1. Look at the noun in its singular form. 2. Try to pronounce it in a way that's easier to do so. 3. Check the correct version.
Eventually you should get a grasp. It's a bit of a dick advice, but I don't think there's much point in learning the endings of every word. The plural form isn't as irregular as it is in German, anyway.
Anyway ta macierz - te macierze ta klacz - te klacze So I think the endings are -e in both cases. Hard to explain why though.
macierz - matrix; klacz - mare
edit: just re-read your post and realized you gave the example, and not were asking to explain it; silly me.
Just did some research into -cz feminine nouns, I don't think only the last sound matters.
ta klacz - te klacze ta rzecz - te rzeczy ta rozpacz - no plural ta ciecz - te ciecze (I had to check it to be sure, it doesn't appear in plural too often)
Yes, rzeczy and myszy are exceptions. Also for feminine kości and powieści.
I think there is no way that I have to learn plural form for a lot of words and then I will know or I'll feel what to use..
+ Regarding cz and rz I am confused for masc.personal. For feminine the ending is same (-e) but for masc personal different. So I think I just need to learn, not to understand or find the logic.
Would be easier to learn if there is a logic in it..
-neuter nouns replace -e/-o with -a. przedszkole-->przedszkola słowo-->słowa serce-->serca jajko-->jajka
The handful of neuter nouns that end in -ę are irregular, as always. -------------------------------- You're familiar with the division into soft and hard consonants: b, w, f, s, ł, etc. are hard, also ch and h (where did you find that h in feminine nouns enforces Nom.pl. in -e?)
ć, ń, dź, ś, ź, mi, pi, wi, ri, etc. are soft. sz, dz, cz, dż, rz (all digraphs except ch), and also l, j, ż, c are known as functionally soft consonants: technically they're hard, but in declension they act just like soft consonants (so they require -e in Nom.pl.). The only difference is that ć, ń and the other accented consnants alternate with ci, ni, etc., whereas functionally soft consonants don't.
Simple feminine noun treatment: Feminine nouns that end in a soft or functionally soft consonant (or have one just before the final -a) have Nom.pl. in -e. restauracja-->restauracje sala-->sale gałąź-->gałęzie armia-->armie ciecz-->ciecze twarz-->twarze
Otherwise, Nom.pl. ends in -i (after k or g) or -y. droga-->drogi mapa-->mapy
Pitfalls: As noted above, rzecz and mysz are exceptions --> rzeczy, myszy. I can add myśl-->myśli, and brew--> brwi (rather than brwy).
There are also tons of exceptions among nouns ending in -ść, -ć, -dź. odpowiedź-->odpowiedzi wiadomość-->wiadomości kość-->kości postać-->postaci/postacie (both forms exist in contemporary Polish)
You can never really be sure with these endings, what the Nom.pl. is. Beware feminine nouns in -ść, -ć and -dź!
Masculine nouns (not people) As before, soft and functionally soft consonants require -e (very few exceptions, if any). bal-->bale kosz-->kosze garaż-->garaże waleń-->walenie
Other than that, it's -i (if the noun ends in k or g) or -y otherwise. samochód-->samochody żuk-->żuki nerw-->nerwy papieros-->papierosy
Exceptions: nouns in -c end in -y: sportowiec-->sportowcy, cudzoziemiec-->cudzoziemcy, głupiec-->głupcy
Otherwise (hard stems) you get consonant alternations! elektryk-->elektrycy biolog-->biolodzy profesor-->profesorowie most consonants get -i ł would change into l, but can't think of a decent example right now. t would change into ci and d into dzi
Nouns ending in -a get -i or -y with an alternation where appropriate: kierowca-->kierowcy mężczyzna-->mężczyźni (zn, st and some other pairs get softened together) pianista-->pianiści
Pitfall 1: all of the above (on masculine personal nouns) can be thrown away for some nouns which get the ending -owie in Nom.pl. They can't be identified from the Nom.sg. form, you need to know where it happens.
syn-->synopwie (but not syny) ojciec-->ojcowie (not ojce) wróg-->wrogowie (not wrodzy)
Sometimes -owie is optional, e.g. both profesorzy and profesorowie is ok, so is psycholodzy and psychologowie, and wnuk-->wnuki/wnukowie. But you can't stick -owie arbitrarily onto any noun: nauczycielowie would be spectacularly wrong.
Pitfall 2: (small) A few masculine nouns have sneaky soft consonants that don't look soft. This is a historical artifact. Many of them are place names. Three most important ones, to my mind:
gołąb-->gołębie żuraw-->żurawie paw-->pawie
"Wrocław" also belongs to this group, but you don't often use the plural of a city name (which would be Wrocławie). This has implications for the Locative, though: we say "we Wrocławiu", but "w Krakowie" (it's the different ending that is important, ignore the difference between we/w---that's a whole different story).
@Antek_Stalich The plural of "dziecko" is irregular. As is that of "człowiek", "ucho", "oko", "rok", "ksiądz" and a truckload of other nouns. Every rule has its exceptions.
