1. Locative case is mainly used to express location. In the prepositional phrases w Warszawie (in Warsaw), na rynku (at the marketplace), and przy oknie (by the window), the nouns Warszawa, rynek, and okno are in the locative case form. Locative case is used only with a preposition (so it is also called the PREPOSITIONAL CASE). Besides w, na, and przy, it is used with o, as in o twojej siostrze (about your sister) and o pierwszej godzinie (at one o'clock) and with po, as in po lektoracie (after class) and spacer po mieście (a stroll about town). (With different meanings, w, na, o, and po also occur with the accusative case.)

2.1 Locative case of adjectives. The masculine-neuter ending is -ym, e.g., na starym rynku, which shifts to -im after a phonetically soft consonant, e.g., w ostatnim miejscu (in the last place), and after k and g, e.g., w polskim mieście (in a Polish city).

The feminine ending is -ej (the same as the genitive ending), e.g., w tej nowej książce (in this new book), which is preceded by i after a phonetically soft consonant, e.g., na ostatniej stronicy (on the last page), and after k and g, e.g., w polskiej rodzinie (in a Polish family).

The plural ending is -ych (same as the genitive ending), e.g., o tych młodych dzieciach (concerning those young children), which shifts to -ich after a phonetically soft consonant, e.g., w tanich hotelach (in cheap hotels), and after k and g, e.g., w jakich miastach (in what cities).

2.2 Locative case of pronouns. Interrogative pronouns take the regular adjective endings. So do third-person pronouns, although the stem is not on- as in the nonimative case but j-. Since third-person pronouns occurring with a preposition are always preceded by n- (cf. dla niego, o nią, etc.) and since the locative case only occurs with a preposition, third-person pronouns in the locative case always begin with n- (which is soft because it has fused with the j-). The personal pronouns are suppletive. The forms are:

NOMINATIVE

kto

ono

ona

oni

one

LOCATIVE

kim

czym

nim

niej

nich

mnie

tobie

nas

was

sobie

Express in Polish. 1. Who are they talking about? -- About themselves. 2. What do you know about Ignacy Paderewski? 3. I won't talk about you if you don't (lit. won't) talk about me. 4. Górski doesn't know what (they) are writing about him in Warsaw. 5. Our professor always writes about someone interesting, never about himself. 6. What are you talking about? -- About whether we want to go to Zakopane. 7. Whose box is this, and what's in it? 8. I see your car, but I don't see what's lying near it. 9. Who's this book about? -- It's not about anyone, it's about Warsaw. 10. What is that dress lying on?

2.3 For plural nouns the locative case ending is -ach. For example: o panach, o paniach, w tamtych dużych miastach, na pieniądzach, w Katowicach.

The only exception to -ach in the locative plural is in the names of three countries, Niemcy (Germany), Węgry (Hungary), and Włochy (Italy). The names of these countries are grammaically plural like Ateny and Katowice. Their exceptional locative case forms make it possible to distinguish between the name of the country and the name of its inhabitants. The noun for the inhabitants takes the regular locative plural ending: "about the Germans" is o Niemcach, "about the Hungarians" is o Węgrach, and "about the Italians" is o Włochach. But "in Germany" is w Niemczech,"in Hungary" is na Węgrzech (see Ch. 5, 3.3), and "in Italy" is we Włoszech.

Express in Polish. 1. What do you know about the people in those large cities? 2. Danuta's uncle lives in Italy. 3. Much is written in the papers about Germany. 4. In my letters from Poland there is nothing about you gentlemen. 5. This is not about you and me; it's about money.

3. The locative singular of nouns. This form is one of the more difficult ones to inflect. The stem-final consonant conditions the choice of ending, and the ending sometimes changes the stem-final consonant--"softens" it. The stems that change (soften) do so before the ending -e. The stems that do not soften (for one reason or another) select -u if they are masculine or neuter and -i (or -y) if they are feminine (including 2nd-declension masculine nouns). Stem softening is a set of consonant replacements in which "hard", or rather BASIC, stem-final consonants are replaced by their "softened" counterparts, as follows:

BASIC

SOFTENED

dź

phonetically soft

phonetically hard

Examples of locative singular inflection: sklep (store) > przy sklepie, osoba (person) > o osobie, szafa (wardrobe) > w szafie, Warszawa > w Warszawie, firma > w firmie, lektorat (language class) >: na lektoracie, obiad (dinner) > po obiedzie, autobus (bus) > w autobusie, obraz > na obrazie, kino (movie theater) > w kinie, krzesło (chair) > na krześle (on the chair), literatura (literature) > o literaturze, Polska (Poland) > w Polsce, podłoga (floor) > na podłodze (on the floor), cecha (characteristic) > o cesze

Note that where softening results in a consonant that is phonetically soft, this is indicated with i, except in the case of l (which before e as in na stole is not as soft as it is before i in czytali). In the four cases where softening results in a consonant that is phonetically hard, no i is written. Be sure to distinguish between the softenings of t and d, which result in phonetically soft cie and dzie, and the softenings of k and g, which result in phonetically hard ce and dze.

Express in Polish. 1. on my bicycle (rower) 2. by the window 3. in Cracow (Kraków) 4. after the concert 5. in Ostrołęka 6. by the new car 7. on the map (mapa) 8. in Poland (Polska) 9. about Mom and Dad 10. in Zielona Góra (lit. Green Moukntain: adjective + noun)

4.1 Nonbasic stem consonants, whether phonetically soft or phonetically hard, cannot soften and therefore never take the ending -e. If the noun is masculine (not 2nd declension) or neuter, it takes the ending -u.

Examples: gość (guest) > o gościu, niedźwiedź (bear) > o niedźwiedziu, Staś > o Stasiu, grzebień (comb) > na grzebieniu, hotel > w hotelu, klucz (key) > o kluczu, pisarz (writer) > o pisarzu, chłopiec > chłopcu, nóż (knife) > na nożu, wiersz (poem, verse) > w wierszu.

4.2 Feminine (and other 2nd-declension) nouns with stems ending in a nonbasic consonant take the locative singular ending -i or -y, depending on whether the consonant is phonetically soft or phonetically hard.

Examples: babcia > o babci, Jadzia > o Jadzi, Zosia > o Zosi, lekcja (lesson) > po lekcji, chwila (moment) > w tej chwili, kolej (railway; turn) > na kolei, rzecz (thing) > o rzeczy, noc (night) > po nocy, ulica (street) > na ulicy, ciąża (pregnancy) > w ciąży, mówca (speaker) > po tym mówcy.

Express in Polish. 1. Who was working in our room? 2. We didn't know anything about Andrzej Butkiewicz. 3. There's nothing interesting in that newspaper. 4. What do you know about the old hotel in (on) this photograph (zdjęcie)? 5. Jadwiga's new apartment is near (przy) Constitution Square. 6. Grandma lives in Łódź, where she has a house. 7. We didn't know who would (will) be speaking at the meeting in Gdynia. 8. We read about the pope in all the Polish newspapers. 9. The student who was standing at the board was speaking about money. 10. Małgosia was on a stroll about Old Town when she saw Wincenty.

4.3 Labial consonants are never soft at the end of a word, i.e., when not followed by a vowel ending. Therefore the nominative singular form of a noun when it ends in p, b, f, w, or m does not show whether the noun has a basic stem or a softened stem. Nominative Wrocław and Kraków end in the same w (pron. "f"). But genitive Wrocławia and Krakowa show that one has a soft stem and the other a hard stem. Therefore in the locative case one is we Wrocławiu and the other is w Krakowie. Similarly, the nominative singular forms gołąb (pigeon) and głąb (depth) give no indication that both end in a nonbasic b and that the former is masculine and the latter feminine. But the genitive singular forms, which are gołębia and głębi, make this clear. Therefore the locative singular forms are gołębiu and głębi.

Express in Polish. 1. about Zosia 2. about Greg (Grześ) 3. in Opole 4. in Gdynia 5. in Bydgoszcz (fem.) 6. in Poznań 7. in Radom (nonbasic m) 8. in our apartment 9. after lunch (lunch, pron. "lancz") 10. in my pocket (kieszeń, fem.)

4.4 Stem changes. In a few common nouns the softening of the stem consonant before locative singular -e conditions a change in the preceding vowel. Next to miasto (city) we find w mieście and next to obiad (dinner) we find po obiedzie (cf. miały ~ mieli). Next to kościół, gen. kościoła (church) we find w kościele (cf. biorę ~ bierze).

Change plural to singular. 1. One mówiły o naszych koleżankach 2. Mieszkaliśmy w dużych domach. 3. W tych starych miastach sąładne kościoły. 4. Studentki stały przy tablicach. 5. Tamci panowie pracują w amerykańskich firmach (fem.).

4.5. Exceptions. Masculine and neuter nouns of the first declension with stems in a velar consonant (k, g, ch) do not undergo softening and therefore take locative singular -u rather than -e. Also taking -u are pan, syn, dom, and nouns in -stwo denoting married couples, such as państwo.

Express in Polish. 1. in New York 2. in Elbląg 3. in Wałbrzych 4. in our house 5. on the big roof (dach) 6. on the little fly (mucha) 7. regarding Mr. Henryk Nowak and his young son. 8. regarding Ms. Monika Dąbrowska and her young daughter. 9. about Mr. and Mrs. Krawiecki 10. Płoty lies on the (river) Rega

Give the nominative and genitive for the following locative forms. 1. po szkodzie (after the harm) 2. w Hadze (in The Hague) 3. w Radomiu 4. o Urszuli 5. o Karolu 6. o Małgorzacie 7. w Łomży 8. w Ostrołęce 9. w Poznaniu 10. w Dakocie Północnej 11. o kościele katolickim 12. na nodze (on the leg) 13. o Zuzie 14. o Lechu Wałęsie 15. o Zuzi

5. J not written before i. When a stem ends in j and the ending begins with i, the j disappears (in spelling, at least; it is still pronounced). Thus moj- (my) plus loc. sg. masc.-neut. -ym gives moim, czyj- (whose) plus gen. plur. -ych gives czyich, stoj- (stand) plus 2nd sg. -isz gives stoisz, and so on.

At the beginning of a word j- disappears before i also in pronunciation. The 3rd-person pronoun stem j- plus -ych gives ich, and the interrogative j-, as in jak (how) and jaki (what kind), plus the -yle of tyle (so much/many) gives ile (how much/many). Therefore the combination ji occurs only in the endings of borrowed nouns (see below).

6. One i or two? In w Gdyni (in Gdynia) and o Marysi (about Mary) one i is written, but in w Kalifornii (in California) and o Marii (about Maria) there are two. This is because Gdynia and Marysia are native Polish words with stems ending in a soft consonant (Gdyń-, Maryś-), and a single -i suffices to represent both the ending and the softness of the stem consonant. On the other hand, Kalifornia and Maria are foreign borrowings and their stems include a suffix. Therefore two letters are required, one for the suffix and another for the ending. Before the nominative singular ending -a there is hardly any difference in how Kalifornia and Gdynia end, and the presence of a suffix in the former is hard to detect. But before the adjective suffix -ski the difference is clear: Kalifornijski (-ij- suffix) vs. Gdyński (no suffix).

This suffix which occurs in foreign borrowings is -ij- after labials (p, b, f, w, m), velars (k, g, ch), n, and l and -yj- after the remaining dental consonants (t, d, c, s, z, and r).

The -ij-/-yj- suffix in borrowed words is not fully pronounced when a vowel ending follows. It is pronounced together with that vowel as a single syllable. Also, it is spelled with a single letter, not two. The letter used is -i- in every case except after c, s, and z. After these three letters -j- is written. The reason for this is to keep spellings like dyskusja, dyskusję, dyskusji (discussion) distinct from spellings like babusia, babusię, babusi (grandma), just as their pronunciations are distinct ("-us-" vs. "-uś-").

Complete the spelling of the following adjectives by inserting -ij- or -yj-. 1. relig___ny (religious) 2. kanad___ski (Canadian) 3. olimp___ski (Olympic) 4. ros___ski (Russian) 5. part___ny (party) 6. konstytuc___ny (constitutional) 7. bibl___ny (biblical)

Give the Polish equivalent, in the nominative, accusative, genitive, and locative cases. l. religion 2. mummy 3. Russia 4. constitution 5. Bible 6. Sophy (Zosia) 7. Sophia (Zofia) 8. party 9. Rosalie (Rozalia) 10. Rosey (Rózia)

Vocabulary

chwila moment	literatura literature	podłoga floor
ciąża pregnancy	mówca speaker	przy near
firma firm	niedźwiedź bear	spacer -u walk
głąb depth	Niemcy Germany	szafa wardrobe
gołąb pigeon	noc (fem.) night	Węgry Hungary
kolej (fem.) railway; turn	obiad dinner	wiersz poem, verse
konstytucja constitution	osoba person	Włochy Italy
kościół church	pisarz writer	zdjęcie photograph