Editing Polish language (section)

== Grammar ==
{{main|Polish grammar}}
Polish is a highly [[fusional language]] with relatively free [[word order]], although the dominant arrangement is [[subject–verb–object]] (SVO). There are no [[article (grammar)|articles]], and subject pronouns are often [[Pro-drop language|dropped]].

[[Noun]]s belong to one of three [[grammatical gender|genders]]: masculine, feminine and neuter. The masculine gender is also divided into subgenders: animate vs inanimate in the singular, human vs nonhuman in the plural. There are seven [[case (grammar)|case]]s: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative.

[[Adjective]]s agree with nouns in terms of gender, case, and number. [[Attributive adjective]]s most commonly precede the noun, although in certain cases, especially in fixed phrases (like {{lang|pl|język polski}}, "Polish (language)"), the noun may come first; the rule of thumb is that generic descriptive adjectives normally precede (e.g. {{lang|pl|piękny kwiat}}, "beautiful flower") while categorizing adjectives often follow the noun (e.g. {{lang|pl|węgiel kamienny}}, "black coal"). Most short adjectives and their derived [[adverb]]s form [[comparative]]s and [[superlative]]s by inflection (the superlative is formed by prefixing {{lang|pl|naj-}} to the comparative).

[[Verb]]s are of imperfective or perfective [[aspect (grammar)|aspect]], often occurring in pairs. Imperfective verbs have a present tense, past tense, compound future tense (except for {{lang|pl|być}} "to be", which has a simple future {{lang|pl|będę}} etc., this in turn being used to form the compound future of other verbs), subjunctive/conditional (formed with the detachable particle {{lang|pl|by}}), imperatives, an infinitive, present participle, present gerund and past participle. Perfective verbs have a simple future tense (formed like the present tense of imperfective verbs), past tense, subjunctive/conditional, imperatives, infinitive, present gerund and past participle. Conjugated verb forms agree with their subject in terms of person, number, and (in the case of past tense and subjunctive/conditional forms) gender.

[[Passive voice|Passive]]-type constructions can be made using the auxiliary {{lang|pl|być}} or {{lang|pl|zostać}} ("become") with the passive participle. There is also an impersonal construction where the active verb is used (in third person singular) with no subject, but with the reflexive pronoun {{lang|pl|się}} present to indicate a general, unspecified subject (as in {{lang|pl|pije się wódkę}} "vodka is being drunk"—note that {{lang|pl|wódka}} appears in the accusative). A similar sentence type in the past tense uses the passive participle with the ending {{lang|pl|-o}}, as in {{lang|pl|widziano ludzi}} ("people were seen"). As in other Slavic languages, there are also subjectless sentences formed using such words as {{lang|pl|można}} ("it is possible") together with an infinitive.

[[Yes–no question]]s (both direct and indirect) are formed by placing the word {{lang|pl|czy}} ("whether") at the start, although it's often omitted in casual speech. Negation uses the word {{lang|pl|nie}}, before the verb or other item being negated; {{lang|pl|nie}} is still added before the verb even if the sentence also contains other negatives such as {{lang|pl|nigdy}} ("never") or {{lang|pl|nic}} ("nothing"), effectively creating a [[double negative]].

[[Cardinal number (linguistics)|Cardinal number]]s have a complex system of inflection and agreement. Zero and cardinal numbers higher than five (except for those ending with the digit 2, 3 or 4 but not ending with 12, 13 or 14) govern the [[genitive case]] rather than the nominative or accusative. Special forms of numbers ([[collective numeral]]s) are used with certain classes of noun, which include {{lang|pl|dziecko}} ("child") and [[plurale tantum|exclusively plural]] nouns such as {{lang|pl|drzwi}} ("door").