polski · A1 · vocabulary · 4 minutes
Common animals
Describe pets and animals while noticing animacy in the accusative.
Understand the choice
Animal vocabulary makes Polish animacy visible. Compare pies as subject with psa as object, while feminine ryba becomes rybę and inanimate patterns differ.
Core rule: Masculine animate direct objects take accusative like genitive: widzę psa/kota; subjects remain nominative.
Notice it in context
Pies bawi się, a kot śpi na kanapie.
The dog plays, and the cat sleeps on the sofa.
Pies and kot are nominative subjects; reflexive-like bawi się and śpi describe them.
Koń i krowa stoją na łące.
The horse and cow stand in the meadow.
Two subjects trigger plural stoją; na łące locative.
Ptak widzi mysz obok królika.
A bird sees a mouse beside the rabbit.
Mysz is feminine accusative unchanged; obok takes genitive królika.
What to remember
- Pies has oblique stem ps-: psa, psem.
- Koń has instrumental koniem and plural konie.
Common trap: Do not use nominative kot after widzę: widzę kota.