Introduction To Ordinal Numbers in Polish

Cześć, let's make a small introduction to ordinal numbers in Polish. Ordinal numbers, so numbers used to denote position in a sequence.

Here they are:

number             masculine form             feminine form

1st                         pierwszy                              pierwsza

2nd                        drugi                                     druga

3rd                         trzeci                                    trzecia

4th                         czwarty                                czwarta

5th                         piąty                                     piąta

6th                         szósty                                  szósta

7th                         siódmy                                siódma

8th                         ósmy                                   ósma

9th                         dziewiąty                            dziewiąta

10th                       dziesiąty                             dziesiąta

11th                       jedenasty                           jedenasta

12th                      dwunasty                           dwunasta

13th                       trzynasty                            trzynasta

14th                       czternasty                         czternasta

15th                       piętnasty                           piętnasta

16th                       szesnasty                          szesnasta

17th                       siedemnasty                     siedemnasta

18th                       osiemnasty                        osiemnasta

19th                       dziewiętnasty                   dziewiętnasta

20th                       dwudziesty                        dwudziesta

…

100th                    setny                                    setna

Let’s look at some examples:

We can use ordinal numbers to talk about time in Polish:

• Która jest godzina?    /What time is it?
• Jest piąta.   /It is 5 o’clock.     Piąta comes from godzina piąta, the 5th hour of the clock.   Godzina (hour) is a feminine word in Polish and that is why we use piąta and not piąty, which is used with masculine nouns.
• Jest  pierwsza po południu.   /It is 1 p.m.
• Jest czwarta dwadzieścia.   /It is 4:20.        Here, 4 is expressed using an ordinal number – it is still the 4th hour of the clock, however 20 is expressed  using the cardinal number “dwadzieścia”, so twenty in English.
• You can also say Jest dwadzieścia po czwartej.  It's twenty past four. The meaning is the same.

Another situation:

• Jest dwudziesta minuta meczu.  /It is 20th minute of the game.   Minuta is a feminine noun.
• Jest druga w kolejce.     /(She) is 2nd in the queue. The ending -a in długa implies it is ona (she) who is waiting in the queue.

What about masculine examples?

• To jest mój czwarty samochód.  /This is my fourth car. Samochód is masculine so we have the agreement samochód + czwarty.
• Mój drugi syn ma na imię Tomek.  /My second son’s name is Tomek.   Agreement between masculine syn + drugi.

So now you know how to use ordinal numbers in daily situations. If you have any questions, need more examples, please leave a comment, I am here to help!