We have good news for students of Polish struggling with declension! There are nouns in the Polish language that do not inflect! Those are loanwords that end in – ao, - oa, - i, -u, among which the most common ones are kakao, euro, awokado, alibi, salami, graffiti, kiwi. There are also some, such as boa, rodeo, makao, igloo, okapi, tabu, guru, emu, kakadu or karibu that do not appear that often in everyday conversations. As you can see, they are mostly names of exotic (from the Polish perspective) plants and animals, and their endings do not have analogical forms in Polish declensions. The word kakao is especially worth mentioning, since, unfortunately, the Poles quite often try to inflect it. Let us repeat: the noun kakao DOES NOT inflect (nie piję kakao, marzę o gorącym kakao, tiramisu z kakao etc.).
UNINFLECTED WORDS BORROWED FROM FRENCH
The words borrowed from French stressed on the last syllable, such as jury, menu,tournée, attaché, atelier or etui make up a separate category of uninflected nouns. Consequently, we say: Rozmawiamy o menu na przyjęcie (We are discussing the menu for the reception); Przez wiele lat zasiadał w jury (He was a member of the jury for years); Napisaliśmy list do attaché wojskowego (We wrote a letter to the military attache); Pracuje w swoim małym atelier (He works in his small atelier); Wrócił z tournee dookoła świata (He has returned from the tour around the world); Okulary były w etui (The glasses were in the case).
UNINFLECTED NAMES OF CITIES AND COUNTRIES
Geography also pleasantly surprises us in terms of uninflected nouns, since there is a fairly large group of names of cities, countries and regions which are not subject to Polish declensions. Baku, Oslo, Caracas, Los Angeles, Ułan Bator, Kilimandżaro, Ohio, Bordeaux and Kongo are examples of those. So, the next time you eat awokado, perhaps somewhere in Baku, think warmly of the Polish declension :)
