Liczebniki (part 1)

Cześć Wam, i Wszystkiego Najlepszego w Nowym Roku!

We’re back in business.

A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, and this means, among other things which are not related to Polish in any way, learning the numeral. In my opinion this is the toughest and crappiest part of Poish grammar, not to mention I find it somewhat senseless – it’s so complicated that even Polish people have problems getting the right forms.

So let’s try to shed some light on those numerals (liczebniki).

First of all, here’s a list of all types of numerals, which we’ll be taking one at a time, trying to clear things up in terms of declension and syntax.

1. Cardinal num. = liczebniki główne (jeden, piętnaście, trzysta, miliard)

2. Ordinal num. = liczebniki porządkowe (czwarty, dwunasty)

3. Collective num. = liczebniki zbiorowe (czworo, jedenaścioro)

4. Indefinite num. = liczebniki nieokreślone (dużo, kilkanaście)

5. Fractional num. = liczebniki ułamkowe (pół, trzy cywarte)

6. Multiplicative num. = liczebniki mnożne (podwójny, poczwóry)

7. Reified num. = wielorakie liczebniki (dwojaki, pięcioraki).

So let’s start with liczebniki główne.

P.S. it may look scary, although I’ve tried to keep it simple. It takes some patience and some practice, nothing more (ok, it took me about one year, a job in a bar, three grammar exams and one summer course to figure out the numeral, but that’s just me, I’ve never been good with numbers).