In this post we’ll be learning the dative case. In Polish this is called celownik.
The purpose of this case is to designate the indirect object in a sentence.
It answers the questions komu? and czemu?
In this post, we’ll only be learning how to form this case. If you want to know how it’s used, there’ll be a separate post for that.
| M [masculine nouns] |
For masculine nouns, add –owi to the ending.
| ending + owi | nauczyciel [teacher] przyjaciel [friend] sąsiad [neighbor] stół [table] kwiat [flower] | nauczycielowi [-] przyjacielowi [-] sąsiadowi [-] stołowi [-] kwiatowi [-] |
There are some exceptions which end in –u. The most common are:
| ending + u | pan [gentleman] pies [dog] kot [cat] ojciec [father] chłopiec [boy] | panu [-] psu [-] kotu [-] ojcu [-] chłopcu [-] |
| Ż [feminine nouns] |
Feminine declensions coincide with those of the locative case.
| see locative case post | córka [daughter] żona [wife] strona [page] | córce [-] żonie [-] stronie [-] |
| [neuter nouns] |
Neuter nouns end in –u.
| –e becomes –u | morze [sea] meszkanie [apartment] | morzu [-] meszkaniu [-] |
| –o becomes –u | jezioro [lake] | jezioru [-] |
The noun muzeum [museum] doesn’t change.
And there you have it – the basic declensions of the dative case. Stay tuned, there will be more case-related posts to come!
My Slavic Studies 