Dwa vs. dwie in Polish

Can someone tell me the differences between dwa and dwie? Like when to use either...I always get confused when saying two in Polish because of them.

dwa - masculine/neuter
dwie - feminine (usually nouns ending with -a)

somebody correct me if this is wrong

dwa jaja
dwie piersi
dwa cyce
dwa huje

that should help me remeber. :)

What about "dwoje" - I think it's also correct:

dwoje piersi

No that is not right. The word 'willy' is spelled chuj. It is the same word in Russian too.

LOL correctly! :D


"dwie piersi" sounds much better


Right :)

Also remember that there are other forms for such as the special nominative form for for men which is obaj, dwaj, trzej, and czterej.


It is a naughty word and a nice girl like you is not supposed to know about such things.

Michal, dont make it too complicated:D


awwwww sweet:D
ok, so what does it mean "chuj"? Oo

The trouble is that after all these years I have become so lazy myself and I know of these things when asked but probably never use them myself anymore. At home, talking with the wife, I can get away with almost anything. My wife catches me out as I will even say "ja do garazu" without bothering with any verb such as ide at all and she says "juz mowisz jak amerykanin". I will have to do a refresher course in Polish grammar when I get time.


I have already written about it above the word simply means a fresh carrot.

dwie - all feminine nouns (animate and objects)
dwie kobiety - two women
dwie dziewczynki - two girls
dwie ulice - two streets

dwa - masculin/neuter nouns (non-animate, or more precisely non-human, i.e. objects, ideas, animals etc.)
dwa dni / dwa psy - two days / two dogs (dzień / pies is masculin)
dwa okna - two widnows (okno is neuter)

dwaj - masculin nouns (human)
dwaj mężczyźni - two men
dwaj chłopcy - two boys
there's also an equivalent form with the word "dwóch" and it requires Genitive case, so
dwóch mężczyzn = dwaj mężczyźni - two men
dwóch chłopców = dwaj chłopcy - two boys

dwoje - neuter nouns (human) OR a mix of a man and woman
and it requires Genitive case
dwoje dzieci - two kids
dwoje studentów - two students (one male, other female)
while dwaj studenci/dwóch studentów - means both students are male

if Genitive case is required, then we use the verb in SINGULAR form:

dwaj studenci jadą do Barcelony (two students go to Barcelona), BUT
dwóch/dwoje studentów jedzie do Barcelony

same rules apply for:
trzy/cztery (dwie/dwa), trzej/czterej (dwaj) troje/czworo (dwoje), trzech/czterech (dwóch)

some irregularities:
dwoje drzwi/skrzypiec/spodni - two doors/violins/two (pairs) of trousers (should be dwa, but all those nouns in Polish are Pluralia Tantum, i.e. they exist only in Plural form - like English scissors, trousers, I think - hence they require a special treatment to underline they plurality)

special expressions:
trojga imion (of three names), dwojga nazwisk (of two surnames) - regulary it should trzech/dwóch (non-human nouns), but it's an older way of saying, which survived

"both" is translated into Polish:
obie (rules like for "dwie")
obaj (rules like for "dwaj")
oboje (rules like for "dwoje")

and some more forms with Genetive case, but I rest my case here, too much grammar for one time :)

With verbs if I remember rightly
piec kobiet czyta, pieciu panow jedzie ku Warszawie, dwoch braci jeszcze chodzi do szkoly

what't that? the fifties?

We still address letters to Poland as ku Polsce here in England.

what? how old are you? this is a dead and rotten form, never used. maybe somewhere in small villages next to the eastern border, where the language has got Russian influence and schooling sucks ass, but no fking way, noone speaks like that these days! not in Poland, they don't.

There is nothing wrong with the Russian influence. Polish is a simplified form of Russian after all!

Are you serious or just trolling for the heck of it?
By the way, the "ku Warszawie" form in the sense of "to Warsaw" is totally incorrect, and never was correct for that matter. "Do Warszawy" is the right choice.

The only meaning it would ever have had would be "towards, in the general direction of".
But even that is archaic. Nowadays we would say "w kierunku Warszawy".

never said it was wrong, I've stated a fact


you've just made my day.


i'd agree :)

You can take any choice that you want, ku, w kierunku or simply do but I will not be joining you. Ku takes the dative case. How can the dative case be wrong? The dative is used a lot in the Russian language.

your mistake is not the dative case after "ku" (because it's the correct case), but the fact that noone in Poland (I mean native speakers) would say "jadę ku Warszawie", it's, like pointed out by others, "jadę do Warszawy"

So, if i understand this correctly, i can use eigther one of these and they will mean the same?

Depends on context. Sometimes one form doesnt fit to sentence cuz of grammar stuff and u need to use second one.

Ok, it was just my lasy mind thinking it could skip some grammar lessons, but then i'll stick to it ^^

Ha, sry dude i could explain some rules in polish, in english it wont be job for me ;)

Is it really worth a massive debate after such a little point of grammar? Ja jestem w Albionie i jutro ja pojade ku Polsce or ja jestem w Anglii i jutro pojade pociagiem do Polski. W koncu, wszysko jedno!

yes, although I'm not sure how correct the form "dwóch studentów" is, it's been a while since I left school :)

you can use it alternatively only in the function of a sentence subject (even the Dative case, though normally the subject appears in Nominative case, with some exceptions, for example when the predicate is the verb "brakować")

if you want to use it as other part of the sentence normal rules apply
and remember that the Genitive case (used as sentence subject), requires a verb in SINGULAR form.

Yes, indeed.

The only thing is you must take care when using verbs with the combinations. Dwoch, trzech studentow, that is, plus gen. pl. but dwaj, trzej, czterej plus nom plural, dwaj studenci, trzej panowie

Nie, nie wszystko jedno! ;-)

"Ja jestem w Albionie i jutro ja jadę ku Polsce" is simply not Polish. It's something someone trying to learn Polish might say, but it's definitely not correct, standard Polish.

Your "Polish" sentence has the following errors:
1) personal pronoun 'ja' appears twice even though it's redundant (the form of the verbs carries enough info)
2) Albion - poetic and archaic version, just about as popular in Polish as in English, e.g. in old-time poetry
3) "ku Polsce" has already been discussed. If you go "ku Polsce" this merely means you are moving in its general direction, towards Poland.

If you think such issues are not worth discussing on a forum devoted to Polish grammar and usage, well... what can I say?

There is nothing wrong with the pronoun 'ja' and there is certainly nothing wrong with the dative case either. No, it is not worth disusing further. I am going ku gorze i ide ku lazience!! There are still many people who address their envelopes to Poland at Christmas time, the only time people write and still use the form ku Polsce.


Say nothing, it is really a waste of time and is not getting us anywhere at all. At the end of the day it is all a personal choice what people say and do. Live and let live.

Michal, for a non-native speaker your polish is really pretty good, but I do think it's high time you stopped pretending to be an expert in polish grammar.

In all my life I haven't heard people using the word "ku" in the way you try to convince us it is being used. Sorry mate.