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Polish morphology


The morphology of the Polish language is characterised by a fairly regular system of inflection (conjugation and declension) as well as word formation. Certain regular or common alternations apply across the Polish morphological system, affecting word formation and inflection of various parts of speech. These are described below, mostly with reference to the orthographic rather than the phonological system, for clarity.

Declensions are generally divided into hard and soft declensions. Soft declensions are used when the stem of the noun ends in a soft (postalveolar or palatal-like) consonant in all forms, while hard declensions are used by nouns with stems ending in a hard consonant in some (but not necessarily all) forms.

Some nouns follow the adjectival declension (see below), particularly if they are masculine nouns ending in -y/i. This applies even to some words with no apparent adjectival connection, such as Jerzy ("George"). Certain neuter nouns, mostly place names such as Zakopane and voivodeship names such as Wielkopolskie when used alone as nouns, follow the adjectival declension but take -em rather than -ym in the instrumental and locative.

The following generalisations can be made for the inflection of all nouns:

Masculine nouns typically end in a consonant, these are the hard and soft masculine "o-stem" nouns. Masculine nouns ending in -a (usually personal) follow the feminine a-stem declension in the singular, and the masculine o-stem declension in the plural. The same applies to male personal names in -o (as Kościuszko), although familiar first name forms like Franio follow the masculine declension throughout.

The following table shows the masculine o-stem declension for inanimate masculine nouns:

Animate and personal nouns differ from the above in the following ways:

Note also:

Feminine nouns usually end in -a, although a few end in -i. These are the "a-stem" nouns. A number of feminine nouns ends in a soft or hardened consonant; these are "i-stem" nouns.


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