Beyond the everyday demonstratives and possessives, Polish has a second tier of determiners that English handles with loose phrases like "such a", "a certain", "some", or "that very". This page covers taki ("such a / that kind of"), ów ("that", formal and literary), niektóry ("some of a set"), pewien ("a certain"), and the determiner use of sam ("the very / itself"). It ends with the distinction that trips up nearly every English speaker: the two Polish translations of "the same" — ten sam and taki sam — which look interchangeable but are not.
All of these agree with their noun in gender, number and case, and all but pewien decline like ordinary adjectives. Treat them as adjectives that happen to point rather than describe.
taki — "such a / that kind of / so"
Taki (feminine taka, neuter takie) qualifies a noun the way English "such a" does, but it is far more common and far less formal. Where English "such" sounds slightly elevated, Polish taki is everyday speech. It picks out a kind or degree rather than a specific item: not "that book" but "a book like that / of that sort".
Nie spodziewałem się takiej reakcji.
I didn't expect such a reaction.
Skąd masz taki ładny płaszcz?
Where did you get such a nice coat?
To był taki dzień, że chciałam tylko wrócić do domu.
It was the kind of day that made me just want to go home.
Before an adjective, taki also works as an intensifier meaning "so" — taki dobry "so good", taka zmęczona "so tired". This is the colloquial cousin of tak ("so") used directly before adjectives, and it agrees with the noun the adjective describes.
Dlaczego jesteś taka cicha dzisiaj?
Why are you so quiet today?
Oni mają takie małe mieszkanie, a tak dobrze je urządzili.
They have such a small flat, yet they've furnished it so well.
ów — "that" (formal / literary)
Ów (feminine owa, neuter owo) is a higher-register equivalent of ten/tamten. You will meet it in essays, legal prose, journalism and older literature, almost never in casual speech, where it sounds bookish or even pompous. Its main everyday survival is the fixed phrase w owym czasie ("at that time") and ów... ten correlative pairs in formal writing. It declines like an adjective but keeps the irregular nominative forms ów / owa / owo.
W owym czasie nikt jeszcze nie znał jego nazwiska. (literary)
At that time no one yet knew his name.
Autor wraca do owego wątku w ostatnim rozdziale. (formal)
The author returns to that thread in the final chapter.
Decyzja owej komisji wywołała protesty. (formal)
The decision of that commission provoked protests.
In speech, swap ów for ten or tamten. Reaching for ów in conversation is a classic over-correction by learners who have read it in texts.
niektóry — "some (of a set)"
Niektóry means "some" in the partitive sense of "some, but not all, of a known set". It is almost always used in the plural — niektórzy (masculine-personal) and niektóre (everything else) — and frequently stands alone as a pronoun ("some people / some of them"). Do not confuse it with jakiś ("some / a certain", indefinite) or with the quantifier kilka ("a few"): niektóry always implies a larger whole from which you are selecting a subset.
Niektórzy ludzie po prostu nie lubią zmian.
Some people just don't like change.
Niektóre sklepy są otwarte w niedzielę.
Some shops are open on Sundays.
Zgadzam się z niektórymi twoimi argumentami.
I agree with some of your arguments.
pewien — "a certain"
Pewien (feminine pewna, neuter pewne) introduces an indefinite but specific referent — "a certain man", "a certain problem" — the storyteller's "a particular X I have in mind but won't fully identify". It is the closest Polish gets to a genuine indefinite article, and it is the standard way to open a narrative. Note that pewien uses the short masculine nominative form pewien (not pewny); in other cases it declines normally (pewnego, pewnemu...). The longer form pewny exists too but means "sure / certain (confident)", a different word.
Pewien człowiek przyszedł wczoraj i pytał o ciebie.
A certain man came yesterday and asked about you.
Mam pewien pomysł, ale jeszcze go nie przemyślałem.
I have a certain idea, but I haven't thought it through yet.
Do pewnego stopnia masz rację.
To a certain extent you're right.
sam as a determiner — "the very / itself"
You will meet sam most often as the emphatic pronoun "alone / by oneself" (covered on the sam pronoun page). As a determiner placed before a noun, sam means "the very / the mere / itself", pointing to the essence of a thing with nothing added.
Sam fakt, że przyszedłeś, wiele dla mnie znaczy.
The very fact that you came means a lot to me.
Na samą myśl o egzaminie robi mi się niedobrze.
At the very thought of the exam I feel sick.
Dotarliśmy aż na sam szczyt.
We made it all the way to the very top.
Its most important determiner use, though, is inside the phrase ten sam — which brings us to the central problem of this page.
"The same": ten sam vs taki sam
English "the same" is genuinely ambiguous, and Polish forces you to resolve the ambiguity every time. There are two distinct meanings hidden inside one English phrase, and Polish gives each its own construction.
ten sam = the identical referent, one and the same thing. The very object, person, or instance — not a copy.
taki sam = the same kind, a different thing that happens to be identical in type. A copy, a match, the same model.
The textbook test case is cars. If two people own the same model of car, that is two cars of one type — taki sam. If a single car keeps reappearing, that is one car — ten sam.
| ten sam | taki sam | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | identical referent (one thing) | same kind (a matching but separate thing) |
| Built on | ten (this/that) + sam | taki (such) + sam |
| "the same car" | ten sam samochód (the very same car) | taki sam samochód (the same model of car) |
| "the same man" | ten sam człowiek (one man) | taki sam człowiek (a man just like him) |
Both ten and sam agree with the noun, so the whole phrase inflects: ta sama, to samo, te same, tego samego, tej samej... and likewise taka sama, takie samo, tacy sami.
To był ten sam człowiek, którego widzieliśmy w banku.
It was the same man we saw at the bank.
Mamy taki sam samochód — czerwony, z 2019 roku.
We have the same car — red, from 2019.
Codziennie jadę tym samym autobusem.
Every day I take the same bus.
Kupiłam taką samą sukienkę jak ona.
I bought the same dress as her.
Notice the logic of the last pair. Tym samym autobusem — there is one bus line, the very same vehicle/route each day. Taką samą sukienkę jak ona — two separate dresses that match; you couldn't both be wearing one dress.
A useful side note: taki sam often pairs with jak ("as / like") to name the standard — taki sam jak... ("the same as..."). Ten sam pairs with co or a relative clause — ten sam, co wczoraj ("the same one as yesterday").
Zamówię to samo co ty.
I'll order the same thing as you.
On ma takie samo poczucie humoru jak jego ojciec.
He has the same sense of humour as his father.
Common Mistakes
❌ Mamy ten sam samochód, oboje jeździmy nim do pracy... nie, czekaj, mamy dwa.
Incorrect logic — if there are two cars, it must be taki sam, not ten sam
✅ Mamy taki sam samochód.
We have the same car (same model, two cars).
❌ To była taka sama kobieta, którą wczoraj spotkałem.
Incorrect — one specific woman seen again requires ten sam(a)
✅ To była ta sama kobieta, którą wczoraj spotkałem.
It was the same woman I met yesterday.
❌ W owym czasie chodziłem do ów szkoły. (in casual speech)
Incorrect register — ów is formal/literary; use tamtej in speech
✅ W tamtych czasach chodziłem do tamtej szkoły.
Back then I went to that school.
❌ Niektóry ludzie nie lubią zmian.
Incorrect — niektóry must agree; masculine-personal plural is niektórzy
✅ Niektórzy ludzie nie lubią zmian.
Some people don't like change.
❌ Mam pewny pomysł.
Incorrect — pewny means 'sure/confident'; 'a certain idea' needs the short determiner pewien
✅ Mam pewien pomysł.
I have a certain idea.
Key Takeaways
- taki = "such a / that kind of" (and "so" before adjectives); everyday, agrees with its noun.
- ów = formal/literary "that"; in speech use ten/tamten. Don't over-import it from texts.
- niektóry (usually plural niektórzy/niektóre) = "some of a known set", not the vague jakiś.
- pewien = "a certain" — Polish's nearest thing to an indefinite article; short masculine form pewien, not pewny.
- The decisive split: ten sam = one identical thing; taki sam = two things of the same kind. English "the same" hides both — Polish makes you choose. Compare the demonstratives on the ten / tamten / to page.
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- Demonstratives: ten, ta, to, ci, teA1 — ten 'this' agrees in gender, number and case like an adjective — but the sentence-opening to in 'to jest…' is a frozen, invariable word that does not agree at all.
- sam: Self, Alone, VeryB2 — One agreeing Polish word that means 'myself (emphatic)', 'alone', and 'the very' at once — and reveals the speaker's gender along the way.
- ten vs tamten vs to: DemonstrativesA2 — How to choose between the agreeing demonstrative ten/ta/to, the 'over there' tamten, and the frozen identifying to in 'to jest…'.
- Quantity Words: dużo, mało, kilka, parę, wieleA2 — The vague quantity words — dużo, mało, kilka, parę, wiele, trochę — all govern the genitive and trigger neuter-singular verb agreement, exactly like the numbers five and above.
- The Comparative: -szy / bardziejA2 — How Polish forms 'bigger, taller, more interesting' — the synthetic -szy/-ejszy suffix with stem mutation, the analytic bardziej type, and the four high-frequency irregulars.