., unless the finale consonant and the preceding "e" are silent (like in a French name: Jacques - Jacques'a - Jacques'iem etc.)

In case of Mike you will alsways need it (except for the Nominative of course).

To make things more complicated, female surnames have different declension (generally only names and surnames ending in -a are declined):
Spotkałem się z Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (or Spotkałem się z Jacky, but Spotkałem się z Jackiem, if you mean a man named Jack).

but
Spotkałem się z Johnem Fitzgeraldem Kennedym (notice also no apostrophe here, because -ym is a natural ending for Polish, but we'd need it in the Genitive case for example, Johna Kennedy'ego)

Spotkałem się z Arystotelesem Onassisem

Female (sur)names ending in -a, also male (sur)names ending in -a
Spotkałem się z Jane Fondą, córką Henry'ego Fondy
Spotkałem się z Henrym Fondą (no apostrophe in Henrym, because like I said before, -ym ending is typical for Polish declension in the Instrumental case, especially in adjectives, białym, czarnym etc.)

Wow, didn't realize this subject goes much deeper than I assumed, but logically, it does make sense. ;)

Thanks everybody for the very helpful posts! :)

Merged: declension of wszyscy

Hello,

My grammar book only gives one form for each case:
M = wszyscy
D = wszystkich
C = wszystkim
B = wszystkich
N = wszystkimi
M = wszystkich

Isn't there a second form "wszystkie" to be used at mianownik and biernik only, for elements belonging to the "non-person male, female, neuter" category?

Thanks in advance.

You are muddling up two different words - wszyscy and wszystko.

Wszyscy is similar to "everybody, everyone", where as wszystko is similar to "everything".

When you are talking about wszystkie you are talking about wszystko....

Edit - I probably shouldn't have said "two different words" - grammatically it's probably the same root I guess...

Thanks for your reply.

Maybe it's not "wszystkie". It's "wszysce". I believe that I've read it in a text some time ago. But if you confirm there is no second form then you're probably right. I must have been confusing...

Wszyscy is the masculine personal form, and wszystkie is used for everything else (dogs, women, tables, windows, boots, worms, etc.)
wszystkie retains the same form in the accusative.

Aha! So my memory was right :-)

thanks!

No there isn't any Polish word with a form like "wszysce".

There are two different words:
"wszystko" - everything, which is a pronoun (it only inflects through 7 cases)
"wszyscy" - everyone, each and every person, which is an adjective (inflects through 7 cases + genders)

Now "wszyscy" is used with the personal masculine gender (nouns which represent people who are males, groups of people of both genders and groups of people of unknown gender), "wszystkie" is used with all other genders (all other nouns or groups of people which consist only of females)

(


Burn your grammar book :D

Declension of wszyscy:
M: wszyscy (animate masculine) / wszystkie (others)
D: wszystkich (all)
C: wszystkim (all)
B: wszystkich (animate masculine) / wszystkie (others)
N: wszystkimi (all)
Msc: wszystkich (all)

Declension of wszystko:
M: wszystko
D: wszystkiego
C: wszystkiemu
B: wszystko
N: wszystkim
Msc: wszystkim

Note on using wszyscy/wszystkie:
When you use wszyscy/wszystkie you must either say what items do you have on your mind or it must be known from the previous conversation/text.

Also sometimes you can use it when you speak to a group of people (note that in such situation you must decide which gender you use, if you know there aren't any males use "wszystkie" otherwise use "wszyscy".) For example:

Idźcie wszyscy do domu! - (you all) go home!

Hope it helps.