CzeÅÄ, let's make a small introduction to ordinal numbers in Polish. Ordinal numbers, so numbers used to denote position in a sequence.
Here they are:
number masculine form feminine form
1st pierwszy pierwsza
2nd drugi druga
3rd trzeci trzecia
4th czwarty czwarta
5th piÄ ty piÄ ta
6th szósty szósta
7th siódmy siódma
8th ósmy ósma
9th dziewiÄ ty dziewiÄ ta
10th dziesiÄ ty dziesiÄ ta
11th jedenasty jedenasta
12th dwunasty dwunasta
13th trzynasty trzynasta
14th czternasty czternasta
15th piÄtnasty piÄtnasta
16th szesnasty szesnasta
17th siedemnasty siedemnasta
18th osiemnasty osiemnasta
19th dziewiÄtnasty dziewiÄtnasta
20th dwudziesty dwudziesta
…
100th setny setna
Let’s look at some examples:
We can use ordinal numbers to talk about time in Polish:
- Która jest godzina? /What time is it?
- Jest piÄ ta. /It is 5 o’clock. PiÄ ta comes from godzina piÄ ta, the 5th hour of the clock. Godzina (hour) is a feminine word in Polish and that is why we use piÄ ta and not piÄ ty, which is used with masculine nouns.
- Jest pierwsza po poÅudniu. /It is 1 p.m.
- Jest czwarta dwadzieÅcia. /It is 4:20. Here, 4 is expressed using an ordinal number – it is still the 4th hour of the clock, however 20 is expressed using the cardinal number “dwadzieÅcia”, so twenty in English.
- You can also say Jest dwadzieÅcia po czwartej. It's twenty past four. The meaning is the same.
Another situation:
- Jest dwudziesta minuta meczu. /It is 20th minute of the game. Minuta is a feminine noun.
- Jest druga w kolejce. /(She) is 2nd in the queue. The ending -a in dÅuga implies it is ona (she) who is waiting in the queue.
What about masculine examples?
- To jest mój czwarty samochód. /This is my fourth car. Samochód is masculine so we have the agreement samochód + czwarty.
- Mój drugi syn ma na imiÄ Tomek. /My second son’s name is Tomek. Agreement between masculine syn + drugi.
So now you know how to use ordinal numbers in daily situations. If you have any questions, need more examples, please leave a comment, I am here to help!
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