Historical Events
When discussing history, businesses, or buildings, you will frequently use verbs like założyć (to found) and powstać (to be created / established).
Saying "In the Year..."
In English, we often split years into pairs (like "nineteen ninety"). In Polish, a year is expressed using a mix of cardinal (standard) and ordinal (ranking) numbers.
- Thousands and hundreds are read as standard numbers (e.g., tysiąc, dziewięćset).
- Tens and units are read as ordinal numbers (e.g., czterdziesty, "fortieth").
To say that something happened "in a specific year", use the preposition w and put the ordinal part of the number and the word rok (year) into the Locative case.
- The thousands and hundreds do not change.
- The ordinal tens and units take the Locative masculine ending -ym or -im.
- The word rok becomes roku.
For example, 1940 is literally "in the one thousand nine hundred fortieth year": w tysiąc dziewięćset czterdziestym roku.
Years with Tens and Units
If a year has both a ten and a unit (like 1944 or 1877), both of those numbers are treated as ordinals and must take the Locative ending.
For example, 1877 is "in the one thousand eight hundred seventieth seventh year": w tysiąc osiemset siedemdziesiątym siódmym roku.
The Year 2000
The year 2000 is a special case. Instead of mixing cardinals and ordinals, the entire year is expressed as a single ordinal word: dwutysięczny (literally, "two thousandth"). In the Locative case, this becomes w dwutysięcznym roku.