My Home: Grammar (AQA GCSE Polish): Revision Note

• The following grammar points will help you talk about your home and where you live more accurately

  • They will allow you to describe where people and objects are, where you live, and what there is in your home or local area

• Learning these grammar structures will help you create more accurate and detailed sentences when speaking and writing about your home, town and local area

Locative case (mieszkać w + locative)

• In Polish, the preposition w (in) is used with the locative case when talking about where someone lives or where something is located

• The ending of a noun or adjective may change when it is used in the locative case

  • miasto → w mieście

  • dom → w domu

  • spokojna okolica → w spokojnej okolicy

• This structure is particularly useful when talking about your home, where you live and your local area

Prepositions of place and movement

• You should be able to understand and use a range of prepositions of place and movement

• These are particularly useful for describing where furniture and objects are in your home

• In Polish, the case used after a preposition can change depending on whether you are describing location or movement/direction

Important note about cases

In Polish, there is often a similar pattern:

• location - often takes the instrumental case (pod stołem, przed domem, za domem, nad stołem) – under the table, in front of the house, behind the house, above the table

• movement/direction - often takes the accusative case (pod stół, przed dom, za dom, nad stół) – under the table, in front of the house, behind the house, above the table

However, not all prepositions follow exactly the same pattern, so it is best to learn them together with examples and their correct case endings

Verb forms: jest / są (there is / there are)

• In Polish, jest and są are forms of the verb być (to be). They are used to say that something exists or is present somewhere

  • jest – there is / is (singular)

  • są – there are / are (plural)

• Use jest with a singular noun:

  • Jest park w pobliżu mojego domu. – There is a park near my house

• Use są with a plural noun:

  • Są dwa parki w mojej okolicy. – There are two parks in my local area

• Polish word order can be flexible. When describing your home or local area, it is often more natural to begin with the place:

  • W mojej okolicy jest park. – There is a park in my local area