Prawidowej

Prawidowej is a declined form of the Polish adjective prawidłowy, which means proper, correct, or standard. In Polish, adjectives agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case, so many inflected forms can appear depending on the surrounding words. The form prawidłowej appears in feminine gender in genitive singular and in the locative case (as well as in some other cases with feminine nouns). In written Polish, the normal orthography uses the letter ł, so the standard spelling is prawidłowej. If the diacritic is omitted and rendered as prawidowej in ASCII, it is typically considered a misspelling rather than a separate word.

Usage and function

As a form of prawidłowy, prawidłowej serves to express that a feminine noun is in a state of being correct or proper. It is common in academic, formal, and everyday prose. For example: prawidłowej odpowiedzi (the correct answer) or w prawidłowej drodze (on the right/proper path). Because it is an inflected form, prawidłowej does not stand alone as a noun but as part of a larger noun phrase.

Etymology

Prawidłowy is formed from the root praw- (related to right, straight, proper) with a suffix that creates adjectives describing quality. The adjective has corresponding forms across gender, number, and case, of which prawidłowej is one. The word is widely used in Polish to signify correctness, propriety, or standard quality.

Related terms

- prawidłowy: the masculine singular form

- prawidłowa: feminine singular nominative

- prawidłowość: noun meaning correctness or propriety

See also: prawidłówność (in some dictionaries), related linguistic discussions on Polish adjective declensions.