Forming Ordinal Numbers (13th to 19th)
Polish creates ordinal numbers for the teens by adding an adjectival ending. Masculine nominative forms end in -nasty (e.g., trzynasty, czternasty).
| This is our thirteenth project, and this is the fourteenth. | To jest nasz trzynasty projekt, a to czternasty. |
| Piotr, is this the fifteenth or the sixteenth building? | Piotrze, czy to piętnasty, czy szesnasty budynek? |
Agreement with Nouns
Ordinal numbers act exactly like adjectives and must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case. For example, the masculine -y ending changes to -ą for feminine accusative (direct object) nouns, and to -e for non-masculine-personal plurals.
| She is reading the fifteenth book. | Ona czyta piętnastą książkę. |
| Today is her eighteenth birthday! | Dzisiaj są jej osiemnaste urodziny! |
Centuries and the Locative Case
Higher ordinal numbers are frequently used to talk about centuries.
| century | wiek |
To say "in the seventeenth century," use the preposition w followed by the locative case. The ordinal number takes the masculine locative ending -ym: w siedemnastym wieku.
| In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was no internet. | W siedemnastym i osiemnastym wieku nie było internetu. |
The Twentieth and Dates
The word for twentieth is dwudziesty. It follows the exact same adjective rules as the teen numbers.
| In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries life was different. | W dziewiętnastym i dwudziestym wieku życie było inne. |
Dates also use ordinal numbers. When saying "Today is the twentieth...", use the masculine nominative form because the implied noun is dzień (day), followed by the month in the genitive case.
| Today is the twentieth of November. | Dzisiaj jest dwudziesty listopada. |