Przypadki

Przypadki is the plural form of the Polish noun przypadek, and it has two main senses. In everyday language it refers to occurrences, events, or particular situations, as in phrases like w tym przypadku (in this case) or kilka przypadków (a few instances). In linguistics and grammar, przypadki denotes the set of grammatical cases used to mark the function of a noun, pronoun or adjective in a sentence.

In Polish, there are seven grammatical cases: mianownik (nominative), dopełniacz (genitive), celownik (dative), biernik (accusative), narzędnik (instrumental), miejscownik (locative), and wołacz (vocative). These cases determine how a word changes its form to express roles such as subject, direct object, possession, indirect object, instrument or means, location or prepositional context, and direct address. The specific endings vary with gender and number, making Polish noun and adjective declension complex and highly inflected.

Beyond grammar, przypadki are widely used to describe real-world situations. Medical, legal, or statistical contexts speak of different cases, for example przypadki kliniczne (clinical cases) or przypadki prawne (legal cases). The term also appears in discussions of hypothetical or exceptional scenarios, as in logical or mathematical cases.

Overall, przypadki encompasses both the linguistic concept of grammatical cases and the broad notion of occurrences or instances, with the exact meaning clear from context.