# Cases



## Smsh

I'm having a lot of difficulty with the cases, mostly cause the book I have is surprisingly not very clear on this subject.
Can you see if the cases that I would use for the English sentences are correct?

Nominative:

The car is white
That man is very big

Accusative:

He is going to go to the park
I am going to buy that book
They are waiting for a friend

Genitive:

My house
My friend is nice

Dative:

I will give him my old tv
He is going to be allowed to come here

Instrumental:

The car got crushed by a truck
The tv was fixed by a neighbour
He sliped on the stairs

Locative:

He fell in the street
She got mugged in the park
He died at home

Vocative:

???

Thanks ahead for the help =)


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## NotNow

The vocatiive is used when addressing someone or something. Examples of the vocative: Smsh, you are nice. David, come here. Rain, go away.

The accusative denotes a direct object. Examples: I see a park. I bought a book. I have a friend. 

The accusative is also used with some prepositions.

Google "Polish accusative case" and you'll find plenty of help.


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## BezierCurve

Welcome!

Yes, you mostly got it right.

As for "He is going to go to the park" it will be genitive:
On idzie do (kogo? czego?) parku. Accusative would be:
"Widzę (kogo? co?) park."

On the other hand, genitive would be better displayed in sentences like:

My firend's house is big. ->
Dom mojego (gen.) przyjaciela (gen.) jest duży.

"He slipped on the stairs" will be an example of locative ->
Poślizgnął się na schodach (loc.)
Instrumental of "schody" would be "schodami".

Vocative - is not used that much in colloquial speech, I wouldn't worry about it. If you want to create an example, simply call someone/something directly: 

"Oh, mother!" -> "O, matko!"

You really did great, don't worry about those small mistakes, it will come with time.

Note: as for the usage of accusative, you may expect it turning into genitive in negations. It might seem difficult, but here's an example:

Widzę (kogo? co? - acc.) park.
Nie widzę (kogo? czego? - gen.) parku.


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## BezierCurve

It just crossed my mind, that in your example with park actually there is a way to use accusative, if translated as: 

"On ma zamiar pójść do parku.". 

Actually, zamiar would be in accusative (On ma (kogo? co?) - zamiar).


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## Smsh

Thanks for the very helpful answers =). I'm going to practice the different cases, to try and get used to them.

But do Polish people themselves make errors when talking?


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## BezierCurve

> But do Polish people themselves make errors when talking?


 
A lot, especially in everyday speech. So, don't worry


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## przemo84

Smsh said:


> But do Polish people themselves make errors when talking?



We often use accusative instead of dative which is gramatically incorrect.

We often use *genitive* instead of *accusative* which is gramatically incorrect.


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## jazyk

Could you give an example?


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## .Jordi.

przemo84 said:


> We often use accusative instead of dative which is gramatically incorrect.


Could you give some examples, please?

EDIT: Whoops, I'm sorry, Jazyk, I didn't see your question. But I see that I'm not the only one curious .


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## przemo84

.Jordi. said:


> Could you give some examples, please?
> 
> EDIT: Whoops, I'm sorry, Jazyk, I didn't see your question. But I see that I'm not the only one curious .



Mea culpa - it should be  *we often use genitive instead of accusative* 

dobyć [kogo? co?]

You can hear: dobyć *gwoździ* instead of *dobyć gwoździe*


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## .Jordi.

przemo84 said:


> You can hear: dobyć *gwoździ* instead of *dobyć gwoździe*



Actually, both are correct, but there is a small difference of meaning.


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## przemo84

"wysłać [kogo? co?] SMS [acc]" but you can hear "wysłać SMS'a [gen]"


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## .Jordi.

przemo84 said:


> "wysłać [kogo? co?] SMS [acc]" but you can hear "wysłać SMS'a [gen]"



I'm sorry, but it isn't a good example neither, since SMS take two forms for the accusative case: SMS (equal to nom.) and SMS-a (equal to gen.), so both forms („wysłać SMS” and „wysłać SMS-a”) are correct.


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## mcibor

I don't think that people tend to make these grammar mistakes, at least not these with wrong clause.
Sometimes people make mistake in writing a proper form:

I poured gas to the tank (in the car)
Nalałem paliwa do baka
Nalałem paliwa do baku

I think the latter is correct


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## kknd

In my opinion there's no word like _baka_ in Polish (if there is, it must be very rare one or rare form of some word, but definitely not _bak_). In my opinion in most cases even if Polish people use improper collocations or declensions they (latter) are considered as acceptable in spoken language. I think that more common mistakes are for example spellings of _nie-_ with participles (now a little obsolete problem due to simplification made recently; e.g. _niepalący_ vs. _nie palący_) or _-by_ particle (rg. _choćby_, but _można by_).


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## mcibor

yes I agree with you kknd, that's why I said it's a mistake.
We were talking here about grammar (declension) mistakes,
and I saw such error few times, maybe not exactly this one,
but similar


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## Szymon Krulikowski

kknd said:


> In my opinion there's no word like _baka_ in Polish (if there is, it must be very rare one or rare form of some word, but definitely not _bak_).



I've heard of the verb _bakać_... but it's a different story.


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## kknd

My bad! See here. Verb _bakać_ seems to be slang.


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## fragile1

mcibor said:


> I don't think that people tend to make these grammar mistakes, at least not these with wrong clause.
> Sometimes people make mistake in writing a proper form:
> 
> I poured gas to the tank (in the car)
> Nalałem paliwa do baka
> Nalałem paliwa do baku
> 
> I think the latter is correct


 
In my opinion:


Nalałem paliwo do baku

Quote:
But do Polish people themselves make errors when talking? 

Oh, yes, very much, when they talking, when they writing. We have such a nice language especially when you start to use somebody's name. You have plenty of possibilities to use the name. It make fun.
And whit the proper use some word we have discussion sometimes for long hours. At list, if you ask some top expert the best solution I herd very many times is: both type are good 
Big respect for anyone who start to learn Polish as adult. Every mistake you make, is for good! GOOD LUCK!


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## Agi

Hello

I'm sure it will be :

Nalałem (kogo?czego?) paliwa do baku 

I totally agree with fragile1 Big respect for anyone who starts to learn Polish as adult


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## mcibor

I found that both are correct

Nalać wody - genitive
Nalać wodę - accusative

As for errors when talking, I totally agree, that both children and adults make them
Just I am not so sure that you can really make grammar clause mistakes when being native Polish, unless your whole acquaince group makes them. But then that could be a regionalism and not a mistake.

Certainly there are exceptions, as famous się zrobi się 
But these grammar mistakes are not clause related.


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