Ludzi

Ludzi is the genitive plural form of the Polish nouns czlowiek (person) and lud (people, populace). It functions as a grammatical form rather than as a standalone word, and it appears in contexts where the genitive case is required. When referring to people in general, or to a group, writers and speakers often use this form after numerals, quantifiers, or prepositions that govern the genitive.

In practical use, ludni appears in phrases such as duzo ludzi (many people), kilka ludzi (a few people), and braku ludzi (no people). It also occurs with words like liczba ludzi (the number of people), where liczba takes the genitive plural following it. The phrase wśród ludzi means among the people, with the preposition among requiring genitive in Polish. The form is also found in more formal or written language, where osôby (people) or ludzie may be used as synonyms depending on tone and context.

Semantically, czlowiek refers to an individual human being, while lud can denote people collectively, a population, or a nation. The genitive plural form ludzi is thus required after many quantitative words and in phrases describing groups or measures, regardless of whether the underlying reference is to individuals or to the population as a whole.

Etymologically, the forms derive from traditional Slavic roots for referring to people, with ljudi,lud and czlowiek serving as common base terms in Polish. As a grammatical inflection, ludzi contrasts with nominative plural forms like ludzie, which are used when the subject is “the people.”