The accusative

Formation

In a noun ending in -a, feminine or masculine, the -a is replaced by -ę: siostra, siostrę; kawa, kawę; tata, tatę. A masculine noun naming a person or an animal takes -a: brat, brata; kot, kota; pies, psa. A masculine noun naming a thing, a neuter noun and a feminine noun ending in a consonant do not change: dom, okno, wiadomość. The adjective agrees: -ą with a feminine noun (dobrą kawę), -ego with a masculine person or animal (dobrego brata), and the nominative form with a thing or a neuter noun (nowy telefon, nowe mieszkanie). Ta becomes tę; moja, twoja, nasza become moją, twoją, naszą.

Use

The accusative is used for the object of mieć, lubić, kupować, czytać, znać, pić, jeść and most verbs; lubić is followed by an infinitive for an activity (lubię pływać). Clothes worn are in the accusative after nosić (what someone usually wears) and mieć na sobie (what someone has on now). The question words are kogo? for a person or an animal and co? for a thing. The form tą is often heard in speech, but tę is the written standard.

Formation

The personal pronouns have a form for each case. The short forms cię and go are unstressed; ciebie and jego are their stressed forms. After a preposition, the third person begins with n-: niego, nią, niej, nim, nich, nie.

Use

Go stands for any masculine noun, a person or a thing, ją for a feminine noun and je for a neuter one. In the plural, ich is used for men or a group with at least one man, je for women, children, animals and things. The short forms are not placed at the start of a sentence; they usually come early, after the verb or the first word: Widzę cię, Ewa zawsze mnie rozumie. After a preposition, the long forms are used: do ciebie, na niego. The forms after a preposition are explained in Personal pronouns after a preposition: do niego, u nich, do mnie, Personal pronouns in the locative: o mnie, o nim and Z with the instrumental: z kolegą, ze mną, z tobą.

Formation

Czekać na (“to wait for”), patrzeć na (“to look at”), prosić o (“to ask for”) and pytać o (“to ask about”) are followed by the accusative: czekam na autobus, patrzę na zdjęcie, proszę o wodę, pytam o adres. A personal pronoun takes its long form after the preposition: na mnie, na ciebie, na niego, na nią.

Use

English “ask” has two equivalents: prosić o when something is wanted, pytać o when information is wanted. O meaning “about” after rozmawiać, myśleć and mówić is followed by the locative, as explained in The prepositions o and po with the locative: rozmawiać o pracy, po parku: pytam o Ewę, but myślę o Ewie.