Attitudes and relations (wobec)

Expressing attitudes with wobec

When you want to describe your attitude, behavior, or feelings "towards" someone or something, use the preposition wobec. This preposition always requires the Genitive case.

You will frequently pair wobec with adjectives that describe personal traits or stances, such as being tolerant (tolerancyjny) or critical (krytyczny). Notice how the noun phrases following wobec take Genitive endings (like -ów for many masculine plural nouns and -ych or -ich for plural adjectives).

Is the boss tolerant towards new employees, or very critical?
Czy szef jest tolerancyjny wobec nowych pracowników, czy bardzo krytyczny?

Other common adjectives used to describe attitudes include being understanding (wyrozumiały) or suspicious (podejrzliwy).

Mother was always understanding towards my worst mistakes.
Matka zawsze była wyrozumiała wobec moich najgorszych błędów.
Why are you so suspicious towards this politician?
Dlaczego jesteś taki podejrzliwy wobec tego polityka?

Directing emotions and feelings

Instead of adjectives, you can also use nouns to express feelings directed at others. Words like compassion (współczucie), prejudice (uprzedzenie), or aversion (niechęć) pair perfectly with wobec.

Remember that in the Genitive plural, the word ludzie (people) becomes ludzi, and sąsiedzi (neighbors) becomes sąsiadów.

I feel deep compassion towards the victims of this accident.
Czuję głębokie współczucie wobec ofiar tego wypadku.
He has dangerous prejudices towards other people.
Ma niebezpieczne uprzedzenia wobec innych ludzi.
He feels great aversion towards the new neighbors.
Czuje wielką niechęć wobec nowych sąsiadów.

Obligations and expectations

Wobec is also heavily used to talk about professional, social, or familial relations. When you feel a sense of duty or are obligated to someone, you use the adjective zobowiązany.

We are obligated to our parents.
Jesteśmy zobowiązani wobec naszych rodziców.

Similarly, when you have an expectation of someone, use the noun oczekiwanie followed by wobec. For singular masculine animate nouns like pracownik (employee), remember that the Genitive ending is -a.

The boss has one expectation towards the employee.
Szef ma jedno oczekiwanie wobec pracownika.

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