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8/1/13
Rules of Polish Grammar Useful for Genealogists
by Fay Vogel Bussgang
(Based on Second half of Talk given at International Seminar on Jewish Genealogy in Washington, D.C., July 20, 2003)
Polish Grammar, as you might expect, can be quite a challenge for the English speaker.
Fortunately, we don’t have to cover all of it today. The purpose of this talk is not to turn you all
into linguists. It is only to help you identify the names of people and towns you are researching
in order to determine whether a given document has relevance for you.
Polish birth, marriage, and death documents usually follow a preset format. If you have that
format, which you can get from Judith Frazin’s Translation Guide, all you need to do is identify
the names of people and places. But, if you don’t understand the case endings, it is difficult to
recognize exactly what those names are. How would you know that “Brzeziny” and
“Brzezinach” refer to the same town while “Brzeżany” is something totally different? That’s
what I hope to show you today!
Please keep in mind that you don’t have to memorize all the rules I’m about to present, just as
you don’t have to memorize all the words in the dictionary. It is just important for you to
understand the basic concepts.
[2] First, there are three CONCEPTS of POLISH GRAMMAR that may be new to English
speakers––CASE, GENDER, AND STEM.
The CASE of a noun indicates its function in the sentence, i.e., it may be the subject, the object, or
follow a preposition. In English, nouns do not change their spelling, regardless of their position
in the sentence, but in many other languages, they do. This process of changing the ending of a
word according to its case is called DECLINATION. If you have taken Latin or Russian, you will
already be familiar with this.
In Polish, the case ending varies not only with the function of the word in the sentence, but also
with its gender, number, and stem.
As for GENDER, all nouns in the Polish language have gender, that is, they can be masculine,
feminine, or neuter. Town names, given names, and surnames are no exception.
AS in English, nouns have NUMBER; they are either singular or plural.
The STEM is that part of a word that remains pretty much the same so that you can recognize the
word even when different endings are added to indicate the case.
[3] USEFUL CASES. It so happens that there are seven different cases in Polish, but we will
take a look only at the four most often encountered in genealogical research: the NOMINATIVE,
GENITIVE, INSTRUMENTAL, and LOCATIVE cases.
The NOMINATIVE case denotes the subject of the sentence. The name of a town or person in the
NOMINATIVE is spelled as you commonly know it––Lublin or Kraków for a town, Glasman or
Rozenberg for a surname.
The GENITIVE case denotes “of” or possession––such as the daughter or son of a person. It is also
used after certain prepositions. In vital/metrical records, the GENITIVE is often found following
the word “z,” (sometimes spelled “z-e”) meaning “from,” for example, to identify the town
someone comes from.
©Fay Vogel Bussgang 2004 - 1 -
The INSTRUMENTAL case is used to show with or by what means something is done. It also often
follows the preposition “z,” but in this instance “z” means “with.” In a marriage record, it may be
used for the groom who appears with the rabbi.
Please note that the same preposition––”z”––has one meaning when used with the GENITIVE and
a different meaning when used with the INSTRUMENTAL.
The LOCATIVE case indicates the location where an action takes place and is most often used with
the preposition “w,” meaning “in.”
[4] This is what a SAMPLE DECLENSION looks like. As you can see, the endings vary with
the case, but the stem remains the same, and you can recognize that they all concern the city of
Warszawa or Warsaw.
[5] We will now take a look at how the various cases form their endings. We will start with the
GENITIVE CASE. The ending used for the GENITIVE case varies according to the gender of the
noun. Thus we first have to learn how to recognize what gender a town name is.
FEMININE Town Names usually end in “a” in the NOMINATIVE––Warszawa, Warta, Horodenka.
In addition, a few town names that end in double consonants or “ew” are considered feminine
such as Byd’goszcz, Łódź, and Żół’kiew.
The GENITIVE ending for all feminine towns is either “y” or “i,” depending on whether the last
consonant of the word has a hard sound or a soft sound. Thus the GENITIVE of Warszawa is
Warszawy, Warta becomes Warty, Horodenka becomes Horodenki. Byd’goszcz becomes
Bydgosz’czy and Łódź becomes Łodzi. Please note that for Łódź, the slashes over both the “o”
and the “z” are dropped. An “o” in a single or final syllable of a word often has a slash over it,
but when a syllable is added, that slash is dropped. And when an “i” is added to any of the
consonants that have a slash, such as the “z” in Łódź, that slash is also dropped.
[6] MASCULINE TOWN NAMES, such as Kraków, Gdańsk, and Włocławek, end in a
consonant in the NOMINATIVE. The GENITIVE ending for most masculine town names in Poland is
“a.” Krakowa, Gdańska, Włocławka.
If the name ends with a soft consonant such as “n” or “s with a slash,” an “i” replaces the slash
before the “a” ending. Poz'nań thus becomes Pozna'nia, and Za'mość becomes Zamo'ścia. Most
foreign cities take a “u” ending. Londyn, Londy'nu, Boston, Bosto'nu, as well as a few Polish
towns that have compound names such as Raj'gród–Rajgro'du.
You may have noticed that when a syllable is added to make the ending, the accent of the word
shifts. Kra'ków becomes Krako'wa and Za'mość becomes Zamo'ścia. That is because in Polish,
the accent is always on the next to the last syllable, the penultimate syllable.
[7] NEUTER TOWN NAMES end in “o” or, sometimes, in “e” in the NOMINATIVE: Chełmno,
Radomsko, Opole. To form the GENITIVE of a neuter town name, the letter “a” is added to the
stem, just as it was for masculine town names: Chełmna, Radomska, Opola.
[8] Polish town names not only have gender; they are sometimes plural, a concept that may seem
strange to English speakers.
PLURAL TOWN NAMES are those that end in “y,” “i,” and “e,” in the NOMINATIVE: Chęciny,
Suwałki, Katowice.
To form the GENITIVE, the final letter is dropped, so that they become Chęcin, Suwałek, Kato'wic
[9] ADDING AND SUBTRACTING You may have noticed that sometimes an “e” or “ie” is
added to an ending. Other times, it is taken away. The purpose in both cases is to make
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pronunciation easier. Thus for Żółkiew and Włocławek, the “ie” or “i” is removed to get Żółkwi
and Włocławka. The same is true for names––such as Mosiek and Herszek, which have an “e”
before the final consonant. They become Mośka and Herszka in the GENITIVE.
In the case of plural town names, in which the final vowel is cut off to form the GENITIVE, an “e”
may be added before the final consonant if otherwise there would be two consonants clustered
together. Thus the GENITIVE of Suwałki becomes Suwałek, and Siedlce becomes Siedlec.
It is not important for you to remember which words add “e” or subtract it, but when you see a
town or person’s name in a slightly changed form, perhaps you will remember how it got that
way.
[10] In general, SURNAMES follow the same rule as town names in forming the GENITIVE,
and like towns, surnames have gender, and they may not always agree with the gender of the
person. For instance, surnames that end in “a” are treated as feminine, whether they belong to a
man or a woman. The GENITIVE of the name Kwarta is Kwarty and the genitive of Spira is Spiry.
Surnames that end in “o” also have feminine endings in the singular, so that it is impossible to
tell from the GENITIVE whether the original name is Spira or Spiro. While these names are the
same for men and women, there are names that are based on adjectives, which do have different
endings for men and women, and we will get to those a little later.
[11] GIVEN NAMES also follow the same rules in forming the GENITIVE, and given names
also have gender independent of the person who bears them. Given names for men that end in
“a” are treated like feminine names. Thus Szlama becomes Szlamy and Szaja becomes Szaji. On
the other hand, I have never seem a woman’s given name, even if it ends in a consonant,
declinated like a masculine noun. Thus, in the GENITIVE both Ruchel and Ruchla become Ruchli.
Sometimes a feminine name like Jachwet or Maryem is treated like a foreign word and not
declinated at all.
[12] Now we come to the SURNAMES that are not really nouns at all but ADJECTIVES that
have come to be used like nouns. These are the names that end in “c-k-i” or “s-k-i.” These names
form the GENITIVE using adjective endings and are different for men and women. In the
NOMINATIVE, the name Kowalski and Sawicki are used for a man and Kowalska and Sawicka are
used for a woman. The GENITIVE for a man is Kowalskiego and for a woman Kowalskiej.
Similarly, in the GENITIVE, Sawicki becomes Sawickiego and Sawicka becomes Sawickiej. So,
whenever you see “ego” or “ej” as an ending, you know you are dealing with a name that is
treated like an adjective. The NOMINATIVE PLURAL ending for a couple is a little harder to
recognize. It is Kowals'cy or Sawic'cy. The “k” has been softened to a “c” before the “y” plural
ending is added. The GENITIVE PLURAL form for both men and women ends in “i-c-h.”
Kowalskich, Sawickich.
[13] GENITIVE FOR WOMEN’S SURNAMES. Women’s surnames other than those that
function like adjectives are usually used in the NOMINATIVE form and not declinated at all, except
under two circumstances.
• To indicate that a woman is married, owa is added to her husband’s surname in the
NOMINATIVE. Glasmanowa means Mrs. Glasman. To indicate that a woman is unmarried or to
give her maiden name, ówna is added to her surname in the NOMINATIVE. Glasmanówna means
Miss Glasman or maiden name Glasman. Patronymics also use the suffix ówna. Sura Herszówna
means Sura, daughter of Hersz. The GENITIVE ending for owa is “e-j ,” because it is treated as an
adjective. On the other hand, the ending for “ówna” is “y,” because, for some reason, it is treated
as a noun.
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The GENITIVE PLURAL can also be used to indicate the maiden name of a married woman. The
GENITIVE PLURAL ending for most surnames is “ó-w.” If Rywka Najman’s maiden name is
Bursztajn, “z Bursztajn'ów” (literally, from the Bursztajns) is inserted before her married
surname. However, if a woman’s maiden name ends in “c-k-a / s-k-a,” the adjective ending “i-c-
h” is used. Thus to indicate that Ruchel Nowak’s maiden name is Kowalska, “z Kowalskich” is
inserted before her married surname.
Since you are viewing this PowerPoint on your own tablet or computer, you can always go over
something again if you find it confusing.
[14] The INSTRUMENTAL case is relatively simple. In general, it is used to show with whom
or by what means something is done. It is formed simply by adding “e-m” for a man––to both
first and last names or often just to the first name. In a marriage record, it may be used following
the preposition “z” to indicate that the bride or groom appeared with the rabbi. It is also used
after the preposition “między,” meaning “between,” for an agreement between the bride and
groom.
If the NOMINATIVE is Szmul Kron, the INSTRUMENTAL is Szmulem Kronem or just Szmulem
Kron. For family names ending in “c-k-i / s-k-i,” the ending is “im”: Aron Kowalski, Aro'nem
Kowalskim. The preposition “ze” is used instead of “z” when the word following it begins with
a cluster of consonants that would make it difficult to pronounce without the added “e.” That is
why in the INSTRUMENTAL case, “ze” is used before Szmul, but only “z” before Aron.
For a woman, “a” with a tail is added to the stem of the given name only, unless the surname
ends in “c-k-a / s-k-a,” in which case the “a” with a tail is added to both the first and last names.
If the “ówna” form is used for the surname or patronymic, the “ą” is also used––z Rywką
Moszkówną.
[15] Now we come to the most complicated case, the LOCATIVE CASE. It is a very important
case for genealogists, so I hope you will bear with me to the end. Each birth or death record
begins by stating in which town the event took place, and the town name usually appears in the
locative case. Therefore, it is very important to be able to recognize your town name in its
locative form to know whether a certain document has relevance for you.
The LOCATIVE case, as mentioned earlier, tells where something is located. It is very easy to
identify because it is used only after certain prepositions, the most common in vital records being
“w or we” meaning “in.” Thus whenever you see the word “w,” you know that the LOCATIVE
case is about to follow. However, while it is easy to tell that a word is in the LOCATIVE case, it is
not always so easy to tell just what that word is, since it may have undergone some significant
changes in spelling.
The LOCATIVE case is based not only on gender and number but also on the nature of the stem.
There are three types of stems: hard, soft, and velar (velar means guttural). How the stem is
classified depends on the sound of the last consonant in the word. When we were forming the
GENITIVE and INSTRUMENTAL, we were just adding or subtracting a letter or two, but when it
comes to the LOCATIVE, we are making some fundamental changes before adding the endings.
There are distinct rules to follow, but you don’t have to learn them by heart. Using a crib sheet is
quite permissible. Thus, for the moment, just try to understand the concepts, and don’t worry
about remembering the details. You can figure out later which rules apply to your specific towns.
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