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Lesson 5A1

Noun Gender

Noun Gender

Polish has no word for 'a' or 'the' at all — nouns stand completely on their own. What it does have is three genders, and they quietly shape almost every adjective and pronoun you'll use.

Grammar Comparison

Grammar Comparison

Polish Has No Articles

Polish

dom

English

a house / the house

Unlike English 'a house' or 'the house', Polish just says dom — no article at all. Context alone tells you whether a specific or general house is meant. This is one less thing to memorize per noun, but it also means a noun's gender can't be read off an article the way it sometimes can in English ("a" vs. "an") — you'll need the ending patterns below instead.

Three Genders, Guessed by Ending

Polish

dom (m), kobieta (f), okno (n)

English

house, woman, window

Nouns ending in a consonant are usually masculine, nouns ending in -a are usually feminine, and nouns ending in -o or -e are usually neuter. This pattern is reliable enough to guess from most of the time, but always double-check with new vocabulary — gender determines which pronoun (on/ona/ono) replaces the noun, and which adjective endings agree with it.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary

domdohm
English
house
kotkoht
English
cat
piespyes
English
dog
kobietakoh-BYEH-tah
English
woman
książkaKSHYONSH-kah
English
book
szkołaSHKOH-wah
English
school
oknoOHK-noh
English
window
dzieckoJETS-koh
English
child
słońceSWOHN-tseh
English
sun
onohn
English
he / it (m)
onaOH-nah
English
she / it (f)
onoOH-noh
English
it (n)