Indefinite pronouns (-ś)

The Magic Suffix "-ś"

To solve mysteries like a true detective, you need to talk about unknown people, things, and places. In Polish, you can turn a question word into an indefinite pronoun or adverb simply by adding the suffix -ś. This is exactly like adding "some-" or "any-" in English.

Someone and Something: Ktoś and Coś

If you take the words for who (kto) and what (co) and add the -ś suffix, you get words for unspecified people and things:

• kto (who) + ś = ktoś (someone, somebody, anybody)
• co (what) + ś = coś (something, anything)

Just like kto and co, these pronouns change their endings depending on the grammatical case they are in.

Somewhere and Sometime: Gdzieś and Kiedyś

You can use the exact same trick for places and times:

• gdzie (where) + ś = gdzieś (somewhere, anywhere)
• kiedy (when) + ś = kiedyś (sometime, once, in the past, ever)

Because these words are adverbs, they never change their form or decline.

Some kind of: Jakiś

Finally, you can add -ś to the question word jaki (what kind / which) to create the adjective jakiś. This word translates to some, some kind of, or a certain.

Because jakiś is an adjective, it must agree with the gender, number, and case of the noun it describes. It declines exactly like jaki, with the -ś tacked onto the very end of the new ending.

For example, if the noun requires the Genitive or Accusative case for a masculine animate noun, jakiś becomes jakiegoś.