Polski — Full adjective declension
A Polish adjective agrees with its noun in gender, number and case. Take dobry ("good"): across all seven cases and three genders it uses only a handful of endings — dobry, dobra, dobre, dobrzy, dobrego, dobrym, dobrych.
How it works
The stem dobr- takes case endings, and the same set works for nearly every hard-stem adjective. In the singular the masculine and neuter share the genitive dobrego, the dative dobremu and the instrumental/locative dobrym; the feminine stands apart with dobrej and dobrą. In the plural all genders share dobrych, dobrym and dobrymi.
Full paradigm
| Case | Singular (m. / f. / n.) | Plural (masc.-pers. / other) |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | dobry / dobra / dobre | dobrzy / dobre |
| Genitive | dobrego / dobrej / dobrego | dobrych |
| Dative | dobremu / dobrej / dobremu | dobrym |
| Accusative | dobry (dobrego) / dobrą / dobre | dobrych / dobre |
| Instrumental | dobrym / dobrą / dobrym | dobrymi |
| Locative | dobrym / dobrej / dobrym | dobrych |
| Vocative | dobry / dobra / dobre | dobrzy / dobre |
Good to know
The plural splits into two forms: the masculine-personal (groups that include at least one man) uses dobrzy — dobrzy studenci — while everything else uses dobre — dobre książki, dobre dzieci. The masculine singular accusative also depends on animacy: inanimate dobry stół but animate dobrego psa.