Lesson 2. Noun Genders: Masculine, Feminine, Neuter

Noun genders in Polish

 

Polish has three genders:

  • Masculine (męski)

  • Feminine (żeński)

  • Neuter (nijaki)

 

How to identify the gender of a noun?

 

  1. Masculine gender (męski)
    Usually nouns that refer to men or male animals, or that end in a consonant.
    Examples:

  • chłopiec (boy)

  • kot (cat)

  • stół (table)

 

  1. Feminine gender (żeński)
    Nouns that refer to women or female animals, or that end in -a.
    Examples:

  • dziewczyna (girl)

  • kura (hen)

  • książka (book)

 

  1. Neuter gender (nijaki)
    Nouns that often end in -o, -e or -ę.
    Examples:

  • dziecko (child)

  • okno (window)

  • zwierzę (animal)

 

Practice exercises

 

Exercise 1. Identify the gender of the noun
Write which gender each word belongs to:

  1. pies

  2. kobieta

  3. auto

  4. mężczyzna

  5. lampa

  6. okno

  7. kwiat

 

Exercise 2. Sort the nouns into three columns by gender
(You can use the words from exercise 1 or your own examples)

 

Exercise 3. Make sentences
Make one sentence with a noun of each gender. For example:

  • Chłopiec czyta książkę. (The boy is reading a book.)

  • Dziewczyna idzie do szkoły. (The girl is going to school.)

  • Dziecko bawi się na podwórku. (The child is playing in the yard.)