In short

Indefinite pronouns name a person, thing, place or time without specifying which one: somebody, something, some, somewhere, sometime, each, everybody. In Polish most of them are built by adding the little particle -ś to a question word: kto (who) -> ktoś (somebody), co (what) -> coś (something), gdzie (where) -> gdzieś (somewhere). They are the positive twins of the negative words in lesson 25, so learning one set almost gives you the other for free.

The rule

An indefinite pronoun points at some member of a set while leaving the member unnamed. Polish has three main ways to make them, plus a few high-frequency quantifier-pronouns.

1. The -ś series: something/somebody exists, but I do not say which

Take a question word and glue -ś onto the end. The stem still declines exactly as the plain question word does; the -ś simply rides along on every case form:

• ktoś - somebody (from kto)
• coś - something (from co)
• jakiś - some, a certain (from jaki, agrees like an adjective)
• któryś - one (or other) of them (from który)
• czyjś - somebody’s (from czyj)
• gdzieś - somewhere / kiedyś - sometime, once / jakoś - somehow / dokądś - to somewhere (adverbs, invariable)

Use this series for a real but unspecified referent: Ktoś dzwoni (Somebody is calling - a definite person, I just do not know who).

2. The -kolwiek series: any at all, no matter which

Add -kolwiek for a free-choice / it-does-not-matter-which meaning:

• ktokolwiek - anybody at all
• cokolwiek - anything at all
• jakikolwiek - any (whatsoever)
• którykolwiek - whichever
• gdziekolwiek - anywhere / kiedykolwiek - ever, at any time

Zapytaj kogokolwiek (Ask anybody at all). The colloquial equivalent is byle + word: byle kto (just anybody, often dismissive), byle co (any old thing).

3. The quantifier-pronouns

These stand on their own and are extremely common:

• każdy / każda / każde - each, every (singular, agrees like an adjective)
• wszyscy (virile) / wszystkie (non-virile) - everybody, all (people/things, plural)
• wszystko - everything (neuter, treated as singular)
• niektórzy (virile) / niektóre (non-virile) - some (of a known group)
• kilka - a few, several (+ genitive; see numeral syntax)

Case after negation

Because the object of a negated verb goes into the genitive (the genitive of negation, see lesson 15), an indefinite object often shifts case under nie: Widzę coś (accusative) -> Nie widzę niczego (genitive, and now the negative twin). Positive coś becomes negative nic/niczego once nie enters the clause.

Forms & patterns

ktoś (somebody) and coś (something) decline like kto / co with -ś attached:

jakiś (some, a certain) agrees with its noun in gender, number and case - it declines like the adjective jaki plus -ś:

(The masculine accusative is jakiegoś with an animate/personal noun, jakiś with an inanimate one - the usual animacy split from lesson 9.)

każdy (each, every) declines like an adjective and is normally singular only:

The productive endings in one line: question word + -ś (some-) or + -kolwiek (any-); ni- on the front gives the negatives of lesson 25.

Examples

Common mistakes

• Ktoś dzwoni do drzwiami. -> Ktoś dzwoni do drzwi. - do takes the genitive (drzwi); ktoś itself stays nominative as the subject.
• Rozmawiałam z ktoś. -> Rozmawiałam z kimś. - after a preposition the -ś pronoun takes the governed case (instrumental kimś).
• Kupiłem jaki książkę. -> Kupiłem jakąś książkę. - jakiś must agree with its noun in gender/case (feminine accusative jakąś).
• Każdzi studenci dostali… -> Każdy student dostał… - każdy is singular; for “all” use plural wszyscy.
• Nie widzę coś. -> Nie widzę niczego. / Nic nie widzę. - under nie the positive coś switches to the negative twin (and genitive); see lesson 25.
• Zapytaj ktokolwiek. -> Zapytaj kogokolwiek. - -kolwiek rides on a declined stem; the accusative/genitive of persons is kogokolwiek.

Tips

• Two suffixes, two meanings: -ś = “some (real but unnamed)”, -kolwiek = “any (free choice, does not matter which)”. Ktoś zadzwonił (someone did) vs Może zadzwonić ktokolwiek (anyone could).
• The -ś and -kolwiek never change - only the stem in front of them declines: kogoś, komuś, kimś; kogokolwiek, komukolwiek.
• Map the three families onto each other: kto -> ktoś -> ktokolwiek -> nikt; co -> coś -> cokolwiek -> nic; gdzie -> gdzieś -> gdziekolwiek -> nigdzie.
• każdy (each) is singular and adjective-like; its plural idea is carried by wszyscy / wszystkie (all). Do not pluralise każdy.
• wszyscy is virile (male-personal), wszystkie is everything/everyone non-virile - the same split as lesson 30.
• Remember the genitive-of-negation flip: a positive indefinite object (coś, kogoś) becomes a negative genitive object (niczego, nikogo) as soon as the verb is negated.