Date & Time in the Polish language 4.43/5 (14)

Date & time in Polish

Find out everything you need to know about date and time in the Polish language.

This page is part of the chapter “Polish vocabulary and phrases“.

Overview

The details of the date in the Polish language can often cause many problems, mostly due to extensive declension. First of all, both numbersmonths need to be declined. Thus knowing just the ordinals and month names is not enough.

The question regarding date is:

Który dzisiaj jest? or którego dzisiaj mamy? (What day is today?)
and will be answered in the following way:

Dzisiaj jest piąty lutego dwa tysiące czternastego or piąty drugi dwa tysiące czternastego

Today is the February the fifth, twenty fourteen / fifth second twenty fourteen.

Other examples are:

• 01.01.2013 – pierwszy stycznia dwa tysiące trzynastego
• 13.08.2007 – trzynasty sierpnia dwa tysiące siódmego
• 06.12.2015 – szósty grudnia dwa tysiące piętnastego
• …and so on.

The examples shown above allow to set up the following rule:

The rule applies only when indication of the month is present. While using solely ordinals for the day and month in the nominative, the year however usually is in the genitive form.

Examples:

1. 06.12.2015 – szósty dwunasty dwa tysiące piętnastego
2. 01.01.2013 – pierwszy pierwszy dwa tysiące trzynastego

The above information can of course be, just like in the English language, completed with the day of the week. The day is then always in the nominative form and the ordinal number that determines the month is in the genitive (sometimes in the nominative), for example:

Dziś jest czwartek, ósmego/ósmy stycznia dwa tysiące czternastego roku.

Today is Thursday, the eighth of January twenty fourteen.

Scheduling with date

The most frequently asked questions for this usage are:

• kiedy? – when
• od kiedy? – from when?
• do kiedy? – to when?
• jak długo? – how long?
• jak często? – how often?

The indication of the day of the week uses accusative form + “w / we”

The indication of the month follows the same rule, with the difference that the indication of the month require the locative. That means that all months will receive the -u ending.

Other important phrases

Seasons & times of the day

There are usually two options to specify the seasons:

1. 1) Use the preposition “w” / “na” + the locative / accusative / genitive
2. 2) Omit the preposition + instrumental

There are several possibilities available, similar to the times of the day:

Unspecified time of the day is described using the prepositions “nad“, “pod“, “około” or “jakoś” (colloquial speech).

For example:

It is difficult in this situations to express a general rule, as the emphasis is put on the specific usage.

Birth date

The question about the date of birth is: Kiedy się urodziłaś/łeś? (When were you born?) and the answer is for example:

• 30.12.1978 – trzydziestego grudnia tysiąc dziewięćset siedemdziesiątego ósmego (roku)

(on the thirtieth of December 1978)

• 07.09.1981 – siódmego września tysiąc dziewięćset osiemdziesiątego pierwszego (roku)
• 15.11. 2001 – piętnastego listopada dwa tysiące pierwszego (roku)
• … and so on

Examples presented above clearly show that during specifying the birthday date all ordinals must be declined in the genitive. Thousands and hundreds remain in the same (nominative) form, namely in the form of cardinal numbers, not ordinals.

Clock time – czas zegarowy

In the Polish language, as well as in German, one can use the official (1-24) and unofficial (0-12) time.

The general question about time is:

Która (jest) godzina? / What time is it?

Usage of official time is almost the same as in English and German, with the difference that the hour and minutes with the ordinal are expressed with the cardinal numbers. First come the full hour, then minutes.

Examples:
Przepraszam, która godzina? / Excuse me, what time is it?

• (jest) piętnasta (It’s fifteen hundred)
• piąta trzydzieści (It’s five thirty – in the morning)
• siedemnasta trzydzieści (It’s fifteen thirty)
• trzynasta dwadzieścia (It’s thirteen twenty)
• dziewiętnasta czterdzieści pięć (It’s nineteen forty five)

The examples above show clearly that the official time specified in the Polish language is fairly straightforward and similar to the German and English. Please notice the lack of the word clock / godzina.

Usage of unofficial (private) time includes numbers from 0 to 12 and is also a mix of cardinal and ordinal numbers, which are also declined here (in the genitive case).

Która godzina?

• (jest) trzecia (It’s three o’clock)
• wpół do szóstej (half past five)
• dwadzieścia po pierwszej (twenty past one)
• za piętnaście ósma (fifteen to eight) or za kwadrans ósma / kwadrans do ósmej (a quarter to eight)
• za pięć dziesiąta (nine fifty-five)
• piętnaście po siódmej (seven fifteen)
• kwadrans po siódmej (quarter after seven)
• pięć po wpół do czwartej (five after half past three) or za dwadzieścia pięć czwarta (three thirty-five)
• za dziesięć druga (ten to nine)

Unspecified time will be created using the prefix “około” with the corresponding time of the day.

Example sentences:

Specific dates are created with the use of the time, however, they also require the addition of the preposition “o” with the question “o której (godzinie)” expressed, as in the following examples:

The rule above applies only when an indication of the month is present. While using solely ordinals for the day and month in the nominative, the year however usually is in the genitive form.