In short

Demonstrative pronouns (ten, ta, to = this / that) point something out, and possessive pronouns (mój, twój, nasz, wasz = my, your, our, your-pl) say whose it is. In Polish both are really adjective-like words: they stand in front of the noun and agree with it in gender, number and case. So the ending you pick depends on the Polish noun, never on the English word - mój changes to moja, moje, moich and so on.

The rule

A demonstrative or possessive pronoun agrees with its noun exactly the way an adjective does (see Lesson 11): it copies the noun’s gender (masculine / feminine / neuter), number (singular / plural) and case (nominative, accusative, etc.). Unlike English, there is no separate article system - ten dom covers both “this house” and “that house”, and the pronoun itself carries the gender.

Demonstratives: ten / ta / to

One set of forms means both “this” and “that”. The base (nominative singular) forms are:

• ten - masculine: ten kot (this cat), ten dom (this house)
• ta - feminine: ta kobieta (this woman), ta książka (this book)
• to - neuter: to okno (this window), to dziecko (this child)

In the plural Polish splits by virility (see Lesson 30): ci for a group that includes male humans, te for everything else.

• ci - masculine personal (virile): ci studenci (these students, males)
• te - all other plurals: te koty (these cats), te kobiety (these women), te okna (these windows)

If you truly need to contrast near vs far, add tu / tutaj (here) or tam (there): ten dom tutaj (this house here) vs ten dom tam (that house there). For an explicit “that one over there” there is also tamten / tamta / tamto - an everyday word, in no way formal, which declines just like ten.

Do not confuse the two “to”. The demonstrative to (neuter, “this/that”) agrees with a neuter noun: to okno. The invariable pointing word to in To jest…/To są… (“This is…/These are…”, Lesson 4) never changes for gender: To jest kot, To jest kobieta, To są koty all use the same to.

Possessives: mój / twój / nasz / wasz

These decline like adjectives and agree with the thing possessed, not the owner:

• mój / moja / moje = my
• twój / twoja / twoje = your (one person, informal)
• nasz / nasza / nasze = our
• wasz / wasza / wasze = your (more than one person, informal)

For the formal “your” (addressing pan / pani, Lesson 8) Polish uses pana (of a man) / pani (of a woman) / państwa (of a group): pana samochód (your car, sir), pani książka (your book, madam). These do not decline for the noun.

Third-person possessives: jego / jej / ich

“His”, “her/its” and “their” are the indeclinable words jego (his / its), jej (her) and ich (their). They never change to match the noun:

• jego dom, jego siostra, jego dzieci - his house / sister / children
• jej brat, jej książka, jej oczy - her brother / book / eyes
• ich samochód, ich matka - their car / mother

These are the same words as the genitive of the personal pronouns on / ona / oni (Lesson 19), reused for possession.

Forms & patterns

Demonstrative ten - full declension

*Masculine accusative singular: ten for inanimate nouns (Widzę ten dom - I see this house), tego for animate/personal nouns (Widzę tego kota - I see this cat). The feminine accusative is tę (a special short form; you will also hear tą in speech).

Possessive mój - full declension

twój declines identically (twój, twoja, twoje, twoi…).

*Same animacy split as ten: inanimate mój (mój dom), animate/personal mojego (mojego brata). Contracted forms mego, memu, mej, mych exist but are literary - stick to the full forms.

Possessive nasz - full declension

wasz declines identically (wasz, wasza, wasze, wasi…).

*Inanimate nasz (nasz dom), animate/personal naszego (naszego syna).

Nominative agreement at a glance

Examples

Common mistakes

• ta dom -> ten dom - dom is masculine, so the demonstrative is ten, not the feminine ta.
• ten kobieta -> ta kobieta - kobieta is feminine (-a), so use ta.
• mój siostra -> moja siostra - the possessive agrees with the noun’s gender; siostra is feminine -> moja.
• te studenci -> ci studenci - a group of male humans is virile, so the plural is ci, not te.
• ci koty -> te koty - cats are non-virile, so the plural demonstrative is te.
• Widzę ten pies -> Widzę tego psa - a masculine animate accusative takes tego (and psa), not the nominative ten pies.
• jego dom meaning “her house” -> jej dom - jego is his/its, jej is her; pick by the owner even though the word itself does not change.
• jejego / ichni samochód -> jej / ich samochód - jej and ich are fixed forms and never take adjective endings; ichni is a separate colloquial word, not standard Polish.

Tips

• Choose the ending by the Polish noun: think of its gender and case first, then attach the matching form of ten or mój.
• mój, twój, nasz, wasz march in step with adjectives - if you can decline dobry / dobra / dobre (Lesson 11), you already know their pattern.
• jego, jej, ich are your easy wins - three fixed words, no endings to learn.
• The masculine forms have a built-in animacy split in the accusative: things keep ten / mój, living beings switch to tego / mojego (just like the accusative of nouns, Lesson 9).
• Remember two different to: neuter demonstrative to (agrees: to okno) vs the frozen presenting to in To jest… (never agrees).
• For the plural, ask “does the group include a man?” - yes -> virile ci / moi / nasi; no -> te / moje / nasze.
• Contracted mego, mej, mych are fine to recognise in reading but sound old-fashioned; produce the full mojego, mojej, moich.