Dopełniacz liczba pojedyncza (Genitive declension of single nouns in Polish)

polskieserce:


Like most of Polish grammar, dopełniacz is a pain, but my book does a pretty good job of describing it so I’m just going to translate it to share with others.  Maybe I’ll make a plural form at some point, but this is already long on its own.


Masculine nouns have the endings of either -a or -u.


Use -a for:


  • Living things

  • Months

  • Tools and containers

  • Parts of the body

  • Names of Polish cities

  • Diminutives that end in -ek and -ik/-yk

  • Words that end in -ak and -nik in the nominative declension

Use -u for:


  • Abstract things

  • Collective nouns (forest is an example)

  • Objects of transportation

  • Names of nonpolish cities

  • Words that end in -ek and -izm/-yzm in the nominative declension

Feminine nouns have then endings of either -y or -i.


Use -y for:


  • The majority of feminine nouns you encounter

Use -i for:


  • Nouns that end in soft consonants

  • Nouns that end in k or g

  • Nouns that end in -ja

  • Nouns that end in -cja. -sja, and -zja (make sure to keep the j in these cases i.e. kolacji)

Neuter nouns always end in -a in dopełniacz.


Disclaimer:  There are always, always exceptions to the rules.  I just wanted to share a resource that I thought would be helpful to others.  Most of the time, I just play this declension by ear so with practice, it should become easy/almost natural c:


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