Interrogative pronouns

as well as relative, demonstrative, indefinite, negative and generalizing

Keep in mind, this is not a complete list of pronouns. We will address the following separately:
personal pronouns (ja, ty, ona...), possessive pronouns (mój, twój...), and the reflexive and reciprocal pronoun (się).

The following cases - interrogative (which also act as relative), demonstrative, indefinite, negative and generalizing - have been put together so that you can see how they relate to each other and notice the pattern of formation, which is quite simple:

interrogative, relative	demonstrative	indefinite	negative	generalizing
kto? who? example Kto dzwonił? Who called?	ten the one example Ten, kto to zrobił, jest prawdziwym artystą. The one who did this is a true artist.	ktoś someone example Ktoś mnie obserwuje. Someone is watching me.	nikt no one example Nikt nie wie, co się stało. Nobody knows what happened.	każdy + singular wszyscy + plural each all example Każdy idzie na koncert. Wszyscy idą na koncert. Everyone is going to the concert.
co? what? example Co dzisiaj zamawiamy? What are we ordering today?	to it, this example Powiedziałam to, żeby sprawdzić, jak zareagujesz. I said this to see how you would react. Notice that to as "the thing I'm pointing at" has one form regardless of the gender of the thing: To jest mężczyzna (It's a man). To jest kobieta (It's a woman). To jest dziecko (It's a child). etc. The forms will be different when this object - and not "it" - is the subject of the sentence: Ten mężczyzna jest zmęczony. Ta kobieta jest zmęczona. To dziecko jest zmęczone. - but then it's technically another pronoun, see below [ten, ta, to, ci, te].	coś something example Widzę coś na stole. I see something on the table.	nic nothing example Nie mam nic przeciw… I have nothing against…	wszystko everything example Zrobię dla ciebie wszystko. I'll do everything for you.
czyj? czyja? czyje? czyi? czyje? whose? example Czyja to wina? Whose fault is that?	—	czyjś, czyjaś, czyjeś czyiś, czyjeś someone's example Czyjś łokieć dotknął moich pleców. Somebody's elbow touched my back.	niczyj, niczyja, niczyje niczyi, niczyje nobody's example Niczyje życie nie może być takie idealne. Nobody's life can be this perfect.	—
jaki? jaka? jakie? jacy? jakie? what [kind of]? example Wie pan z jaką prędkością jechał? Do you know what speed you were driving at?	taki, taka, takie tacy, takie such example Nie patrz na mnie w taki sposób. Don't look at me in such way.	jakiś, jakaś, jakieś jacyś, jakieś some [kind of] example Może macie jakieś pytania. Perhaps you have some questions.	żaden, żadna, żadne żadni, żadne none example Nie zrobię tego za żadne pieniądze świata. I won't do it. For no money in the world.	każdy, każda, każde –, każde each, every wszyscy, wszystkie* all example Każdy dzień to nowa szansa. Every day is a new chance. Lubię wszystkie psy. I like all dogs. * The form of the pronoun "każdy" for the masculine-personal plural (oni), although technically possible, is considered incorrect and is not used.
który? która? które? którzy? które? which? example Któremu czasopismu literackiemu zaufać? Which literary journal should we trust?	ten, ta, to ci, te this; these tamten, tamta, tamto tamci, tamte that; those example Dlaczego kupiłeś ten dom, a nie tamten? Why’d you buy this house, and not that one?	któryś, któraś, któreś którzyś, któreś some [of], one [of] example Podobno któryś z was ma doświadczenie z końmi. Allegedly one of you has horse experience.
gdzie? where? example Gdzie mieszkasz? Where do you live?	tu / tutaj [to] here tam [to] there	gdzieś somewhere	nigdzie nowhere	wszędzie [to] everywhere
dokąd? [to] where? example Dokąd idziesz? Where are you going? * Nowadays, in colloquial language, it gets more common to use gdzie (formerly used to indicate a static location) instead of dokąd (used to indicate direction). So, you can also say: Gdzie idziesz?	tu / tutaj [to] here tam [to] there	dokądś [to] somewhere	donikąd [to] nowhere	wszędzie [to] everywhere
skąd? from where? example Skąd pochodzisz? Where do you come from?	stąd from here stamtąd from there	skądś from somewhere	znikąd from nowhere	zewsząd from everywhere
kiedy? when? *gdy only as relative pronoun	wtedy then	kiedyś sometime, someday	nigdy never	zawsze always
jak? how?	tak so, like this	jakoś somehow	w żaden sposób nijak (informal) in no way	wszak in modern Polish: after all*!
ile? ilu? how much? / how many? / [for] how long? example Ile to kosztuje? How much is it? Ile masz psów? How many dogs do you have? Ile muszę czekać? How long do I have to wait?	tyle, tylu this much / this many	ileś, iluś some [amount of]	—	—

What else?

dlaczego

I decided not to include the interrogative pronouns dlaczego and czemu in the table, because we do not derive negative or generalizing pronouns from them. However, we can still compare the interrogative, demonstrative and indefinite forms, as they still follow the same pattern:

dlaczego? / czemu? – dlatego – dlaczegoś
why? – that's why – for some reason

By the way: you may notice that dlaczego is essentially the interrogative pronoun co, declined in the genitive case and combined with the preposition dla. Both the combined and separated spellings exist, although their meanings are a bit different:

Dla czego? For what?
Musisz mieć coś, dla czego żyjesz.
You have to have something you live for.

Dlaczego? Why?
Dlaczego żyjesz w ten sposób?
Why do you live this way?

The form czemu (more colloquial) is also, in fact, a form of the pronoun co, but declined in the dative case (literally: "to what" or "for what").

-kolwiek

I also decided not to include the indefinite pronoun variant with the suffix -kolwiek, which corresponds roughly to English -ever or any-. The forms would look as follows:

ktokolwiek (whoever), cokolwiek (whatever), jakikolwiek (whatever, adjective), którykolwiek (whichever, any one of), gdziekolwiek (wherever, anywhere), dokądkolwiek (to anywhere), skądkolwiek (from anywhere), kiedykolwiek (whenever, at any time), jakkolwiek (however, anyhow), ilekolwiek (however much).

To illustrate the meaning of this suffix, let's compare the indefinite pronouns ktoś and ktokolwiek:

Ktoś puka do drzwi.
Someone (one specific person) is knocking on the door.
Czy ktokolwiek pukał dzisiaj do drzwi?
Did anyone knock on the door today?
Ktokolwiek pukał do drzwi, nie powinien był cię niepokoić.
Whoever knocked on the door should not have disturbed you.

Nowadays, pronouns with -kolwiek are used less frequently and are often replaced by pronouns with -ś. The sentences above can be transformed using ktoś:

Czy ktoś pukał dzisiaj do drzwi?
Did someone knock on the door today?

Ktoś, kto pukał do drzwi, nie powinien był cię niepokoić. | Kto by nie pukał do drzwi, nie powinien był cię niepokoić.
The person who knocked on the door should not have disturbed you. | Whoever knocked [very literally: who wouldn't knock] on the door should not have disturbed you.

którędy

It was not included in the table to avoid a mess and confusion with archaic forms which remained as demonstratives only and were otherwise replaced by gdzie derivatives (nigdzie, wszędzie), but it's still one of the interrogative pronouns: którędy - which way, by which route (referring to movement in space).

interrogative, relative	demonstrative	indefinite	negative	generalizing
którędy, *kędy (archaic) which way	tędy, tamtędy this way, that way	którędyś, *kędyś (archaic) którędykolwiek by some route, whichever way	nigdzie, *nikędy (archaic) nowhere, by no route	wszędzie, *wszędy (archaic) everywhere

Examples:

Woda deszczowa spływa którędyś, ale nie wiem, którędy dokładnie.
The rainwater is flowing down somewhere, but I don't know exactly which way.

Poszedłem tędy, a oni tamtędy.
I went this way, and they went that way.

Możesz chodzić którędykolwiek, to bezpieczna okolica.
You can walk whichever way you like; it's a safe area.

And here's the first exercise - interrogative pronouns at the beginning, then the remaining groups (scroll down).

Declension

Prerequisites: knowledge of the functions and usage of grammatical cases.
Below is a table of adjective declinations and - in the exercise requiring the selection of the correct case - hints.

Pronouns can decline for grammatical cases. For those presented in the tables above, it looks like this:

kto, co (and their corresponding demonstrative, indefinite, negative, and generalizing pronouns) - decline only in the singular and, as you can see below, they do so in a way resembling the masculine pattern. I've placed the full declension of these pronouns in a column together with the case names.
czyj, jaki, który (and their corresponding demonstrative, indefinite, negative, and generalizing pronouns, including żaden, każdy, wszyscy/wszystkie) - decline for all genders and numbers.
gdzie, skąd, dokąd, którędy, kiedy, jak, dlaczego – these are adverbial pronouns, so, they do not decline for case at all.
ile (as well as demonstrative tyle and indefinite ileś) - declines accordingly to the pattern for numerals from 5 upwards nominative: ilu (oni), ile (one)
genitive: ilu
dative: ilu
accusative: ilu (oni), ile (one)
instrumental: iloma
locative: ilu
.

Therefore, here you have the pattern of adjectival endings in grammatical cases, as it's the only one you will need here:

	singular			plural
	masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine-personal (oni)	non-masculine-personal (one)
nominative kto? co?	-y / -i * The ending -i goes after a stem ending in -k or -g. In the case of our pronouns this will be jaki and taki. except for czyj and żaden	-e	-a	-i / -y * Careful: Here, the ending -i is standard, while -y goes after the stem that, in singular form, ends in -c, -cz or -ż and as a result of alternations: -cy → -cy (stays the same) -czy → -czy (stays the same) -ży → -ży (stays the same) -ki → -cy -gi → -dzy -ry → -rzy In the case of our pronouns this will be: jaki → jacy taki → tacy który → którzy wszystki (archaic) → wszyscy.	-e
genitive kogo? czego?	-ego		-ej	-ych / -ich * The ending -ich goes after a stem ending in -k or -g. In the case of our pronouns this will be jakich, takich and wszystkich.
dative komu? czemu?	-emu		-ej	-ym / -im * The ending -im goes after a stem ending in -k or -g. In the case of our pronouns this will be jakim, takim and wszystkim.
accusative kogo? co?	-ego (animate) -y / -i (inanimate) * The ending -i goes after a stem ending in -k or -g. In the case of our pronouns this will be jaki and taki.	-e	-ą	-ych / -ich * The ending -ich goes after a stem ending in -k or -g. In the case of our pronouns this will be jakich, takich and wszystkich.	-e
instrumental kim? czym?	-ym / -im * The ending -im goes after a stem ending in -k or -g. In the case of our pronouns this will be jakim and takim.		-ą	-ymi / -imi * The ending -imi goes after a stem ending in -k or -g. In the case of our pronouns this will be jakimi, takimi and wszystkimi.
locative kim? czym?	-ym / -im * The ending -im goes after a stem ending in -k or -g. In the case of our pronouns this will be jakim and takim.		-ej	-ych / -ich * The ending -ich goes after a stem ending in -k or -g. In the case of our pronouns this will be jakich, takich and wszystkich.

If you're unsure what are the alternative endings -y / -i about, hover the cursor over the asterisks.
Additionally, similar logic works for the endings -e and -ej in the neuter, feminine and non-masculine-personal genders. If they follow a verb stem ending in -k or -g, they will take the forms -ie and -iej, respectively.
Compare: który → które, której, but: jaki → jakie, jakiej.

I suggest to put aside memorizing these endings without context for now and to try the following exercises. If you've studied grammatical cases before or you do a lot of listening and repeating, chances are you'll choose the correct pronoun form based on its similarity to the adjectives in the appropriate cases. In case of doubts or errors, check the table.

As was mentioned, not only interrogative pronouns decline for cases, but also their demonstrative, indefinite, negative, and generalizing counterparts.
Let's compare the nominative co and its analogues with the genitive czego and its analogues:

co	to	coś	nic	wszystko
czego	tego	czegoś	niczego	wszystkiego

As you can see, the pronoun markers remain the same. For a better overview, let's also compare the nominative masculine jaki and its analogues with, say, the feminine accusative jakiej and its analogues. Even when the pronouns differ in grammatical gender, they follow the pattern:

jaki	taki	jakiś	żaden	każdy
jakiej	takiej	jakiejś	żadnej	każdej

The number of pronouns with adjectival inflection, multiplied by the number of Polish grammatical genders and then by the number of grammatical cases, gives about a fuck-ton of different forms. But hopefully at this point, you don't see them as thousands of separate words to learn one by one (or to give up on them all together), but as words you can assemble yourself, like building blocks, from pronoun stems you're familiar with and morphemes that modify their meaning depending on what you want to convey.

In the exercise below we have a mix - inflected and uninflected pronouns. Try to choose the correct form based on the semantics of the morphemes and your knowledge of grammatical cases.

Once you actually understand how these forms are built, exposure and mindful processing will be good enough practice.

As for the morphology of pronoun forms - that's basically it, the hardest part is over.

🎉 🎉 🎉

There are also a few grammatical-syntactic issues that, I guess, could be clarified in this chapter, as they're somewhat related to pronouns. When formulating utterances in Polish, a lot of learners instinctively copy patterns from English or other languages, which sometimes works, but unfortunately not always, so let's address one of the most common trouble spots: the use of relative pronouns, forming questions, and negation.

Relative pronouns

Relative pronouns in Polish have the same form as interrogative pronouns - such as kto, co, czyj, jaki, który etc., which you already know (there is also "gdy", meaning when, which functions only as a relative pronoun, and not as an interrogative, but you can also use "kiedy" as both and not worry about the distinction). To understand how to construct sentences with those pronouns correctly, let's look at some examples.

Chciała być gdzieś, gdzie nikt jej nie zna. She wanted to be somewhere where no one knew her.
Znowu byłem tam, gdzie zawsze spędzałem wakacje jako dziecko. I was back in the place where I always spent my holidays as a child.
Rozpromienił się, jak zawsze, kiedy mówił o swoich studentach. He brightened, as he always did when talking about his students.
Przypomniałam sobie coś, o czym czytałam tydzień wcześniej. I remembered something that I had read about a week earlier.
Potrzebuję kogoś, komu przekażę materiały. I need someone whom I can hand the materials over to.
Zupa była taka, jakiej spodziewaliśmy się po instytucji dobroczynnej. The soup was what we expected from a charity.
Musimy sobie poradzić z tyloma ludźmi, ilu mamy. We have to manage with as many people as we have.
Nikt, kto widział was razem, nie może wątpić w jego uczucie. No one who has seen you two together can doubt his affection.

Notice that compound sentences of this type typically contain two pronouns.

Pronouns in the main clause can be omitted if the verb requires further development of the thought - Rozumiem, co mówisz. I understand what you're saying.
- Nie powiedział, skąd ma ten rower. He didn't say where he got the bike.
- Zastanawiam się, kiedy najlepiej jest jechać nad morze. I wonder when the best time is to go to the seaside.
- Na pewno wiesz, jak to zrobić? Sure you know how to do this?
, but if the subordinate clause describes a subject, object, or circumstance, two pronouns are used. The first one may be a demonstrative pronoun (such as tam), an indefinite pronoun (gdzieś), a negative pronoun (nikt), or a generalizing pronoun (zawsze). The second one is always a relative pronoun (gdzie, gdy, czym, komu, jakiej, ilu, etc.).

English allows omitting one of these pronouns, so, for example, the first sentence can be shortened either to "She wanted to be somewhere no one knew her" or to "She wanted to be where no one knew her". The rigid word order of English prevents ambiguity and the meaning of the sentence remains clear. In Polish, similar shortcuts would be confusing, so we generally do not skip any of the pronouns. What you can do is replace the first pronoun with a noun, for example:

Chciała być w miejscu, gdzie nikt jej nie zna. or: Chciała być w miejscu, w którym nikt jej nie zna.
She wanted to be in a place where no one knew her.

But even then the relative pronoun remains (like gdzie or którym in the above example).

Now, regarding the form of these pronouns - the grammatical case (if the pronoun inflects for case) must make sense within the clause in which it appears. Here we have two: the main and the subordinate one (never mind the grammatical terms though, just notice that they are two separate clauses, each with its subject and predicate that influences what grammatical case we need):

Przypomniałam sobie coś, ... przypomnieć sobie + accusative (coś)	... o czym czytałam tydzień wcześniej. czytać o + locative (czym)
Potrzebuję kogoś, ... potrzebować + genitive (kogoś)	... komu przekażę materiały. przekazać + accusative (materiały) + dative (komu)
Zupa była taka, ... być with an adjective used without a noun + nominative (taka)	... jakiej spodziewaliśmy się po instytucji dobroczynnej. spodziewać się + genitive (jakiej)
Musimy sobie poradzić z tyloma ludźmi, ... poradzić sobie z + instrumental (tyloma)	... ilu mamy. mieć + accusative (ilu)
Nikt, ..., nie może wątpić w jego uczucie. subject of the clause = nominative (nikt) nie może wątpić	... kto widział was razem ... subject of the clause = nominative (kto) widział was razem

Forming questions

Use of prepositions

You may have already noticed this from reading the examples given earlier in this chapter - in questions and subordinate clauses, the preposition retains its position preceding the pronoun. Examples:

Do czego zmierza ten świat? What is this world coming to?
Przez jaki teren przechodzili przed tygodniem? What sort of country were they moving across a week ago?
To ten skurwiel, o którym mi opowiadałaś? Is this the bastard [that] you were telling me about?
Czy to ważne, z czyjego portfela to pochodzi? Does it matter whose wallet it comes from?
To coś, dla czego warto zaryzykować własnym bezpieczeństwem. This is something [that is] worth risking your safety for.
List nie był podpisany, ale od razu zrozumiałem, od kogo przyszedł. The letter was unsigned, but I immediately understood who it came from.

No "some" and "any" distinction

Another thing about questions is that Polish does not distinguish between pronouns used in statements and those used in questions. It doesn't matter whether you're making an affirmative statement, or assuming or hoping that something you're asking about exists, or just asking a general question - you can use the same indefinite pronouns in each of them.

Kupiłem jakieś ciastka. I bought some cookies.
Chcesz jakieś ciastka? Would you like some cookies?
Masz jakieś ciastka? Do you have any cookies?
Jestem w drodze, gdzieś między Krakowem a Katowicami. I'm on the road, somewhere between Kraków and Katowice.
Chcesz iść gdzieś, gdzie jest ciszej? Do you want to go somewhere quieter?
Czy on mieszka gdzieś blisko centrum? Does he live anywhere near the city centre?
Pozwól, że powiem ci coś o sobie. Let me tell you something about myself.
Możesz powiedzieć mi coś o sobie? Could you tell me something about yourself?
Powiedziała ci coś o sobie? Did she tell you anything about herself?

Negation

I would like to explain the phenomenon of double negation here, but it should be noted at the beginning, that not every sentence with negation ("nie") needs to use a negative pronoun. Compare:

Co mam robić, kiedy nie pamiętam czyjegoś imienia? What should I do when I don't remember someone's name?
The negation refers to the name of one specific person.
Na imprezie poznałam 20 osób, ale nie pamiętam niczyjego imienia. I met 20 people at the party, but I don't remember anyone's name.
The negation refers to the names of all of a specific group of people.

Nie zamówiłam czegoś, co planowałam zamówić. I didn't order something I planned to order. (one thing)
Nie zamówiłam niczego, co planowałam zamówić. I didn't order anything I planned to order. (not one of the things I planned to order)

So, don't treat the category of negative pronouns as an essential component of negations. Whether to use them depends on what the negation refers to.

And while negation can exist without negative pronouns, as you see above, any clause with negative pronouns must include verb negation, resulting in double negation:

Nie kupiłem żadnych ciastek. I didn't buy any cookies.
Nie ma mnie nigdzie między Krakowem a Katowicami. I am nowhere between Kraków and Katowice.
Nie powiem ci niczego o sobie. (or: Nie powiem ci nic o sobie.) I won't tell you anything about myself.
Nikt nigdzie nie pójdzie, dopóki nie wezwiemy policji. No one will go anywhere until we call the police.
Nigdy nie wybaczę czegoś takiego. I will never forgive something like this.
W żaden sposób nie jest odpowiedzialny za to, co się stało. He is in no way responsible for what happened.
Nic nie było dla niego ważniejsze niż sukces. Nothing was more important to him than success.

And the second important thing about negation - significant even without the pronouns - is the change from accusative to genitive case. Transformations of affirmative sentences into negative ones do not affect other cases (mieszkam w Polsce → nie mieszkam w Polsce; interesuję się sztuką → nie interesuję się sztuką etc.), but the accusative in negation is replaced by the genitive. Compare the examples:

Jem żytni chleb. → Nie jem żytniego chleba.
I eat rye bread. → I don't eat rye bread.
Mam takie same poglądy jak ona. → Nie mam takich samych poglądów jak ona.
I have the same views as her. → I don't have the same views as her.
Znaleźliśmy jakąś substancję na podłodze. → Nie znaleźliśmy żadnej substancji na podłodze.
We found some substance on the floor. → We didn't find any substance on the floor.
Widziałem kogoś, kto pasuje do opisu. → Nie widziałem nikogo, kto pasuje do opisu.
(same ending in accusative and genitive, as it's masculine-personal)
I saw someone who matches the description. → I didn't see anyone who matches the description.

The only thing that resists the swap is the pronoun "nic". Even though the genitive "niczego" is considered more correct, the form "nic" is much more commonly used today. Therefore:

Usłyszałeś coś. → Nie usłyszałeś niczego. or: Nie usłyszałeś nic.
You heard something. → You didn't hear anything.