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półtora/półtorej - do they decline?


stelingo 5 | 14  
19 Jan 2008 /  #1
Do these 2 numbers decline? For example if I want to say About 1 and a half milion people live in this town would it be correct to say:

W tym mieście mieszka około półtora miliona mieszkańców.
marlak - | 2  
20 Jan 2008 /  #2
Yes, your sentence is correct.
"półtora" is used for the masculine gender and "półtorej" for the feminine gender.
In your example you have "mieszkańców" - this is the masculine gender thus "półtora" is the correct form.
OP stelingo 5 | 14  
20 Jan 2008 /  #3
So after the preposition około the word półtora doesn't change. For example if I had said dwa miliona I would have to change dwa to dwóch I think? (genetive case after około)
RJ_cdn - | 267  
20 Jan 2008 /  #4
około dwóch milionów
Krzysztof 2 | 973  
21 Jan 2008 /  #5
Anyway, the incorrect use of "półtorej" (also for masculine nouns) is one of the very annoying (for my ear) mistakes made by Polish native speakers, quite common in recent years.

I guess it comes from the fact that the most common combination used is "półtorej godziny" (1 and a half hour), so people hearing it quite often automatically relate the form "półtorej" to all nouns.

So, don't be surprised if you hear/read Polish people saying/writing "półtorej roku" etc.

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