Grammar - Locative Case Nouns
It's time to move on to our next case (the fifth out of seven) - Locative. As the name suggests this is all about when we talk about the location of someone or something.
Noun endings in this case do follow rules but there are nearly as many rules as there are words! Let's take a look.
- I am in the car - Jestem w samochodzie
- I am in the house / at home - Jestem w domu
- I am at work - Jestem w pracy
- I am in the supermarket - Jestem w supermarkecie
We can think about the Locative case as the one where the aim is to 'soften' the endings of the noun. We'll see the 'ie' ending is common here but not always.
The best approach is, to start with, to learn these words as separate vocabulary. 'Supermarkecie ' is 'supermarket' when we are using the Locative case.
This is because many words have major changes in order to soften the endings.
- I am town (miasto) - Jestem w mieście
- I am in the chemist / drug store (apteka) - Jestem w aptece
- He is in the bathroom (łazienka) - On jest w łazience
There are only about a couple of dozen places where you or things usually are so start by learning those as indivdiual words and they will cover 90% of your langauage needs. Look out for words that you know but which have a softened ending and see if you can spot the reason they are in the Locative case.
Heads up!
Evesdrop on people when they answer their phones. Most often the first thing they will tell the other person is where they are! Like these.
- I'm on the bus - Jestem w autobusie
- I'm on the train - Jestem w pociągu
Try and use them yourself. Whenever you are somewhere use Google translate to look up "I'm in [the place you are in]" to see these soft endings.
'W' .... again?
One thing you may have noticed is that we came across 'w' before.
- On Friday I'm going to the supermarket - W ten piątek idę do supermarketu
- I'm in the supermarket - Jestem w supermarkecie
There is a set of small words that can take different meanings depending on the context. So yes, 'w' can mean 'on' (when talking about days) and it can mean 'in' when talking about locations.
The locative case and nouns
Sort these nouns 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
Match the Nominative and Locative pairs of nouns
Tap on each pair to make them disappear.
Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
Think out the Polish
Practice the 'to' form of verbs with these handy phrases. Remember when to get 'bounced' into the Genetive case by 'do'.
Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise
I am in the car | |
I am in the house / at home | |
I am at work | |
I am in the supermarket | |
I am in town | |
I am in the chemist / drug store | |
He is in the bathroom | |
I am on the bus | |
I am on the train | |
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
Locative nouns
Tick all the nouns which are in the Locative form
Tick all of the boxes you believe are correct