In short

Ordinal numerals (Polish liczebniki porządkowe) name rank or order - pierwszy, drugi, trzeci (first, second, third) - and answer the question który? (which one?). Unlike the cardinal numbers you met in step 13, ordinals behave like adjectives: they agree with their noun in gender, number and case and decline exactly like adjectives do. Get that agreement right and you can give dates, tell the time, number floors and chapters, and rank anything.

The rule

They are adjectives

Every ordinal is a regular adjective in disguise. pierwszy declines like dobry (hard type), trzeci declines like tani (soft type), and all the others follow one of those two shapes. So an ordinal always copies the gender, number and case of the noun it points at:

• pierwszy dzień (the first day, m.), pierwsza lekcja (the first lesson, f.), pierwsze piętro (the first floor, n.);
• na trzecim piętrze (on the third floor, locative), do piątej klasy (into the fifth grade, genitive).

There is no apocope and no special “one” form as in English - the ending simply changes with gender and case.

Building the words

The stems 1-10 are learned words; from 11 up the ordinal is built on the cardinal stem plus adjective endings. Note the shift from liczebnik główny -> liczebnik porządkowy: pięć -> piąty, osiem -> ósmy, dziesięć -> dziesiąty, sto -> setny, tysiąc -> tysięczny. See the table below.

Compound ordinals: only the last two words inflect

In a compound ordinal, hundreds and thousands stay cardinal and only the tens and units turn into ordinals (and decline). Read the last word to see the pattern:

• 21st -> dwudziesty pierwszy (both the ten and the unit are ordinal);
• 121st -> sto dwudziesty pierwszy (sto stays cardinal, then two ordinals);
• 1999th / the year 1999 -> tysiąc dziewięćset dziewięćdziesiąty dziewiąty (tysiąc, dziewięćset cardinal; the last two ordinal).

Where you use them

• Dates. The day of the month is an ordinal. To state the date: Dziś jest dwudziesty maja (Today is the 20th of May, nominative). To say “on such-and-such a date” use the genitive: Wrócę dwudziestego maja (I’ll be back on the 20th of May). The month is always genitive: maja, lipca, grudnia.
• Clock time. The hour is a feminine ordinal (it agrees with the hidden noun godzina): Jest pierwsza (It’s one o’clock), Jest trzecia. “At” takes the locative: o pierwszej, o piątej (at one, at five); a scheduled “for” takes the accusative: na siódmą (for seven o’clock).
• Floors, chapters, grades, places: drugie piętro, trzeci rozdział, piąta klasa, pierwsze miejsce.

Forms & patterns

Ordinals 1-20 (masculine nominative)

Tens, hundreds, thousand

Gender in the nominative singular

Full declension of pierwszy (hard type, like dobry)

Masc. sg. accusative is pierwszego for animate nouns, pierwszy for inanimate. The masculine-personal plural nominative shows the adjective alternation pierwszy -> pierwsi; likewise drugi -> drudzy.

Soft type: trzeci (like tani)

Examples

Common mistakes

• na trzeci piętrze -> na trzecim piętrze - the ordinal must take the case of its noun (locative here).
• dwa maja -> drugiego maja - dates use the ordinal in the genitive, not the cardinal.
• dwadzieścia pierwszy wiek -> dwudziesty pierwszy wiek - in a compound ordinal the tens word is ordinal too (dwudziesty), not cardinal.
• pierwszy lekcja -> pierwsza lekcja - the ordinal must agree in gender (feminine pierwsza).
• Jest pierwszy. (the time) -> Jest pierwsza. - the clock hour is feminine, agreeing with godzina.
• o piąta -> o piątej - “at” a time takes the locative, so piąta becomes piątej.
• sto pierwszy for 100th -> setny - 100th is its own word; sto pierwszy means 101st.

Tips

• Treat every ordinal as an adjective: whatever you know about declining dobry / tani applies unchanged.
• For a date think two steps: day = ordinal, month = genitive. “On the 5th of May” -> piątego maja.
• Clock hours are all feminine because godzina is feminine: pierwsza, druga, trzecia… and “at” pushes them to the locative: o pierwszej, o drugiej.
• In a big number only the last two words become ordinals; everything to the left stays cardinal.
• Watch the stem changes from the cardinal: pięć -> piąty, osiem -> ósmy, dziewięć -> dziewiąty, sto -> setny.
• Learn the masculine-personal plurals pierwsi, drudzy early - they are the ones that trip learners up (pierwsze miejsca but pierwsi zawodnicy).