When planning an event, you want to make sure everyone is invited and everything is ready. Polish uses two universal pronouns to express absolute completeness: wszystko (everything) and wszyscy (everyone).
Everything: Wszystko
Use wszystko to talk about things or concepts. It takes the exact same form in the Nominative and Accusative cases.
| She organized everything perfectly for today. | Ona wszystko doskonale zorganizowała na dzisiaj. |
| They took care of everything perfectly, we have excellent catering and snacks. | Oni doskonale zadbali o wszystko, mamy świetny katering i przekąski. |
Everyone: Wszyscy
When talking about people, you must choose the correct case depending on the word's grammatical role. If "everyone" is the subject doing the action, use the Nominative form wszyscy.
Unlike English, which treats "everyone" as a singular word (everyone is), Polish treats wszyscy as a plural group (everyone are). Notice how the verbs that follow must match this plural form.
| Everyone knows that you must organize the catering and take care of the drinks. | Wszyscy wiedzą, że musisz zorganizować katering i zadbać o napoje. |
| When everyone is ready, I am going for champagne and snacks. | Kiedy wszyscy są gotowi, idę po szampana i przekąski. |
Direct Objects: Wszystkich
If "everyone" is the direct object receiving the action—such as when you need to inform, see, or invite everyone—the word changes to its Accusative form: wszystkich.
| You must inform everyone where the balloons and decorations are. | Musisz poinformować wszystkich, gdzie są balony i dekoracje. |
| Yesterday we informed everyone that everything is ready. | Wczoraj poinformowaliśmy wszystkich, że wszystko jest gotowe. |
Neither... Nor...
If your event planning hits a snag, you might need to say that "neither" one thing "nor" another is working out. Polish uses the pair ani..., ani... to express this.
Because Polish requires double negation, you must always add nie to the main verb of the sentence.
| Neither the boss nor the director is present today, so I am not satisfied. | Ani szef, ani dyrektor nie jest dzisiaj obecny, więc nie jestem zadowolony. |
| Neither this champagne nor these snacks are tasty. | Ani ten szampan, ani te przekąski nie są smaczne. |