1.1 Prepositions requiring instrumental case include z, which means "with" in the sense of accompaniment, e.g., Poszliśmy z Markiem do kina (or Myśmy z Markiem poszli do kina or My z markiem poszliśmy do kina--Marek and I went to the movies). Note that "Marek and I" in Polish is normally literally "we with Marek", not Marek i ja. Also Piję herbatę z mlekiem (I drink my tea with milk).

2.2 Five prepositions take the accusative case in phrases denoting the goal of movement but instrumental case in phrases denoting location: przed (before), za (behind), nad (above), pod (beneath), and między (between). Examples:

2.3 Certain verbs take a complement in the instrumental case. They include verbs of governing or controlling. Examples: władać językami obcymi (have a command of foreign languages), kierować sprawami firmy (direct the business of the firm). When expressing movements with parts of the body, the nouns denoting latter are in the instrumental, e.g., machać ręką (wave the hand). A related usage is seen in rzucić piłką (throw the ball). Verbs accompanied by się cannot take accusative complements and some of them take instrumental complements, as in Lekarz zajmował się chorymi (The doctor was looking after the patients).

2.4 Instrumental is also the case of the predicate noun, i.e., the noun in a sentence with a copula which characterizes the subject noun. For example, in Pani Nowak jest profesorem matematyki Ms. Nowak is characterized as a professor of mathematics and "professor" is in the instrumental case. The predicate noun need not follow the subject noun, because word order in a Polish sentence is determined by its Topic - Comment structure (Ch. 3, §4). If the topic is Warsaw and you wish to characterize it as the capital of Poland, you say Warszawa jest stolicą Polski. But if the topic is European capitals and you wish to say that Poland's is Warsaw, you say Stolicą Polski jest Warszawa. With whatever word order, the generic noun is the predicate noun which characterizes the proper name, and the proper name is in the nominative case.

3. Instrumental case forms. For 1st-declension (masculine and neuter) nouns the ending is -em (-iem after k and g). Adjectives and pronouns agreeing with masculine and neuter nouns take -ym (or -im). Examples: z tym panem, z moim gościem, z nim.

3.1 Personal pronouns in the instrumental case have these forms:

The 3rd-person pronouns begin with n even when not after preposition. For example: Córka ma nową nauczycielkę angielskiego. Jest nią pani Collins.

3.2 Cardinal numerals in the instrumental case are dwoma (for feminine optionally dwiema), trzema, czterema. For 'five' and higher, the instrumental ending is -oma (pięcioma, sześcioma, dziesięcioma, jedenastoma, kilkoma, etc.), which should be used when no noun follows. In other contexts the oblique form in -u may be used. Thus one may say Rozmawiałem z pięciu kolegami as well as ... z pięcioma kolegami.

4. Adverbs are uninflected words that modify verbs (mówić po polsku), adjectives (bardzo ciekawa), or other adverbs (tylko dzisiaj). They also function as predicates in a subjectless sentence (Nam było ciepło [We were warm]).

4.1 The most productive way of forming adverbs is with the suffixes -o and -e added to the stems of adjectives that express qualities. (Adjectives that express relations, such as tylny [in the rear], < tył [rear], do not form adverbs.)

5. Comparison. The quality expressed by a qualitative adjective or adverb may be present to a greater or lesser degree: someone may be smarter or talk faster than someone else. Corresponding to the -er suffix in English, Polish has a comparative -sz- suffix for adjectives and a comparative -ej suffix for adverbs.

5.1 Comparison of adjectives. Like -er in English, -sz- in Polish is not used with adjectives derived from participles. Just as interesting is compared as more interesting and tired as more tired, so in Polish interesujący (interesting) is compared as bardziej interesujący and zmęczony (tired) as bardziej zmęczony.

5.2. Comparison of adverbs. The -ej suffix causes softening in the preceding stem consonant. Examples: łatwo (easily) > łatwiej (more easily), cicho (quietly) > ciszej (more quietly), długo (for a long time) > dłużej (for a longer time), grzecznie (politely) > grzeczniej (more politely).

5.3 A few common adjectives and adverbs have suppletive comparatives:

5.4 "Than" after a comparative adjective or adverb is niż. Examples: Marysia jest mądrzejsza, niż Janek, Janek śpiewa ładniej, niż Marysia. Where a comparative adjective is followed by niż and the nominative case, od + genitive may be substituted. Thus in To pióro jest lepsze, niż tamto, but not in Chciałbym napisać list lepszym piórem, niż to.

Express in Polish. 1. The students want to read more-interesting books. 2. Jadzia wears (nosi) longer dresses than her mother (wears). 3. I've never seen a smaller dog than Mrs. Karpiska's. 4. Don't you have closer relatives (krewny) in Poland than your uncle Łukasz's ex-wife? 5. The Polish teacher we have this year is worse than the one we had last (zeszły) year. 6. Can't your children be politer? 7. I'm never tireder than I am after Polish class. 8. There were several words Fred didn't understand even (nawet) in the easier sentences. 9. Ann's older brothers didn't want her to take harder courses (kurs) the first year than they took. 10. The (czym) more students (that) take Polish, the (tym) better Professor Nowak likes it.

6. Superlative. The superlative degree of an adjective or adverb is formed by prefixing naj- to the comparative. Examples: starszy > najstarszy, ładniejszy > najładnieszy, łniej > najładniej, bardziej interesujący > najbardziej interesujący.