Polish morphology
The morphology of the Polish language is characterised by a fairly regular system of inflection (conjugation and declension) as well as word formation. Certain regular or common alternations apply across the Polish morphological system, affecting word formation and inflection of various parts of speech. These are described below, mostly with reference to the orthographic rather than the phonological system for clarity. Nouns. Declensions are generally divided into "hard" and "soft" declensions. Soft declensions are used when the stem of the noun ends in a soft (postalveolar or palatal-like) consonant in all forms, while hard declensions are used  by nouns with stems ending in a hard consonant in some (but not necessarily all) forms. Some nouns follow the adjectival declension (see below), particularly if they are masculine nouns ending in "-y/i". This applies even to some words with no apparent adjectival connection, such as "Jerzy" ("George"). Certain neuter nouns, mostly place names such as "Zakopane" and voivodeship names such as "Wielkopolskie" when used alone as nouns, follow the adjectival declension but take "-em" rather than "-ym" in the instrumental and locative. The following generalisations can be made for the inflection of all nouns: Masculine nouns. Masculine nouns  typically end in a consonant and those inflect according to the masculine declension. Masculine nouns ending in "-a" (usually personal) follow the feminine declension in the singular, and the masculine declension in the plural. The same applies to male personal names in "-o" (as "Kościuszko"; also "tato" "dad"), although familiar first name forms like "Franio" follow the masculine declension throughout. The following table shows the endings shared by all masculine nouns: The rest of the cases are different for 5 different declension groups: The following table compares all five declension groups: Note also: Irregularities in masculine nouns: Feminine nouns. Feminine  nouns usually end in "-a", although a few end in "-i". These are the "a-stem" nouns. A number of feminine nouns ends in a soft or hardened consonant; these are "i-stem" nouns. The following table shows the feminine a-stem declension: The following table shows the feminine i-stem declension: Neuter nouns. Neuter nouns end in "-o" or "-e", these are the hard and soft neuter "o-stems". A few end in "-ę", the so-called "n-stem" and "t-stem" nouns. The following table shows the neuter o-stem declension: The neuter n-stem and neuter t -stem nouns decline as soft neuter o-stems in the singular but as hard neuter o-stems in the plural. In addition, they have shortened nominative/accusative/vocative singular forms ending in "-ę". Irregular nouns. Notable irregular forms include the following: Invariant nouns. The following types of nouns are generally invariant, and do not inflect at all: Foreign personal names of males are declined if at all possible; some special rules are applied depending on the original language. Those that end "-y" or "-i" generally follow the adjectival declension, but these are treated as "-i", i.e. the previous consonant is  soft, and this is shown in inflected written forms such as "Tony'ego". Adjectives. Adjectives agree with the noun they modify in terms of gender and number. They are declined according to the following pattern ( means "proud"): Most short adjectives have a comparative form in or , and a superlative obtained by prefixing to the comparative. For example, ("cheap") has the forms ("cheaper") and ("cheapest") (these forms are inflected like normal adjectives). The following principles apply: Adverbs are formed from adjectives with the ending , or in some cases . Comparatives of adverbs are formed (where they exist) with the ending . Superlatives have the  prefix as for adjectives. Irregular comparatives include ("better"), ("worse"), ("more", also when not concerned with quantity, from "very"), ("less"). Pronouns. This section gives the declensions of Polish pronouns. For information on meanings and usage, see "Pronouns" in the article on Polish grammar. Personal pronouns: Polite 2nd person forms: "pan" (plural "panowie") and "pani" (plural "panie") are declined like those nouns. The mixed-sex form "państwo" (which can also be used as a noun to refer to a mixed-sex group or couple) is masculine personal plural, but declines like the neuter noun "państwo" ("state, country") except that the accusative is  państwa (like the genitive) and the locative "państwu". Reflexive pronoun: G/A "się" (this is a clitic, the emphatic form is "siebie"), D/L "sobie", I "sobą". Possessives: "mój", "twój", "nasz", "wasz" are declined like adjectives ("moja", "moje" etc.), as are "swój" and "pański". The third-person forms "jego", "jej" and "ich" are invariant, as are other forms identical to genitives ("pana" etc.) Demonstrative: "ten", declined like an adjective ("tego", etc., feminine "ta" etc.), except that the neuter N/A is "to" and the feminine accusative is "tę" (colloquially also "tą"). The prefixed form "tamten" is similar, but with feminine  accusative "tamtą". Interrogative pronouns: "kto", G/A "kogo", D "komu", I/L "kim"; and "co", G "czego", D "czemu", A "co", I/L "czym". The derived pronouns "ktoś/coś", "ktokolwiek/cokolwiek", "nikt/nic" are declined similarly ("kogoś" etc., note "nikogo", "niczego" etc.), although "nic" has the unaltered (accusative) form instead of "niczego" when it is the object of a negated verb. Others: "wszystek", declined like an adjective (fem. "wszystka" etc.), but neuter singular N/A "wszystko", and masculine personal plural N "wszyscy". The relative pronoun "który" (also an interrogative pronoun and adjective) is also declined like an adjective, as are  każdy and "żaden" ("każda", "żadna", etc.) Numbers and quantifiers. The declension of numerals is given below (accusative and vocative are equal to nominative unless stated). For information on formation and usage, see "Numbers and quantifiers" in the article on Polish grammar. Higher numbers ("tysiąc", "milion" etc.) are declined as nouns, and their multiples are treated as number+noun combinations ("dwa tysiące" "two thousand" behaves like "dwa miesiące" "two months", and so on). In compound numbers only the last part of the number is inflected, except when there are both tens and units, in which case both of those are inflected, and  when "jeden", which is indeclinable in all compound numbers, is the last part of the number, in which case the second to last part is inflected. Collective numerals: Quantifiers: Verbs. The lemma of a verb is the infinitive, which usually ends in "-ć" (occasionally "-c"). If a verb includes a prefix, then it is generally conjugated like the unprefixed verb, although sometimes the prefix may change its form (e.g. +: infinitive , but present tense etc.) The present tense (or future tense of perfective verbs) may follow either of the following patterns: The future tense of "być" ("be") also follows the  above pattern: "będę, będziesz, będzie, ..., będą" However the present tense of "być" is irregular: The past tense of most verbs is formed by replacing the "-ć" of the infinitive with "-ł" for the masculine singular, "-ła" for feminine singular, "-ło" for neuter singular, "-ły" for feminine plural and "-li" for other plurals; then adding the endings for 1S, 2S, 3S, 1P, 2P, 3P. (The "-e-" in the singular suffixes appears after a consonant but not after a vowel.) For example, from "być": The personal past tense suffixes, which are reduced forms of the present tense of "być", are clitics and  can be detached from the verb to attach to another accented word earlier in the sentence. Some verbs form their past stems differently: The conditional (or subjunctive) is formed from the past tense plus "by", the personal endings (if any) coming after the "by". For example: "byłbym/byłabym", "byłbyś/byłabyś", "byłby/byłaby/byłoby"; "bylibyśmy/byłybyśmy", "bylibyście/byłybyście", "byliby/byłyby". The endings ("-by", "-bym" etc.) are detachable clitics, like the past tense personal endings as mentioned above. The future tense of imperfective verbs (other than "być") is formed using the future of "być" ("będę" etc.) together with the infinitive, or the  past form (inflected for gender and number, but without any personal suffixes), of the verb in question. For example, the future of "robić" ("do, make") has such forms as "będę robić/robił/robiła", "będzicie robić/robili/robiły". The choice between infinitive and past form is usually a free one, but with modals governing another infinitive, the past form is used: "będzie musiał odejść" (not "będzie musieć...") "he will have to leave". The second personal singular imperative is formed from the present tense by dropping the ending (e.g. "brać": 2/3S present , imperative ), adding "-ij" for pronounceability (e.g. , pres. , imperative ); or (if  the present tense is in "-a-") by adding "-aj" (e.g. , pres. , imperative ). Irregular examples include "być: bądź", "mieć: miej". Add "-my" and "-cie" for the 1P and 2P forms. To make third-person imperative sentences (including with the polite second-person pronouns "pan" etc.) the particle "niech" is used. Other forms of the verb are: The modal verb "powinien" ("should") is conjugated with adjective-type and personal endings similar to the past tense ("powinna/-o/-i/-y"; "powinienem/powinnam" "I should" etc.) It has only one tense, although on rare occasions, "byłem", "byłeś", "był", etc. is added to show past meaning. Prepositions and  prefixes. Before some consonant clusters, particularly clusters beginning with a sibilant (in the case of "z") or with "f/w" (in the case of "w"), the prepositions "z" and "w" take the form "ze" and "we" (e.g. "we Wrocławiu" "in Wrocław"). These forms are also used before the first-person singular pronouns in "mn-"; several other prepositions also have longer forms before these pronouns ("przeze mnie, pode mną" etc.), and these phrases are pronounced as single words, with the stress on the penultimate syllable (the "-e"). When "z" is used as a prefix, it is spelt "s-" if it is  part of a voiceless consonant cluster. As preposition it is spelt "z" even if pronounced "s". The epenthesis of "-e-" also applies to the prefixes "w-" and "z-/s-", and to some others, such as "roz-" ("roz-" + "znać" = "rozeznać"). Word formation. Polish makes wide use of prefixes and suffixes in word formation. Some examples of this are: