Stating today's date (Nominative)
When you want to state what today's date is, use the phrase dziś jest (today is) followed by the day and the month. The day is expressed as an ordinal number in the Nominative case (acting as the subject of the sentence), while the month is always in the Genitive case.
For example, "the first of March" is pierwszy marca.
| Today is the first of March. It is an important date in my calendar. | Dziś jest pierwszy marca. To ważna data w moim kalendarzu. |
| What is the exact date today? Today is the second of September. | Jaka jest dzisiaj dokładna data? Dzisiaj jest drugi września. |
Expressing when an event happened (Genitive)
When you want to say that something happened on a specific date, the entire date phrase—both the ordinal number for the day and the month—must be in the Genitive case.
This is commonly used with verbs like wydarzyć się (to happen) or odbyć się (to take place) when discussing history, biographical dates, or accidents. To say "on the first of March", you change the day to pierwszego marca.
| What happened on the first of March? | Co wydarzyło się pierwszego marca? |
| The uprising took place on the first of August, because the people wanted freedom. | Powstanie odbyło się pierwszego sierpnia, dlatego że ludzie chcieli wolności. |
Side-by-side comparison
Let's look at how the Nominative and Genitive cases contrast directly in a single sentence. Notice how the ending of the ordinal number changes depending on whether it is simply today's date or the time when a specific event took place.
| Today is the fifth of November, and the battle took place on the fifth of November. | Dzisiaj jest piąty listopada, a bitwa odbyła się piątego listopada. |
This distinction is especially useful when establishing exact dates for a battle (bitwa) or victory (zwycięstwo), or when discussing the round anniversary (okrągła rocznica) of an uprising.
| Today is a round anniversary, so we are organizing celebrations of our victory. | Dzisiaj jest okrągła rocznica, więc organizujemy obchody naszego zwycięstwa. |
| The accident happened on the third of October, this is the exact date. | Wypadek wydarzył się trzeciego października, to jest dokładna data. |