POLISH LANGUAGE AND
DECLENSION – INSEPARABLE?
In our recent posts (if
you don’t remember them, look here and here) we have said that the declension
is not as terrible and scary as it may seem. We have shown that many words do
not inflect. However, whether we want it or not, declension plays a vital role in the Polish
language and not only foreigners should get familiar with it if they want to
speak correctly.
Today we would like
to show you the instrumetal case in a nutshell J
It’s the most regular
of the cases, very commonly used, so it appears quite early in courses of
Polish as a foreign language.
POLISH INSTRUMENTAL CASE WITHOUT PREPOSITIONS
We use it when we
want to say what our job is. We say: jestem
nauczycielką, a on jest policjantem. Instrumental is also useful when we
mention the functions (professional, in the society, etc.) people perform: ten pan jest nowym sąsiadem (this man is
a new neighbour), ta pani jest moją matką
(this lady is my mother), ten
chłopiec jest moim dzieckiem (this boy is my child), a ci panowie są kierownikami działów (these men are department
heads). As the name suggests, the instrumental case describes a tool, an
instrument, which we use to perform a task, do a job, therefore we say: wyślę ci to mailem (I’ll sent it to you
by email), naprawiłem młotkiem (I’ve
repaired it with a hammer), strażacy
ugasili pożar wodą (the firefighters put out the fire with water).
Thanks to the
instrumental case we don’t need to bother about prepositions when we tell
someone what means of transport we use, because we say jedziemy autobusem, taksówką, tramwajem, metrem...
If you want to practise
declension, not only the instrumental case, check out our FB profile
PREPOSITION
IS NOT ALIEN TO THE INSTRUMENTAL CASE
It does not mean,
however, that the fifth case is not used with prepositions. Most of the time it
combines with pod, z, nad, przed, za and
między. When we’re doing something
together with another person it’s the instrumental case that we need to use: idę z koleżanką, bawię się
z dzieckiem, spotykam się z kolegami. Analogously, we use
instrumental to emphasize that that something occurs together with something
else: jem ciasto z owocami, lody
z bitą śmietanę i piję kawę z mlekiem (I’m eating fruit pie, ice
cream with whipped cream and drinking coffee with milk).
If we use pod, nad, przed, za and między to determine location of objects,
we’ll need to use the instrumental case, too: jestem nad morzem, rzeką, jeziorem, leżę pod drzewami, parasolem (I’m
at the seaside, river, lake, I’m lying under the trees, umbrella), and in my
house lampa wisi nad stołem (the lamp
is above the table), pies leży pod stołem
(the dog is lying under the table), za
stołem stoi krzesło (the chair is behind the table), między krzesłem a fotelem siedzi mój kot (my cat is sitting between
the chair and the airmchair). J
DECLENSION
As you have probably
noticed, the instrumental case has very regular endings: feminine nouns end in –ą, the masculine and neuter ones end in
–em, and the plural forms end in –ami. You’ll probably ask whether there
are any exceptions and won’t be surprised to hear that there are. But you’ll
definitely be surprised by the small number of irregular instrumental forms, and
you’ll memorise them easily: idę
z przyjaciółmi, z dziećmi, i ludźmi, a w kieszeni mam portfel
z pieniędzmi (I’m going with friends, children, people, and I have a
wallet with money in my pocket).
We hope that after
reading this post you’ll warm to the instrumental case .
