Using Cases: A Summary for Click here for Note to Instructors
the Student of Elementary Polish
by E. Wampuszyc


In Polish, nouns, adjectives and pronouns decline to show "case". This means that they take different endings, depending on their grammatical role in a sentence. There are seven cases in Polish: nominative, accusative, instrumental, genitive, dative, locative and vocative. Below you will find links to pages that explain the cases as they are used in the Polish language. These summaries synthesize the use of each case individually and are particularly helpful as a review. They are not intended to be used as an introduction to cases or the declining of nouns, adjectives or pronouns.

The vocative case is primarily used in formal, written language , specifically in the greeting of letters. In spoken language it is used to address or call out to someone and is gradually being replaced by the nominative case. Since this is a low frequency case in Polish and its use does not extend beyond the above mentioned situations, there is no reference page for the vocative case.

Click here for Grammar Table # 1 (Noun Endings)