How to decline names and surnames in Polish?

Spelling of names and surnames in Polish is one of the most challengingproblems in our language. This is the reason I decided to make a little overviewillustrating this problematic issue. My students are always surprised andshocked when they realize that sometimes their name has five forms. Forexample:Nominative - To jest John. (This is John).Genitive - Nie ma Johna. (John is not here.)Dative - Dziękuję Johnowi za pomoc. (I thank you John for help).Accusative - Lubię Johna. (I like John).Instrumental - Idę z Johnem do pubu. (I go with John to the pub.)Locative - Mówię o Johnie. (I talk about John).Vocative - O! John! (O! John! - being positively surprised when we seeJohn on the street).For some of the students it is hard to accept so many forms of theirnames because they do not recognize themselves when somebody is saying: “Szukam Victora”. (I am looking for Victor) or “ Idę z Jasonem do kina” (I gowith Jason to the cinema). They may feel as though somebody is attacking theirpersonality or editing their name to something more intimate. Some of mystudents also ask me for support in the idea of not declining their names butunfortunately I cannot say “yes”, because we have to follow the grammar rules.Some foreigners feel happy because five forms of their name is like fivedifferent points of view for themselves, for the intricate human nature. I do notknow another grammar problem which causes so many philosophic, deep andsmart discussions after the part of lesson informing how to inflect names andsurnames in Polish!The grammar rules are strict. Feminine names that ends in ‘ a’ aredeclined like nouns, for example names Amelia, Herta, Olga, Victoria.Nominative - To jest Amelia. (This is Amelia ).

Genitive - Nie ma Amelii. (Amelia is not here.)Dative - Dziękuję Amelii za pomoc. (I thank you Amelia for help).Accusative - Lubię Amelię. (I like Amelia).Instrumental - Idę z Amelią do pubu. (I go with Amelia to the pub.)Locative - Mówię o Amelii. (I talk about Amelia).Vocative - O! Amelia! (O! Amelia!)We do not inflect those feminine names without ending -a, like Mariko,Marie, Judith, Lourdes, Yolande.Masculine names with endings -i, -y, like Luigi, Harry are declined likeadjectives, which makes very surprising sound for students who listen to it forthe first time. For example:Nominative - To jest Luigi. (This is Luigi).Genitive - Nie ma Luigiego. (Luigi is not here.)Dative - Dziękuję Luigiemu za pomoc. (I thank you Luigi for help).Accusative - Lubię Luigiego. (I like Luigi).Instrumental - Idę z Luigim do pubu. (I go with Luigi to the pub.)Locative - Mówię o Luigim. (I talk about Luigi).Vocative - O! Luigi!Masculine names that ends with -a (Barnaba, Jarema), with -o(Guillermo, Geronimo, Valerio), with a consonant at the end (Michał, John,Jacques, Francis) are inflected like nouns. And the good news for those whowould prefer not to have their names declined is that names with ending -u, -ein their spelling (Matthew, Andrew, Manuele) are not declined at all! We onlydecline masculine names with an accent on the last syllable, like André, René,Louis. But we do not inflect name “François”.There is a similar situation is with surnames. We generally decline themwhenever it is possible to find the grammar pattern. We definitely do not

inflect the surnames with a different accent or form whien it is not possible toassign them to the Polish declination pattern like “Dubois”, “ Pompidou”,“Delacroix”.Feminine surnames with endings -ska, cka (Malinowska, Mecnarowska),-owa, -ova, -ewa (wifes names - Walczakowa, Vyrková, Jakowlewa) aredeclined like adjectives. Feminine surnames with ending with -a (Duda,Falenda), with endings -ówna, -anka (Walczakówna, Jagodzianka – likedaughters surnames long time ago), with endings -ina, -yna (Zarębina,Żabczyna – like wifes surnames some time ago) are declined like nouns. We donot transform feminine surnames with consonants at the end or differentvocals than “a” (Amado, Jakowlenko, Kampe, Voyznuk).Masculine surnames with endings -ski, -cki, -dzki (Polański, Rudzki,Bałucki), surnames which look like common adjectives ( Biały, Czarny,Łaskawy), the surnames with endings -i, -y (Paolini, Rakoczy), with endings -e(D’Agnese, Lange), spelled with -e, but written with - é, -ée, -ai, ais (Rabelais,Merimée) are declined in the same manner as adjectives.Masculine surnames with consonants at the end ( Hampton, Steel,Walczak, Lis), are declined in the same way as masculine nouns, those with -aat the end (those follow the feminine pattern - Wajda, Kališta, Mata), withendings -o (Matejko, Komarenko – slavonic surnames follow feminine pattern,not slavonic, like “Picasso” follow masculine pattern).This is merely an overview illustrating this panoramic grammar problem.Declination of foreign surnames give us more doubts and even Poles are neversure how to inflect it. People have always had the same dilemma aboutwhether to decline the surname with an apostrophe or without (z Joyce’em, oJoysie). Further dilemmas include when we should take the original version of asurname like Shakespeare, Washington, Rousseau, Chopin and when the Polishversion is also correct (Szekspir, Waszyngton, Russo, Szopen). The mostshocking case for my students is always the fact that members of the BritishRoyal Family in the Polish language is “Królowa Elżbieta” (Queen Elizabeth) and“Książę Karol” (Prince Charles)! We have the tendency to make the Polishversion of names and surnames.

My Dear Students! Do not despair! Maybe dividing your names in four,five versions will be the fantastic opportunity to discover another hiddenaspects of your personality!

This article was published in “The Wrocław International”- Wrocław’s firstEnglish-language newspaper, October 2011, Issue 13, ISSN 2082-730X