Duolingo Polish Grammar: Chapter VIII. - Adjectives 1: Gender - Case - The Accusative - The Instrumental - .

D. Chapter VII. ↔︎ Chapter IX.

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Polish Grammar: Chapter VIII.

Adiectives 1

Tips and notes.

• Gli aggettivi hanno in polacco tre generi: maschile, femminile e neutro. Al nominativo singolare hanno le seguenti desinenze:
- maschile: -y (ładny, młody, stary, wesoły);
- - dopo le consonanti k, g: -i (brzydki, niski, wysoki);
- femminile: -a (ładna, młoda , stara, brzydka, wysoka);
- neutro: -e (ładne, młode). 
- - Dopo k e g, prima della desinenza -e si inserisce una i (brzydkie, wysokie).
• L'aggettivo puó avere sia funzione di attributo, ad es. ten wysoki pomnik (que! monumento alto), ta sympatyczna pani (quella simpatica signora), sia di predicato, ad es. ten pomnik jest wysoki (quel monumento è alto), ta pani jest sympatyczna (quella signora è simpatica).

Adjectives: Gender

Polish adjectives appear before the noun they modify. There are very few exceptions to this (things like names of animal species etc.)
Just like nouns, adjectives have different gender forms. The gender of an adjective depends on the noun that goes after it.
So if you want to use the adjective mały (little) to describe the feminine noun girl (dziewczynka), you have to use the feminine form of the adjective – mała – to form the phrase mała dziewczynka.
The table below contains the singular gender forms of some simple adjectives:

Adjective	masculine	feminine	neuter
mały (small)	mały	mała	małe
dobry (good)	dobry	dobra	dobre
stary (old)	stary	stara	stare
wielki (huge)	wielki	wielka	wielkie

Luckily, there is a clear pattern there. Most masculine adjectives take the -y ending (some take -i). Feminine adjectives take the -a ending. Finally, the neuter ending is -e (sometimes -ie).
Learning the adjective endings can sometimes help you take advantage of their regularity. For example, if you forget the gender of the noun mysz, but then see it together with an adjective ending with -a, you can safely assume that the noun is feminine.

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Adjectives: Case

This would be suspiciously easy, if it was not for another feature adjectives share with nouns: case. Once again, the case of an adjective agrees with the noun that follows it.
The table above has taught you the adjective endings in the most basic case – the Nominative. Now, let's examine the other two cases that you have already encountered when learning about nouns: the Accusative and the Instrumental.
Note that not all of the forms below are used in this skill – some are going to appear a bit later. This is to allow you to focus on learning the general rules, instead of cramming too many individual forms.

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Adjectives: The Accusative

Adjective	masculine + Accusative	feminine + Accusative	neuter + Accusative
mały (small)	mały / małego	małą	małe
dobry (good)	dobry / dobrego	dobrą	dobre
stary (old)	stary / starego	starą	stare
wielki (huge)	wielki / wielkiego	wielką	wielkie

Seems a bit complicated. To make things clearer, let's take a look at some examples:

• Piję dobre wino (I am drinking good wine)

Wino is a neuter noun. In this sentence it is the object of piję, so it appears in the Accusative form. Therefore, the adjective dobry assumes the Accusative neuter form – dobre.

• Piję dobrą herbatę (I am drinking good tea)

The situation is pretty much the same, but the noun is feminine, so we need the feminine Accusative form – dobrą.

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Masculine adjectives have two forms – the first one (-y) is used to modify inanimate masculine nouns, while the other one (-ego) usually goes with animate masculine nouns.

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Adjectives: The Instrumental

Adjective	masculine + Instrumental	feminine + Instrumental	neuter + Instrumental
mały (small)	małym	małą	małym
dobry (good)	dobrym	dobrą	dobrym
stary (old)	starym	starą	starym
wielki (huge)	wielkim	wielką	wielkim

Again, let's consider some examples:

• Jestem małym chłopcem (I am a little boy)

Chłopiec is a masculine noun. Here it is the object of jestem, so it takes the Instrumental form. Therefore, the adjective mały assumes the Instrumental masculine form – małym.

• Jestem małą dziewczynką (I am a small girl)

Just as above, but this time the noun is feminine, so we need the feminine Instrumental form – małą.