LANGUAGE LEARNING LAB

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Memorize New Vocabulary

In Lesson 21 you learned how to use the Instrumental case for nouns. This lesson will focus on how to use the instrumental case for adjectives.

Just as nouns take different endings when used alongside the verb “byc”, so do adjectives. Below are the endings for adjectives in the instrumental case.

Apply It To Sentence Structure

We will now go through the steps of how to change the endings of an adjective for the Instrumental case.

As you have probably noticed, for masculine and neuter adjectives our table includes -(i)m / -(y)m endings. Let’s look at this in a little bit more detail.

Why are the vowels –i and –y in brackets?

The vowels in brackets mean that the vowel may or may not be added. The vowel –i or –y is not added when such a vowel already exists at the end of the adjective.

Examples:

Ciężki – Ciężkim

Ładny – Ładnym

How do I know when to change the ending into –im and when to –ym?

The ending –im will appear only when the last consonant is g, k or ń. In these cases the vowel –i will soften the consonant in order to make it easier to pronounce. (This rule also applies to nouns and other parts of speech)

Examples:

Ciężki – Ciężkim

Brzydki urzędnik – ugly clerk

Brzydkim urzędnikiem – ugly clerk (instrumental)

Try it for yourself!

Say the below phrases out loud (do not worry about extra vocabulary, this exercise is targeted at pronunciation):

Which phrases are easier to say? Yes, lekkim ołówkiem and niebieskim pociągiem are easier! They also sound better and more proficient. Try to remember this rule.

Practice it!

*Click here for answer key*

Lesson 22                                                                                                              Lesson 24