Numbers and time

Formation

An ordinal number takes the endings of an adjective: pierwszy, pierwsza, pierwsze; drugi, druga, drugie. Trzeci takes soft endings: trzecia, trzecie.

Use

The ordinal agrees with its noun in every case: pierwszy dzień, pierwsza lekcja, na drugim piętrze. In a compound ordinal, both words are ordinals and both agree: dwudziesty pierwszy, dwudziesta druga, dwudzieste czwarte urodziny. Piątek (“Friday”) comes from piąty: the Polish week begins on Monday.

Formation

The clock. Która godzina? (“What time is it?”) is answered with a feminine ordinal, agreeing with the word godzina, which is left out: Jest pierwsza, Jest ósma. O której? (“At what time?”) is answered with o and the locative in -ej: o pierwszej, o ósmej. The same -ej form is used after od and do: od siódmej do trzeciej. The days. On Monday is w + accusative: the -a of a feminine day becomes -ę (w środę, w sobotę, w niedzielę), a masculine day does not change (w poniedziałek, w czwartek, w piątek); w becomes we before wtorek: we wtorek. The months. In May is w + locative: w maju, w lipcu, w listopadzie, w lutym; w becomes we in we wrześniu.

Use

Most months take -u, and the e of -iec and -ień drops; luty declines like an adjective. Rano (“in the morning”) and wieczorem (“in the evening”) are single words used without a preposition; po południu (“in the afternoon”) and w nocy (“at night”) are set phrases. All of them can follow a day: w piątek wieczorem. In the 24-hour clock, both words of a compound hour change: o dwudziestej pierwszej.