Mini Breakthrough

Cześć!

I am starting to realise a mini-breakthrough in my understanding of cases. I've been testing out basic sentences with my interlocutor in the past few days . . . testing getting the cases right in simple examples. It's just a different way of thinking of sentence construction. I'm far from having them all figured out.

Successful examples from the morning (feel free to comment whether they are successful or not!):

• Mam lekcje z Piotrem. (Piotr + Instrumental/Narzędnik)
• I have a lesson with Piotr.
• Lubię barszcz. (barszcz + Accusative/Biernik - in this example there is no change in the suffix)
• I like barszcz.
• Zjadłem ciasto z lodem lodami. (lody + Instrumantal/Narzędnik)
• I ate cake with ice cream.
• My interlocutor tells me that ice cream is always plural, unless it comes on a stick. If I ate cake and ice cream on a stick, I am apparently correct in saying 'zjadłem ciasto z lodem.'
• To jest porftel Kolina. (Kolin + Genitive/Dopełniacz)
• It is Kolin's wallet.

Have I got it right? I know there are a thousand variations in the rules, but I need to start with a few examples that work. I feel like I'm starting to get someplace with this and now I understand why my teacher is making me learn them. Soon, I should write a chart of the various case endings, because I can't remember them all at once just yet.

To make it more complicated, each case requires a different suffix (or sometimes none at all) depending on the noun's gender (male, female, or neuter), status (virile, non-virile), whether it is singular or plural, and on the spelling/sound of the nominative form. There are, of course, exceptions and irregularities. For example, masculine singular nouns almost always end with '-owi' in the Dative/Celownik, except for the following words:

• ojciec --> ojcu (father)
• pan --> panu (gentleman, man)
• chłop --> chłopu (peasant, fellow)
• brat --> bratu (brother)
• pies --> psu (dog)
• kot --> kotu (cat)
• lew --> lwu (lion)
• orzeł --> orłu (eagle)
• świat --> światu (world)
• Bóg --> Bogu (God)
• diabeł --> diabłu (devil)

As with exceptions in English grammar, I'm always curious to define what possible similarities the exceptions have. Sometimes you can tease a pattern out of the exceptions . . . just enough to make you think you have it figured out. I hope that after a certain period of practice, applying the cases properly can become a matter of intuition, because I'm not really keen on remembering all these rules in detail. I often tell my English students that there are no rules . . . there are only groups of exceptions!