Level: Beginners (A1/A2)
Category: Polish Cases
Genitive Case in Polish (Dopełniacz) Table of contents
Genitive Case in Polish Language: Introduction
The Genitive case is a very important and widely used case in the Polish language. Make sure you learn the Genitive case!
When to use Genitive case
- To show possession/ownership (czyje to jest? - whose is this?). Similar to how (in English) we use 's (It is John's hat).
- For 'parts' of things - To say things like "a piece of cake" or "an episode of a tv show"
- For negation/to negate the verb. If you use a verb that uses the Accusative case (e.g. lubić/to like), but make it negative (e.g. nię lubię = I don't like), then you should use genitive.
- When comparing things - for example after 'better than' lepsza od you use genitive
- With certain prepositions (and with where from/where to? skąd/dokąd?)- see the list of prepositions that use genitive below!
- With containers or measurements (e.g. 'a cup of coffee' (coffee would be in genitive), 'a litre of water' (water would be genitive)). For details - see our page on containers, quantities and measurements in Polish to understand how to use the genitive case here. In English we say 'xxx of xxx' (a cup of coffee). In Polish it uses the genitive case instead of the word 'of'
- If there are two nouns in a row, the 2nd noun will (normally!) be in genitive.
- Also see the list of verbs below
Polish prepositions that use the Genitive case
| Polish | English |
|---|---|
| bez | without |
| blisko | near or close to |
| dla | for |
| do | to |
| koło | by, close to |
| naokoło | around |
| naprzeciw | in front of |
| naprzeciwko | in front of or opposite |
| obok | by, next to |
| od | from |
| około | about (or at around the same area) |
| oprócz | except |
| podczas | during |
| prócz | except |
| spod | from under |
| u | at |
| według | acccording to |
| wśród | between or in between |
| z | off, from] * |
| zamiast | instead of |
| znad | from above |
* "z" (=from) is a tricky one! It can also mean 'with' (and is commonly used to mean that), but when it means 'with' it is used with the Instrumental case
Verbs that use the Genitive case
| Polish | English meaning |
|---|---|
| bać się | to be afraid/be afraid of |
| brakować / braknąć | to be insufficient or to be missing |
| bronić | defend |
| chcieć | to want |
| dokonać | to achieve |
| domagać się | to demand |
| dotknąć | to touch |
| dotyczyć | to apply to |
| doznawać | to experience or to feel |
| nienawidzić | to hate |
| oczekiwać | to wait for |
| odmawiać | to refuse |
| odmówić | to refuse |
| potrzebować | to need |
| pragnąć | to desire |
| spróbować | to try |
| szukać | search/look for |
| słuchać | listen |
| uczyć się | to learn or study |
| unikać | to avoid |
| używać | use |
| użyć | to use |
| wstydzić się | to be embarrassed |
| wymagać | to demand |
| zapomnieć | forget |
| zazdrościć | to envy |
| żałować | to regret |
| życzyć | to wish |
Noun/adjective conjugation for Genitive
Singular genitive conjugation
| Alive | Not alive | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Adjective | -ego | |
| Noun | -a | -a, -u | |
| Feminine | Adjective | -ej | |
| Noun | -y
sometimes -i after words that end in -k or -y
|
||
| Neutral | Adjective | -ego | |
| Noun | -a | ||
Plural genitive conjugation
(of course, there are exceptions but this is the general rule)
Adjectives (plural) genitive: always end in -ych (or -ich if the word ended in k or g)
Nouns (plural) genitive:
- Masculine plural genitive nouns: most end in -ów
- A few special cases or exceptions to this -ów rule:
- words ending in sz, cz, dz, dż, ź, rz or c: -y
- Words ending in ś, ć, ź, dź, ń, l, j: -i
- If a masc word ends in -ek, then remove the 'e' before adding the -ów
- A few special cases or exceptions to this -ów rule:
- Genitive Feminine nouns (plural):
- Most feminine nouns in genitive case have no endings. E.g. gazeta (newspaper, singular, nominative) turns into gazet (newspapers, plural, genitive). Remove the final a. This is similar to the neutral genitive plural rules.
- If it ends in -ka or -ta, then take off the final a then add an "e" before the k. For example sardynka changes to sardynek
- If it doesn't end in -ka then just remove the final a (for example piwa changes to piw)
- Genitive Neutral (rodzaj nijaki) nouns (plural)
- Most neuter nouns just drop the final letter - e.g. piwo (beer, nominative, singular) turns into piw (beers, genitive, plural)
- If it ends in -ko or -ło, then take off the final o and then add "e" before the k. (similar rule as the feminine noun)
- If the word is based on a foreign word and ends with -um (e.g. muzeum) then it takes -ów ending (e.g. muzeów)
- Words ending with -ę should be replaced with -ą then add t to the end of it. (e.g. zwierzę (animal, Nominative case) turns into zwierząt (animals, Genitive)
Useful references
Month names in Genitive
It is useful to know the month names in genitive case. Please see how to write dates in polish for a list of month names in the genitive case.