Polski — masculine-personal gender (plural)
In the plural, Polish splits nouns into two classes: masculine-personal (groups that include at least one man) and everything else. The choice changes the nominative ending, triggers consonant alternations, and controls the form of adjectives and past-tense verbs.
How it works
Masculine-personal nouns take the nominative plural -i, -y or -owie, often with a consonant change: Polak → Polacy, student → studenci, pan → panowie. Adjectives and past-tense verbs then take masculine-personal forms — byli, dobrzy — whereas non-masculine-personal nouns take były, dobre.
Examples
| Singular | Nom. plural (masc.-pers.) | Meaning / alternation |
|---|---|---|
| Polak | Polacy | a Pole — k → c |
| student | studenci | a student — t → ci |
| pan | panowie | a gentleman — ending -owie |
| Amerykanin | Amerykanie | an American — loses -in-, ending -anie |
| chłopiec | chłopcy | a boy — fleeting e drops, c → c |
| nauczyciel | nauczyciele | a teacher — soft stem, ending -e |
Good to know
A group counts as masculine-personal even if only one member is a man: Studenci i studentki byli zmęczeni. Once the men are gone the whole class switches — the same objects as non-masculine-personal take dobre, nowe, były (koty były, okna były). The most common learner mistake is writing były or dobre about a group of men; it must be byli, dobrzy.