Polish/Nouns - Gender

Dialogue Łukasz and Beata are friends who meet on the street and exchange a few quick words. Polish English Beata Cześć Łukasz. Jak się masz? Hi Łukasz. How are you? Łukasz Dobrze. A ty? Well. And you? Beata Nieźle. Not bad. Łukasz Miło Cię zobaczyć ale muszę wracać do domu. Porozmawiamy później. Nice to see you but I must return home. We will talk later. Beata Dobrze. Cześć. Okay. Bye. Dialogue Notes The word cześć means both hi and bye, similar to ciao in Italian. The word dobrze is an adverb and can mean fine, well, or okay. Cię, meaning you, is capitalized out of respect. Oftentimes, when writing to someone, the pronoun you and your will be capitalized. The verb porozmawiamy is not preceded by the pronoun we. Pronouns in Polish are implicit in the verb form and may be dropped just like in Spanish. Grammar I: Greetings and Farewells Different greeting and farewells are used depending on the time of day: dzień dobry greeting used for good morning, good afternoon, and good day dobry wieczór greeting used for good evening dobranoc farewell used for good night The words dobry and dobra mean good and are used for masculine and feminine nouns, respectively. Notice that while dzień dobry and dobry wieczór are written separately, dobranoc is written together. Other farewells include: cześć means both hi and bye very informal; used between friends do widzenia standard way to say goodbye lit. means until seeing do zobaczenia slightly more cordial and warm than do widzenia lit. means until seeing do usłyszenia used when one expects to hear from the other person but not necessarily see them lit. means until hearing żegnaj used when saying goodbye forever or a very long time On the phone: halo - hello słucham standard way of answering the phone lit. means I am listening the two can be combined into halo słucham Exercises Determine the appropriate greeting or farewell in the following cases (Click "▼" to check your answer): saying hello at 7 PM dobry wieczór saying bye at 7 PM dobranoc answering the phone halo, słucham, or halo słucham saying bye to your best friend cześć or do zobaczenia saying bye to your mailman do widzenia Grammar II: Introduction to Nouns Polish nouns can generally be classified into three genders: masculine (m) - męski feminine (f) - żeński neuter (n) - nijaki The gender of a noun can be usually determined by its ending. If the noun ends in -a, it is usually feminine. ulica - street Notable exceptions include the word for man and male occupations mężczyzna (m) – man okulista (m) – eye doctor poeta (m) – poet kierowca (m) – driver If the noun ends in -o, -e, -ę, and -um (of Latin origin), it is usually neuter. okno - window pole - field imię - name muzeum - museum If the noun ends in a consonant, it is usually masculine. kot - cat Notable exceptions include Latin-derived words ending in -um which are neuter, words ending in -ść which are feminine, and a few others. akwarium (n) - aquarium miłość (f) – love krew (f) - blood noc (f) - night Exercises Determine the gender of the following nouns (Click "▼" to check your answer): zupa feminine słońce neuter rekin masculine godło neuter zwierzę neuter mężczyzna masculine noc feminine babcia feminine kotlet masculine liceum neuter