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Pronouns


General usage  Personal pronouns  Reflexive pronouns  Possessive pronouns  Demonstrative pronouns  Interrogative pronouns  Distributive pronouns  Relative pronouns  Indefinite pronouns


General usage:
Basically a pronoun replaces a noun. All pronouns, but not the reflexive pronouns, decline for gender, number and case of the noun which they replace. Some pronouns are identical to their adjective counterpart.
 

Personal pronouns:
In Polish, you have three types of personal pronouns: ordinary, emphatic and prepositional.

Ordinary:
These are used when there is no need for emphasis and if the pronoun does not follow a preposition.
The pronouns ty and wy are sometimes used with a personal name to attract attention.
The pronouns mię, mi, cię, ci, go and mu cannot start the sentence nor can they carry the sentence stress.
Usually you omit the nominative case personal pronoun, except in cases where this may lead to misinterpretations since there is a verb beginning like a pronoun. myjemy and jemy for example - both have totally different meanings.
 
I you (singular) he she it we you (plural) they (men) they (non-men)
Nominative ja ty on ona ono my wy oni one
Vocative ja ty my wy
Accusative mię cię go je nas was ich je
Genitive mię cię go jej go nas was ich ich
Instrumental mn± tob± nim ni± nim nami wami nimi nimi
Dative mi ci mu jej mu nam wam im im
Note: There is no locative case for ordinary personal pronouns.

You use ty and wy only for persons you know well (friends, family-members, ...). In all other cases you use the formal form namely the nouns pan (for a man), pani (for a woman), panowie (for men), panie (for women), państwo (for mixed groups) and panna (for young woman) and panienka (for young women). However the last two forms can be in some case politically incorrect, so be careful with them.
Often you use Pan, Pani or Panna before the first names to imply familiarity.
Please note: Pan, Pani and Panna should have a capital "P", esp. in letters.

Emphatic:
As the name states, you use this form if you need to put emphases on the pronoun. However, there is no emphatic form for all ordinary personal pronouns. If none does exist, you use the ordinary form instead.
 
I you (singular) he it
Accusative mnie ciebie jego
Genitive mnie ciebie jego jego
Dative mnie tobie jemu jemu

Prepositional:
This form is used after a preposition.
 
I you (singular) he she it we you (plural) they (men) they (non-men)
Accusative mnie ciebie niego ni± nie nas was nich nie
Genitive mnie ciebie niego niej niego nas was nich nich
Instrumental mn± tob± nim ni± nim nami wami nimi nimi
Dative mnie tobie niemu niej niemu nam wam nim nim

Reflexive pronouns:
These are used when the object of the verb is the same as the subject. These do not decline for number and gender.
 
Accusative się (siebie for emphasis)
Genitive siebie
Locative sobie
Instrumental sob±
Dative sobie

Possessive pronouns:
These are used to express the possession of an object. These are actually adjectives, therefore declined as adjectives.
 

Demonstrative pronouns:
These pronouns are declined as demonstrative adjectives.
 

Interrogative pronouns:
The pronouns jaki/jaka/jakie, który/która/które and czyj/czyja/czyje are declined as adjectives therefore here I will only explain kto, co, nikt and nic.
In fact nikt is the negative form of kto, and nic the negation of co.
 
kto nikt co nic
Nominative kto nikt co nic
Accusative kogo nikogo co nic
Genitive kogo nikogo czego niczego
Locative kim nikim czym niczym
Instrumental kim nikim czym niczym
Dative komu nikomu czemu niczemu
The genitive of co (czego) together with the preposition dla forms the word dlaczego. But often this word is replaced by the dative of co (czemu).
 

Distributive pronouns:
These decline as an adjective.
Note: żaden requires a double negation.
 

Relative pronouns:
Który/która/które (see interrogative pronouns) is often replaced by co in speech, and always after to and kto. W and który is often shorted to gdzie.
 

Indefinite pronouns:
There are two ways to form them, 1st by adding and 2nd by adding kolwiek.
You add if you want to express "some". To express "at all" or the suffix "ever" you use kolwiek. Both endings are not declineable.
 


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