Polish Grammar - Numbers and Quantifiers

Numbers and Quantifiers

Polish has a complex system of numerals and related quantifiers, with special rules for their inflection, for the case of the governed noun, and for verb agreement with the resulting noun phrase.

The basic numerals are 1 jeden, 2 dwa, 3 trzy, 4 cztery, 5 pięć, 6 sześć, 7 siedem, 8 osiem, 9 dziewięć, 10 dziesięć, 11 jedenaście, 12 dwanaście, 13 trzynaście, 14 czternaście, 15 piętnaście (pronounced -et-), 16 szesnaście, 17 siedemnaście, 18 osiemnaście, 19 dziewiętnaście (pronounced -et-), 20 dwadzieścia, 30 trzydzieści, 40 czterdzieści, 50 pięćdziesiąt (pronounced pieńdź-), 60 sześćdziesiąt (pron. sze(s)dź-), 70 siedemdziesiąt, 80 osiemdziesiąt, 90 dziewięćdziesiąt (pronounced -wieńdź-), 100 sto, 200 dwieście, 300 trzysta, 400 czterysta, 500 pięćset (usually pronounced pieńset), 600 sześćset (usually pronounced szejset), 700 siedemset, 800 osiemset, 900 dziewięćset (usually pronounced -wieńset-).

These numerals are inflected for case, and also to some extent for gender. For details of their inflection, see Numbers and quantifiers in the article on Polish morphology.

Thousand is tysiąc, treated as a noun (so 2000 is dwa tysiące, etc.) Million is milion, billion (meaning a thousand million) is miliard, a million million is bilion, a thousand million million is biliard, and so on (i.e. the long scale is used).

Compound numbers are constructed similarly as in English (for example, 91 234 is dziewięćdziesiąt jeden tysięcy dwieście trzydzieści cztery).

When a numeral modifies a noun, the numeral takes the expected case, but the noun may not; also the gender and number of the resulting noun phrase may not correspond to that of the noun. The following rules apply:

• The numeral jeden (1) behaves as an ordinary adjective, and no special rules apply. It can even be used in the plural, for example to mean "some" (and not others), or to mean "one" with pluralia tantum, e.g. jedne drzwi "one door" (drzwi has no singular).
• After the numerals dwa (dwie), trzy, cztery (2, 3, 4), and compound numbers ending with them (22, 23, 24, etc.), the noun is plural and takes the same case as the numeral, and the resulting noun phrase is plural (e.g. 104 koty stały, "104 cats stood").
• With other numbers (5, 6, etc., 20, 21, 25 etc.), if the numeral is nominative or accusative, the noun takes the genitive plural form, and the resulting noun phrase is neuter singular (e.g. 5 kotów stało, "5 cats stood").
• With the masculine personal plural forms of numbers (as given in the morphology article section), the rule given above – that if the numeral is nominative or accusative the noun is genitive plural, and the resulting phrase is neuter singular – applies to all numbers other than 1 (as in trzech mężczyzn przyszło, "three men came"), unless the alternative nominative forms dwaj, trzej, czterej (for 2, 3, 4) are used (these take nominative nouns and form a masculine plural phrase).
• If the numeral is in the genitive, dative, instrumental or locative, the noun takes the same case as the numeral (except sometimes in the case of numbers that end with the nouns for 1000 and higher quantities, which often take a genitive noun regardless).

Polish also has a series of numerals called collective numerals (liczebniki zbiorowe), namely dwoje (for 2), troje (for 3), czworo (for 4), pięcioro (for 5), and so on. These are used with the following types of nouns:

• dzieci ("children"), and words for the young of animals such as kocięta ("kittens");
• pluralia tantum, i.e., nouns that lack a singular form (like drzwi "door(s)", urodziny "birthday(s)")
• plural nouns referring to a group containing both sexes (for example, czworo studentów refers to a mixed-sex group of four students).

For the declination of collective numerals by case, see the morphology article section. They all follow the rule that when the numeral is nominative or accusative, the noun becomes genitive plural, and the resulting noun phrase is neuter singular. In this case the genitive noun is also used after the instrumental of the numeral.

Certain quantifiers behave similarly to numerals. These include kilka ("several"), parę ("a few") and wiele ("much, many"), which behave like numbers above 5 in terms of the noun cases and verb forms taken. There are also indefinite numerals kilkanaście, kilkadziesiąt, kilkaset (and similar forms with parę-), meaning "several-teen", several tens and several hundred.

Quantifiers that always take the genitive of nouns include dużo ("much, many"), mało ("few, little"), więcej ("more"), mniej ("less") (also najwięcej/najmniej "most/least"), trochę ("a bit"), pełno ("plenty, a lot").

The words oba and obydwa (meaning "both"), and their derived forms behave like dwa etc. However the collective forms oboje, obydwoje (in the nominative/vocative), when referring to a married couple or similar, take the nominative form of the noun rather than the genitive, and form a masculine plural noun phrase (oboje rodzice byli, "both parents were", cf. dwoje rodziców było).

For the declination of all the above quantifiers, see the morphology article section.