Let's Speak Polish - Parts of Speech in Polish

Personal Pronoun – Differences between Polish and English:

• In English, subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) are used for emphasis or clarity. In Polish, the subject is often implied and not explicitly stated unless necessary for clarity.
• Polish uses object pronouns more frequently than English to indicate who is performing the action of a verb. For example, "I see him" in English might be "Idzie do niego" (He goes to him) in Polish, where "niego" clarifies the object.

Inflected Pronoun – Differences between Polish and English:

• In English, pronouns are not inflected for grammatical case or number, e.g., "he," "they."
• In Polish, verbs are inflected to agree with the subject in both person (first, second, third) and number (singular, plural), but the pronouns themselves are used in a more consistent form across different contexts.

Possessive Adjective – Differences between Polish and English:

• In English, possessive adjectives ("my," "your," "his," "her," "its," "our," "their") directly modify nouns to show ownership.
• In Polish, possessive adjectives ("moje," "twöje," "jego," "jej," "nasz/nasz, nasze" (formal), "wasz/wasz, wasze" (formal), "ich") are used in a similar way but can also be replaced by a reflexive form in certain contexts, especially with inanimate objects ("swoje").

Possessive Pronoun – Differences between Polish and English:

• In English, possessive pronouns ("mine," "yours," "his," "hers," "its," "ours," "theirs") refer to the ownership of nouns without having to see the noun itself.
• In Polish, possessive pronouns ("moj," "twój," "jego," "jej," "nasz/nasz (informal), nasz (formal), "wasz/wasz (informal), wasz (formal), "ich") are used similarly, but they can also be replaced by "siebie" in the third person singular and plural to refer to objects.

Demonstrative Pronoun – Differences between Polish and English:

• In English, demonstrative pronouns ("this," "that," "these," "those") indicate the proximity or distance of an object from the speaker or additive emphasis.
• In Polish, demonstrative pronouns ("ten/ta/to/te/te te/ te tamte" for singular and "te/te te/te tamte" for plural) also indicate proximity or distance but are more numerous to account for gender and number distinctions.

Reflexive Pronoun / Emphatic Pronoun – Differences between Polish and English:

• In English, reflexive pronouns ("myself," "yourself," "himself," "herself," "itself," "ourselves," "yourselves," "themselves") are used to indicate that the subject is also the object of an action.
• In Polish, reflexive pronouns ("siebie") are used for both emphatic emphasis (similar to English) and as reflexives when the subject is also the object of an action. This is especially important because Polish verbs do not distinguish between subject and object like English does.

Key to the Test Control:

• This section contains the answers to all the Control Tests within this course, allowing you to check your understanding and progress in learning Polish.