Polish/More on nouns - genders

Depending on the classification chosen, there are either three or five genders in Polish:
 * Masculine (męski)
 * Masculine personal (męski osobowy)
 * Masculine animate (męski nieosobowy żywotny)
 * Masculine inanimate (męski nieosobowy nieżywotny)
 * Feminine (żeński)
 * Neuter (nijaki)

In the plural, męskoosobowy (masculine-personal) and niemęskoosobowy (non-masculine-personal) are used for masculine personal nouns and the remaining ones respectively.

Unlike German, and more like Italian, it is usually possible to determine the gender of a noun by looking at its ending and meaning.
 * Nouns that end in -a are usually feminine.
 * Exceptions include words that end in -ista, which indicate followers of some ideology (like komunista, communist) - they are considered person-masculine.
 * Nouns that end in -awca/-owca and describe professions (like sprzedawca, salesman; kierowca, driver) are also considered person-masculine.
 * An exception is the word "mężczyzna," which means "adult male person" and is obviously person-masculine.
 * Some other masculine words include "tata" (dad), "poeta" (poet), and "sędzia" (judge).
 * Some words that end in a consonant are feminine, such as gałąź (branch), jesień (autumn), łódź (boat or a Polish city), myśl (thought), noc (night), podróż (journey), pomoc (help), postać (figure), północ (north and midnight), rzecz (thing), sól (salt), twarz (face), and wieś (countryside).
 * Their declension is quite similar to that of feminine nouns ending in "-a".
 * Nouns that end in -ść are usually feminine.
 * They are often abstract nouns, such as miłość (love, from the adjective miły, nice, in old Polish "loved") and wysokość (height, from the adjective wysoki, high).
 * Nouns that end in -o, -e, -ę, or -um are usually neuter.
 * Examples include dziecko (child), zawiniątko (package), jedzenie (food), wyjście (departure, exit, solution), zwierzę (animal), and muzeum (museum). NOTE: Some nouns ending in -e are plural and require plural verbs, such as grabie (rake), Katowice, nożyce (scissors), skrzypce (violin), spodnie (pants), and szczypce (pliers).
 * Most other nouns ending in a consonant are masculine, and their exact gender depends on their meaning. The most common exceptions are animate-masculine nouns that aren't truly animate, especially in spoken language.
 * Nouns that end in -i or -u in the nominative singular are rare and mostly of foreign origin. Native Polish words ending in -i are feminine, such as gospodyni (hostess or farmer's wife) or pani (lady). NOTE: Some nouns ending in -i are plural and require plural verbs, such as drzwi (door), Helsinki, nożyczki (scissors), and obcęgi (tongs).

Now, here are some examples:


 * "Adam pije kawę" - Adam drinks coffee.
 * "Kasia widzi Adama" - Kasia sees Adam.
 * "Kot pije mleko" - A cat drinks milk.
 * "Adam widzi kota" - Adam sees a cat.
 * "Adam ma komputer" - Adam has a computer.

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