Nominative Plural Endings

Level 2

In the plural, Polish abandons the three singular genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and splits everything into just two categories: masculine-personal (groups with at least one male human) and non-masculine-personal (everything else).

How It Works

To form the plural subject of a sentence, you must first determine which of the two plural categories your noun falls into:

1. Masculine-Personal (męskoosobowy)
This category is generally for groups of people that include at least one human male. Even a group of 99 women and 1 man is masculine-personal.

  • Pronouns & Demonstratives: Uses oni (they) and ci (these/those).
  • Adjectives: Take -i or -y and trigger consonant mutations (e.g., dobry → dobrzy - good).
  • Nouns: Take -i, -y, -owie (common for family relations, titles, and respected professions, e.g., profesor → profesorowie - professors, but also used for certain nationalities like Arabowie - Arabs, and specific nouns like uczniowie - students), -e (e.g., nauczyciel → nauczyciele - teachers; note that nouns ending in -anin drop the -in suffix before adding -e, e.g., Amerykanin → Amerykanie - Americans), or sometimes -a (for irregular common words like brat → bracia - brothers). These endings frequently force the final consonant of the stem to soften or mutate (e.g., student → studenci - students, Polak → Polacy - Poles).
  • Past Tense Verbs: Take the ending -li (e.g., czytali - they read).

2. Non-Masculine-Personal (niemęskoosobowy)
This category covers groups of only women, children, animals, plants, inanimate objects, and abstract concepts.

  • Pronouns & Demonstratives: Uses one (they) and te (these/those).
  • Adjectives: Take the ending -e, which is spelled as -ie after k and g (e.g., dobre - good, drogie - expensive) and for soft-stem adjectives (e.g., tani → tanie - cheap).
  • Nouns: Take -y, -i, -e, or -a (for neuter nouns, though note common exceptions like dziecko → dzieci - children, oko → oczy - eyes, and ucho → uszy - ears). Remember the spelling rule: stems ending in k or g must take -i instead of -y (e.g., ptak → ptaki - birds). While they don't use masculine-personal mutations, stem changes and fleeting vowels still occur (e.g., stół → stoły - tables, pies → psy - dogs).
  • Past Tense Verbs: Take the ending -ły (e.g., czytały - they read).

Crucial Notes:

  • Animals: Because words like pies (dog) or kot (cat) are masculine in the singular, learners often try to use masculine-personal endings for them in the plural. This is incorrect. In the plural, all animals are non-masculine-personal.
  • Depreciative Plural: Sometimes, groups of men are intentionally downgraded to the non-masculine-personal category to express contempt or disrespect (e.g., te pijaki - those drunks, instead of ci pijacy).

Examples (5)

  1. Ci dobrzy studenci pilnie się uczą.

    These good students are studying diligently.

    Word by Word: These good students diligently themselves study.

    Because the group includes at least one male, it uses the masculine-personal forms: 'ci', 'dobrzy', and 'studenci'. Notice the consonant mutations (t → ci, r → rz).

  2. Te dobre studentki pilnie się uczą.

    These good female students are studying diligently.

    Word by Word: These good female students diligently themselves study.

    A group of only women is non-masculine-personal. The pronoun is 'te', the adjective takes '-e', and the noun takes '-i' without complex mutations.

  3. Te małe koty śpią.

    These little cats are sleeping.

    Word by Word: These little cats sleep.

    Animals are always non-masculine-personal in the plural, even though the word 'kot' is masculine in the singular.

  4. Polacy lubią rozmawiać o polityce.

    Poles like to talk about politics.

    Word by Word: Poles like to talk about politics.

    Nationalities ending in '-ak' (like Polak) change to '-acy' in the masculine-personal nominative plural.

  5. Te pijaki znowu hałasowały.

    Those drunks were making noise again.

    Word by Word: These drunks again made noise.

    This is an example of the depreciative plural. A group of men is downgraded to the non-masculine-personal category ('te pijaki' instead of 'ci pijacy', and the past tense '-ły' instead of '-li') to express contempt.

Common Mistakes

  • Forgetting consonant mutations in masculine-personal nouns.

    Ci mądrzy studenty czytają.
    Ci mądrzy studenci czytają.

    Masculine-personal nouns often require a consonant mutation (like 't' changing to 'ci') before the plural ending. Simply adding '-y' or '-i' to the hard stem is incorrect.

  • Treating animals as masculine-personal in the plural.

    Ci duzi psy biegną.
    Te duże psy biegną.

    Even though 'pies' (dog) is masculine in the singular, all animals become non-masculine-personal in the plural. They must use the adjective ending '-e' and the pronoun 'te'.

How It Connects

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Nominative Plural EndingsLevel 2

Learn This First

Learn Nominative Case, Three Noun Genders before Nominative Plural Endings.

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Patterns that build on this one.