Polish morphology

Morphophonologic alternations

• Consonants in clusters and at the end of words are affected by the voicing rules; these are generally not reflected in the spelling. For example, the d in sąd is pronounced, while in inflected forms such as the plural sądy it is pronounced.
• The vowels i and y have restricted distribution: i does not occur after c, cz, d, dz, dż, ł, r, sz, t, ż/rz, while y does not occur after k, g, l and palatal consonants. This means that in certain inflectional forms i appears in place of the expected y or vice versa.
• The declension endings starting with the vowel e or i have the effect of palatalizing the preceding consonant. Due to historical developments, the actual effect is dependent on the consonant.
• ** don't change
• ***i changes to y after
• *** adjectival stem that ends in sz ż + masculine personal plural -i > si zi
• ** >
• ** >
• ** >
• ** >
• ** >
• ** >
• ** >
• ** >
• ** >
• ** >
• ** >
• ** >
• ** >
• *** a noun ending in k + -em > kiem
• *** a noun ending in k + plural i > ki or cy
• ** >
• *** a noun ending in g + -em >
• *** a noun ending in g + plural i > gi or dzy
• ** >
• *** a noun ending in ch + plural i > si or chy
• Some words are subject to certain vowel alternations, caused by historical sound changes in Polish. The alternations are as follows :
• *Alternations that depend on whether the syllable is closed or open:
• **ó–o
• **ą–ę
• ** -∅
• *Alternations that take effect when the following consonant is modified by a palatalizing ending
• ** a–e
• ** o ''–e''

  Nouns

• The nominative and vocative plural are always identical.
• For neuter nouns, the nominative, accusative and vocative are always identical in both singular and plural.
• The accusative of masculine nouns is identical to either the nominative or the genitive.
• The locative, dative and instrumental plural almost always have the same endings no matter how the noun is declined.

  Masculine nouns

• declension I – all nouns ending in ć, dź, ń, ś, ź, l, j and nouns ending in p, b, m, w that gain palatalization in the oblique cases
• * dative singular ending is -owi
• * locative singular ending is -u
• * nominative plural is -e for non-personal nouns, and -e or -owie for personal nouns
• * genitive plural is -i or -ów
• declension II – all nouns ending in c, cz, dz, dż, rz, sz, ż
• * dative singular ending is -owi or -u
• * locative singular ending is -u
• * nominative plural is -e for non-personal nouns, and -e, -y or -owie for personal nouns
• * genitive plural is -y or -ów
• declension III – all nouns ending in k, g, ch
• * dative singular ending is -owi
• * locative singular ending is -u
• * nominative plural is -ki, -gi, -chy, respectively, for non-personal nouns, and -owie or -cy, -dzy, -si, respectively, for personal nouns
• * genitive plural is -ów
• declension IV – all nouns ending in d, f, ł, n, r, s, t, z and nouns ending in p, b, m, w that do not gain palatalization in the oblique cases
• * dative singular ending is -owi or -u
• * locative singular ending is -e
• * nominative plural is -y for non-personal nouns, and -i or -owie for personal nouns
• * genitive plural is -ów
• declension V – personal nouns ending in -anin
• * dative singular ending is -owi
• * locative singular ending is -e
• * nominative plural is -anie
• * genitive plural is -an or -anów

• Many personal nouns, especially those ending in -og, can take both forms of the nominative plural, with one form more frequent than the other for no apparent reason.
• Personal nouns can become non-personal in the plural to form "depreciative forms", which convey negative attitude; for example policjanty instead of policjanci or ministry instead of ministrowie. Sometimes the ending may be the same, but the change of gender is conveyed through adjectives and pronouns agreeing with the noun, for example te wstrętne burżuje instead of ci wstrętni burżuje.

• The vocative singular of Bóg is Boże.
• In the plural, the stem of brat is braci-.
• The stem of for oblique cases is , inflected according to the fourth declension.
• Człowiek has a suppletive plural ludzie, inflected according to the first declension.
• The declension of dech is tchu, tchu/tchowi, dech, tchem, tchu, tchu.
• The noun deszcz has an archaic genitive dżdżu, used in the phrase łaknąć/pragnąć jak kania dżdżu.
• The vocative singular of ksiądz is księże. Its plural declension is księża, księży, księżom, księży, księżmi, księża.
• The declension of the noun książę is książę, księcia, księciu, księcia, księciem, księciu, książę in the singular, and książęta, książąt, książętom, książeta, książętami, książętom, książętami, książęta in the plural.
• The genitive plural of przyjaciel is przyjaciół, the dative plural is przyjaciołom, the instrumental plural is przyjaciółmi, and the locative plural is przyjaciołach.
• The nouns pan, syn and dom have -u in the locative and vocative singular despite belonging to the fourth declension group; pan has vocative panie.
• Rok has a suppletive neuter plural lata.
• The declension of the nouns sędzia and hrabia is sędzia/hrabia, sędziego/hrabiego, sędziemu/hrabiemu, sędziego/hrabiego, sędzią/hrabią, sędzi/hrabi, sędzio/hrabio in the singular, and sędziowie/hrabiowie, sędziów/hrabi, sędziom/hrabiom, sędziów/hrabiów, sędziami/hrabiami, sędziach/hrabiach, sędziowie/hrabiowie.
• A few masculines have plurals in -a, usually as an alternative to the regular plural.

  Feminine nouns

• Feminine nouns in -i have this -i only in the nominative and vocative singular. In all other cases they decline like soft a-stem nouns.
• Soft feminine nouns that are familiar forms of personal names have a vocative in -u or with no ending.

• Some feminine i-stem nouns, especially those in -ość have N/A/V/G plural in -y/i rather than -e.
• Nouns with the suffix -ość, as well as a few other nouns form the instrumental plural by adding just -mi rather than -ami.