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### The depreciative plural

In Polish, grammar itself can be used as an insult. When you want to express frustration, contempt, or a lack of respect toward a group of men (or a mixed-gender group), you can use the **depreciative plural** (*formy deprecjatywne*).

Normally, masculine personal nouns require virile (masculine personal) agreements. To show disrespect, you deliberately "downgrade" these men to the non-virile gender—the grammatical category usually reserved for objects, animals, and feminine nouns.

### How to downgrade a noun

To apply the depreciative plural, you must change every part of the sentence that agrees with the noun:

- **The noun:** It often takes a non-virile ending, usually *-y* or *-e*. For example, *chłopi* (guys/peasants) becomes *chłopy*.
- **Demonstratives and adjectives:** Use *te* instead of *ci*, and non-virile adjective endings like *-e* instead of *-y* or *-i* (e.g., *te leniwe* instead of *ci leniwi*).
- **Past tense verbs:** Verbs take the non-virile *-ły* ending instead of the virile *-li* ending (e.g., *mogły* instead of *mogli*).

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### Complaining about workers

This grammatical tool is most famously used to complain about incompetent workers, botched repairs, and terrible services. Respectable titles or neutral professions get twisted into depreciative forms, such as *majstry* (instead of *majstrowie* or *majstrzy*) and *fachowce* (instead of *fachowcy*).

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### Emphasizing incompetence

Even highly educated professionals aren't safe from the depreciative plural. *Inżynierowie* (engineers) can be rapidly downgraded to *inżyniery* when they make a mistake.

If a word is already an insult, like *partacz* (bungler or botcher), its plural noun form (*partacze*) looks exactly the same in both the standard and depreciative forms. However, pairing it with the non-virile demonstrative *te* and a non-virile verb like *wieszały* clearly marks your contempt.

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Depreciative plural (te chłopy)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

predicative

preposition

pronoun

proper noun

sentence

verb

This is (to jest)

The verb to be, singular (być)

Formal address (Pan, Pani)

Demonstrative pronouns (ten, ta, to)

Adjective agreement

Negation (nie)

Basic questions (czy, kto, co, gdzie, jak)

The verb to be, plural (być)

Present tense -m/-sz verbs

Reflexive verbs (się)

Coordinating conjunctions (i, a, ale)

Feminine direct objects (Accusative)

Inanimate direct objects (Accusative)

Animate masculine direct objects (Accusative)

Present tense verbs 2 (-ę, -isz / -ysz)

Expressing location (w, na)

Locative adjective agreement

Professions and nationalities (Instrumental)

Accompaniment (z + Instrumental)

Present tense verbs 3 (-ę, -esz)

Plural possessives (nasz, wasz)

Numbers 1 to 10

Genitive of possession

Genitive of negation

Lack or absence (nie ma)

Basic quantifiers (dużo, mało, trochę)

Liking things (podoba mi się)

Modal verbs (móc, musieć)

Subordinating conjunctions (bo, że)

Unidirectional motion verbs (iść, jechać)

Expressing age (mieć... lat)

Habitual motion (chodzić, jeździć)

Expressing destination (do)

Days of the week (poniedziałek, wtorek...)

Plural nouns for objects and animals

Plural nouns for people

Plural adjective agreement

Accusative object pronouns (go, ją, je...)

The past tense of to be (był)

Singular past tense (-łem, -łam...)

Expressing age (mieć + lata / lat)

Plural past tense (-li / -ły)

Perfective past tense

Future tense (będę + infinitive)

Age: one year (mieć rok)

Prices and currency (złoty, grosz)

Destination (na + accusative)

Non-masculine plurals (-e, -y, -i)

Instrumental pronouns (ze mną, z tobą)

To know (znać vs wiedzieć)

The future perfective tense

The imperative mood

Months of the year (styczeń, luty)

Greetings and farewells (dzień dobry, cześć)

Introducing yourself (mam na imię)

Thank you and sorry (dziękuję, przepraszam)

Left, right, up and down (po lewej stronie)

Parts of the body (ręka, noga)

Parts of the day (dzień, noc, południe)

What is it like? (jaki, jaka, jakie)

Speaking Polish (mówić po polsku)

Instrumental for adjectives (dobrym, dobrą)

Please do... (proszę + infinitive)

Interests (interesować się + Instrumental)

Can one? (można, trzeba, nie wolno)

By bus or by train (jechać autobusem)

Where are you from? (jestem z Polski)

Where exactly? (obok, przy, przed, za, pod, nad)

What time is it? (Która godzina?)

Not seeing her (go, jej, ich; niego, niej, nich)

When I have time (kiedy as a conjunction)

Irregular past stems (miał, mieli)

The verb 'iść' in the past (szedł, szli)

Imperfective future (będę odpoczywał)

Past aspect (robił vs zrobił)

Future aspect (będzie malował vs pomaluje)

Perfective motion with po- (pójść, pojechać)

Arrival verbs with przy- (przyjść, przyjechać)

Departure verbs with wy- (wyjść, wyjechać)

The Vocative case (Panie, Mamo)

Plural possessives (moi, moje)

Reflexive possessive pronouns (swój)

Genitive plural of masculine nouns (-ów, -y, -i)

Genitive plural of feminine and neuter nouns

Genitive plural of adjectives (-ych, -ich)

Accusative plural of masculine personal nouns

Question	Answer
guy	chłop
The more these guys drank, the worse they worked.	Im więcej te chłopy piły, tym gorzej pracowały.
Those lazy guys couldn't do anything well.	Te leniwe chłopy nie mogły nic dobrze zrobić.
incompetent	niekompetentny
foreman	majster
tile	płytka
crookedly	krzywo
Those incompetent tradesmen were laying the tiles completely crookedly.	Te niekompetentne majstry kładły płytki całkowicie krzywo.
furious	wściekły
I am furious because those tradesmen couldn't fix the roof.	Jestem wściekły, bo te majstry nie mogły naprawić dachu.
professional (noun)	fachowiec
to botch	spartaczyć
socket	gniazdko
Look how those professionals botched the socket!	Zobacz, jak te fachowce spartaczyły gniazdko!
Those professionals thought that the socket was too complicated.	Te fachowce myślały, że gniazdko jest zbyt skomplikowane.
bungler	partacz
Those stupid bunglers were hanging the lamp crookedly again!	Te głupie partacze znowu wieszały lampę krzywo!
The tiles are too expensive for those bunglers to lay them.	Płytki są zbyt drogie, żeby te partacze je kładły.
Did you see what those incompetent engineers did?	Widziałeś, co zrobiły te niekompetentne inżyniery?
These guys botched the socket, so I am furious.	Te chłopy spartaczyły gniazdko, więc jestem wściekły.