Polish Grammar - Accusative Case - Masculine, Animate
In the previous lesson we saw how to work out if we are in the Accusitive case and how that affected word endings when using feminine nouns. Word endings also change in this case if the noun is masculine and 'animate'
We already know how to identify masculine nouns but what do we mean by 'animate'?
Basically it means anything that is 'alive'. So masculine animate nouns would include:
- a male doctor (lekarz)
- a male actor (aktor)
- a male cat (kot)
This group of nouns has spilled over to include some things which are quite 'animated' but not 'alive', the most common of which are 'laptop' and 'smartfon'
In the Accusative case we make the following changes if the noun is masculine and animate
- Adjective ending - changes from 'y' to 'ego' - dobry -> dobrego
- Noun ending - add an 'a' - kot -> kota
A good (male) cat - Dobry kot
I have a good (male) cat - Mam dobrego kota
We will see this 'ego' ending more and more as we move deeper into the Polish language and it is always associated with masculine. As a mental hook ask "who usually has the bigger 'ego'?" - Men!.
A word about our cat ...
When we don't know the gender of the noun we use masculine. For example:
"Czy masz dobrego kota?"
Here we don't know if the person has a good male or female cat (or no cat at all) so we use the masculine gender. We're using the Accusitive case because 'masz' means we are after a verb that is being used positively.
We can add this rule to our table as follows:
Adjectives and Cases
The adjectives below are all in masculine form. Sort them into their correct cases.
Drag and drop all the dark blue boxes to their correct locations
Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
Think out the Polish
The Polish for a male doctor is 'lekarz'. Practice changing the endings of nouns and adjectives to the Accusative case by translating the sentences below.
Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
I have a professional doctor | |
You have an normal doctor | |
I like a natural doctor | |
You like a conventional doctor | |
Transfer Nominative nouns to Accusitive
In the following exercise you'll change nominative nouns to the accusitve case even though you probably do not know most of the words.
The nominative case of the noun is shown beside the text input box in brackets. Write the full sentence using the Accusative case.
For example, the first sentence is 'I have an actor'. The Polish for 'actor' is 'aktor' so the correct answer is 'Mam aktora'Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
I have an actor | (aktor)
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You have a (male) cat | |
Do you have a (male) plumber? | (hydraulik)
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I have a lawyer | (prawnik)
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Do you have a (male) painter? | (malarz)
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I have a (male) artist | (artyst)
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I have a (male) cook | (kucharz)
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Do you have a (male) electrician? | (elektryk)
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Do you have a boyfriend? | (chłopak)
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I have a laptop | (laptop)
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She wants a smartphone | Ona chce smartfona (smartfon)
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Transfer Nominative adjectives and nouns to Accusitive
In the following exercise you'll change nominative adjectives and nouns to the accusitve case even though you probably do not know most of the words.
The nominative case of the adjective and noun is shown beside the text input box in brackets. Write the full sentence using the Accusative case.
For example, the first sentence is 'I like a natural actor'. The Polish for 'actor' is 'aktor' as shown in brackets so the correct answer is 'Lubię naturalnego aktora'Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
I like a natural actor | (aktor)
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You have a fantastic boyfriend | (chłopak)
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She has a fantastic smartphone | (smartfon)
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Do you have a good boyfriend? | (chłopak)
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He has a problematic laptop | (laptop)
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Do you have a good (male) electrician? | (elektryk)
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I have a conventional lawyer | (prawnik)
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She wants a romantic boyfriend | (chłopak)
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You have a good (male) cat | (kot)
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Do you have a professional (male) plumber? | (hydraulik)
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You have a fantastic boyfriend | (chłopak)
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I have an emotional (male) cook | (kucharz)
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Do you have a good (male) painter? | (malarz)
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I like an emotional (male) artist | (artyst)
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I want an idealogical lawyer | (prawnik)
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I have an emotional boyfiend | (chłopak)
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She wants a good smartphone | (smartfon)
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Transfer Accustaive nouns back to Nominative
In the following exercise you'll see some sentences in both English and Polish. You need to spot the noun and reverse it back into the Nominative case.
For example, the first sentence is 'Mam dobrego chłopaka'. A noun is 'the thing so it is 'chłopaka'. We need to remove the 'a' ending caused by a noun coming after a verb so the correct answer is 'chłopak'
Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
I have a good boyfriend | Mam dobrego chłopaka
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She has an emotional cat | Ona ma emocjonalnego kota
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He wants a conventional lawyer | On chce konwencjonalnego prawnika
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He has a fantastic smartphone | On ma fantastycznego smartfona
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Do you have a good plumber? | Czy masz dobrego hydraulika
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She has a problematic laptop | Ona ma problematycznego laptopa
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Does she have a good painter? | Czy ona ma dobrego malarza?
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She wants a pragmatic artist | Ona chce pragmatycznego artysta
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I want a professional electrician | Chcę profesjonalnego elektryka
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She wants a professional cook | Ona chce profesjonalnego kucharza
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Refresher
Revise earlier words and phrases to keep them fresh! Match the Polish and Engish below
Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
Nouns
Tick all of the adjectives which are masculine animate
Tick all of the boxes you believe are correct