Personal Pronouns

Content

• First Person
• Second Person
• Third Person

These pronouns are used to refer to a person or thing. Note that some pronouns have 2 and even 3 alternatives. The black forms represent the long form of the pronoun.
The blue represents the short form,
and the red the prepositional forms.

First of all, the long forms are used instead of the short ones after a prepositions. However, if the pronoun has a red prepositional form it takes priority.

Dzięki niemu.
(Thanks to him)

NOT:
Dzięki jemu.
Dzięki mu.

Long forms are also used to stress emphasis and at the beginning of the clause.

Daj to jemu, a nie jej.
(Give this to him, not to her)

NOT:
Daj to mu, a nie jej.

 

Ciebie nie lubię.
(I don’t like you)

NOT:
Cię nie lubię.

Besides these types of constructions, either the long or short form is usually acceptable, but the short form can often sound more natural. Note that the prepositional forms are only ever used after prepositions, nothing else.

 

First Person

The nominative singular form “ja” equates to “I” in English, and “my” means “we”, since these forms represent the subject. The rest of the singular forms means “me” and the plural ones mean “us”.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ja	my
Genitive	mnie	nas
Dative	mnie/mi	nam
Accusative	mnie	nas
Instrumental	mną	nami
Locative	mnie	nas

 

Second Person

In English, all these forms translate to “you” because you is used both in the singular and plural.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ty	wy
Genitive	ciebie/cię	was
Dative	tobie/ci	wam
Accusative	ciebie/cię	was
Instrumental	tobą	wami
Locative	tobie	was

 

Third Person

Here, the English equivalents will be placed under each form to more easily demonstrate what each pronoun means.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine Personal	Other
Nominative	on he	ona she	ono it	oni they	one they
Genitive	jego/go/niego him	jej/niej her	jego/go/niego it	ich/nich they	ich/nich they
Dative	jemu/mu/niemu him	jej/niej her	jemu/mu/niemu it	im/nim they	im/nim they
Accusative	jego/go/niego him	ją/nią her	je/nie it	ich/nich they	je/nie they
Instrumental	nim him	nią her	nim it	nimi	nimi
Locative	nim him	niej her	nim it	nich they	nich they