Polish Grammatical Cases
- Learn Polski
- May 8
- 1 min read
Polish has 7 grammatical cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative). They indicate the function and meaning of nouns and adjectives in a sentence.
Why Polish uses cases ?
Polish uses cases to show a word’s role in a sentence — who is doing what to whom, without relying on word order.
Polish Grammatical Cases
Przypadek | Case | Function | Przykład | Example |
Mianownik | Nominative | Subject of a sentence | Student czyta książkę | A student reads a book |
Dopełniacz | Genitive | Possesion or negation (of accusative) | Nie daję książki studentowi | I don't give a book to a student |
Celownik | Dative | Indirect object (receiver of the direct object) | Daję książkę studentowi | I give a book to a student |
Biernik | Accusative | Direct object (receiver of an action) | Daję książkę studentowi | I give a book to a student |
Narzędnik | Instrumental | Instrument of an action | Jadę samochodem | I'm driving a car |
Miejscownik | Locative | Location | Jestem w samochodzie | I am in the car |
Wołacz | Vocative | Used when directly addressing someone (not used often) | Pani Joanno! | Ms. Joanna! |