We haven’t covered even a smidget of grammar in a really long time, and I’m sure that by now you all must be really missing all those declensions, and cases, and tenses, and aspects and what not. Unfortunately than you will have to miss them for a few more days, because today we will talk about my favorite part of speech. Which does not decline. Does not change. Always stays always the same. Has no gender. And no, in case you’re wondering, I haven’t swapped languages while you were not looking, it’s still Polish we’re writing about on this blog.
Such a magical part of speech does exist. Even in Polish.
And yes, you guessed right. It’s adverb time!
I love adverbs. Always have and always will. Not only do they make sentences pretty, they are also fairly easy and uncomplicated. And in Polish, as I’m sure you already know, that counts for a lot. And not just any a lot, but a lot a lot.
So yes, adverbs.
- przysłówek (noun, masculine, plural: przysłówki) – adverb
Just like in English, they answer to the questions “how?” – “jak?”, “when?” – “kiedy?” and “where?” – “gdzie?”.
So far so good. But wait, it gets better. Just like in English, Polish adverbs don’t change. For example:
- spokojnie (adverb) – calmly
- powoli (adverb) – slowly
- głośno (adverb) – loudly
And by and large, these three endings: -e, -i (this one rather rarely, too) and -o are all that’s involved in simple adverbs (because adverbs of time and place can have other endings).
I know that some people who are learning Polish tend to confuse adverbs with adjectives. And I can see why it could happen. Our adjectives can end in -e, too (neuter singular and non-masculine plural). But the biggest difference is that while Polish adjectives decline, adverbs do not. Sweet, isn’t it? So basically, all you need to learn is to tell them (meaning adverbs) apart from adjectives and your work here is done.
Here are some adjective-adverb combinations, so you can see the difference for yourself:
- spokojny – spokojnie (calm)
- głośny – głośno (loud)
- zimny – zimno (cold)
- gorący – gorąco (hot)
- ładny – ładnie (pretty)
See, it’s not all that complicated.
Next time we’ll take a look at adverbs of time and place.
