Polish accusative case: talking about objects

I have been planning to record a comprehensive presentation of BIERNIK (the Polish accusative case) for some time. It is one of the most common cases used to express that a certain subject (here: the executor/controller of the activity) performs an action on an object -- you will need BIERNIK to talk about possession, personal preferences,eating, seeing things, etc.
Moreover, BIERNIK is, along with NARZĘDNIK (the instrumental case) one of the first cases introduced to beginner learners. However, the majority of Polish-language coursebooks and workbooks only present a limited account of the presented topic. The video is somewhat lengthy, but depending on your current level of Polish as a foreign language, you may wish to skip to particular sections.
I have been recording the video between classes with only a simplified script, so bear with my somewhat clumsy use of English. ;-)
0:11 - Introduction
2:06 - Rules and suffixes (flowchart)
3:15 - Three hints/disambiguation
9:35 - Living entities and supernatural beings as objects
10:56 - Microorganisms (bacteria, viruses)
12:00 - Food items
14:50 - Plants and flowers
15:19 - Styles of dance
16:20 - Sports and outdoor activities
18:05 - Computer games
19:52 - Card and board games
21:16 - Manufactured products
22:56 - Miscellaneous categories
25:12 - Conclusion
The part of the video discussing computer games as grammatical objects features the following images from Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man...
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_(...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(1...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mo...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cr...
About me:
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My name is Maciek. I live in Poland. I am a teacher of English as a foreign language. I enjoy learning about the relationship between the mind and language. I am also interested in the use of technology in foreign-language education. In my free time, I explore various topics related to retro-computing and electronic music production.
My websites:
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Learn Polish vocabulary faster: polish.academy/polish-up
Online language classes: MaciekUczy.pl
Blog: diligentLinguist.com
Connect with me to learn more:
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Facebook: / diligentlinguist
Instagram: / diligentlinguist
Twitter: / maciekuczy

[@garys.7846]

I'm somewhere around a B level with my self taught Polish, this was a great odcinek.

[@DiligentLinguist]

Thank you! I am very busy teaching and developing tools for Polish language learners, but I have not abandoned this channel.

[@18Knowledge]

Super!

[@DiligentLinguist]

Bardzo się cieszę, że wideo Ci się podobało. 🙂

[@drgaming_92games80]

This video is really helpful. There is a polish foreign exchange student at my school and she doesn’t speak English all that well so I wanted to learn some polish to help her out. I’ve been using duolingo and I quickly realized that I can’t use it as my only resource to learning polish. I had gotten to the accusative case and I was confused. I did a quick search and found your video. I’ll probably have to watch this video a few times. Anyways, I enjoyed this video and keep up the good work🙂

[@DiligentLinguist]

Thank you for the comment. I agree that DuoLingo, while being fun to use, is limited just like any drill- or repetition driven software. The accusative case is not as scary as it might initially seem, and in a lot of situations no change to the form of the noun is required. Its main role is to talk about objects, as in "Adam has a cat" (Adam ma kota), where "Adam" is the subject, "ma" means "has" (the verb) and kot is an animate (masculine) object, hence it requires the "-a" ending. In English it is easy to tell the subject from the object simply by looking at the order of words in sentences... In Polish, the order of words is less strict, so you could say "Kota ma Adam" and, while it would sound a bit unusual, it would still be considered grammatical and it would remain clear that it is Adam who has the cat (not vice versa).

[@fikreseilasiegebeyehu4561]

Very explanatory video with flowchart, EXCELLENT. you should also do videos for other grammatical cases.

[@DiligentLinguist]

Thank you, that was my original intention, but at the moment I'm very busy working on a huge flashcard-based Polish vocabulary course. However, I have already got a prototype of a special course that will help you develop an "imagination of the Polish grammar". I hope I can help people think like Poles do as far as grammar is concerned.

[@gooiehoop20]

dziękuję to było pomocne.

[@DiligentLinguist]

Proszę bardzo. 🙂

[@alexandrapanico2344]

That was really interesting and useful! I just started learning Polish so I am not too worried yet about how to talk about chess pieces :D but this has removed some of the confusion that was sure to come up regarding the use of masculine 'animate' form for fruits, games etc. Thanks!!

[@DiligentLinguist]

Thank you! I have tried to compile as much information as possible to make my students' lives a bit easier. 🙂

[@BrewTube]

Saved for later viewing. Looking forward to the torture XD

[@DiligentLinguist]

Enjoy! ;-) I will soon add the full list of examples to my blog page. Meanwhile, I'm working on a new video.

[@hmaurojr]

Gênio!

[@DiligentLinguist]

Obrigado! 🙂

[@CorpsDiplomatique22]

Excellent flip chart👍

[@DiligentLinguist]

Thank you very much! 🙂

[@user-wy6ik2sv5d]

Great video. Can you do the same for the other cases, please?

[@DiligentLinguist]

Actually, I have been thinking about making similar videos for the remaining cases, but I need to finish the A2 and B1 levels of "Polish Up!" first. However, I will have some exciting news around June -- I have been working on a prototype of a system explaining the Polish cases inspired by computer games and... LEGO blocks. 🙂

[@meikala2114]

comprehensive

[@DiligentLinguist]

Thank you!

[@rafalkaminski6389]

Mushrooms are alive 😅

[@DiligentLinguist]

From the grammatical viewpoint (in Polish), they are; however, you might want to consider consulting a biology teacher for more details. ;-)