DWA

You’ve probably all seen those hilarious memes about how many different forms the number 2 takes in Polish. It usually looks like a nightmare – like you’d need to memorize a million or even a billion forms: dwa, dwóch, dwóm, dwojgu, dwiema, dwaj, dwoma, dwoje… the list goes on!

Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news? Yep, those memes are spot on – this is real life in the world of Polish grammar. The bad news? At some point, you’re oing to have to learn all of this! But here’s a silver lining: you usually don’t need to tackle it right away. CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages)
suggests this for levels A2 and B1, so you’ve got time to warm up.

But don’t worry! Today, I’ll start you off easy. Let’s look at the basics, starting with the nominative case – think of it as your “day one, let’s-get-through-this-together” moment.

As you might already know, gender is a BIG deal in Polish (masculine, feminine, and neuter). I always tell my students: if you don’t know the gender of a noun, you’re stuck. No sentence for you! You won’t be able to choose the right adjective. For example: film is masculine, so you’d say film jest dobry (the movie is good), but coffee (kawa) is feminine, so it’s kawa jest dobra, and jabłko (apple) is neuter, so it’s jabłko jest dobre. The same goes for verbs in the past tense – you say mój syn czytał (my son read), moja córka czytała (my daughter read), and moje dziecko czytało (my child read).

And it doesn’t stop there! Even the number 1 is tricky. Polish gives you three forms:
jeden for masculine, jedna for feminine, and jedno for neuter, like: w lodówce jest jeden jogurt (there is one yogurt in the fridge), jedna cytryna (one lemon), and jedno jajko (one egg).

Now let’s dive into the number 2, because things are about to get fun!

For masculine, it’s DWA – dwa samochody (two cars), dwa telefony (two phones), dwa problemy (two problems), dwa obiady (two lunches), dwa kwiaty (two flowers). The same form works for neuter, so you get dwa jajka (two eggs), dwa jabłka (two apples), dwa spotkania (two meetings), dwa mieszkania (two apartments), dwa muzea (two museums).

But for feminine nouns, we switch to DWIE – dwie koleżanki (two friends), dwie córki (two daughters), dwie książki (two books), dwie kawy (two coffees), dwie lekcje (two lessons).

Oh, and because Polish loves to keep things spicy, there’s a special group just for masculine personal nouns, called masculine personal. For these, you use DWAJ – dwaj panowie (two gentlemen), dwaj profesorowie (two professors), dwaj koledzy (two male colleagues), dwaj nauczyciele (two teachers), dwaj synowie (two sons). Gotta keep it interesting, right?

So, for now, just focus on these three forms: DWA, DWAJ, and DWIE. It’s like eating an elephant – you’ve gotta take it one bite at a time!