Stycznia

Stycznia is the genitive singular form of the Polish month name styczeń, which corresponds to January in the Gregorian calendar. The base form, styczeń, is used when the month is referred to as a standalone noun, while stycznia appears in contexts that require the genitive case.

In practice, stycznia is most commonly seen in date expressions and phrases that involve numbers or ordinals. For example, 27 stycznia 2025 roku means January 27, 2025. In ordinal expressions, the genitive is also used: pierwszy stycznia (the first of January) and dwudziestego stycznia (the twentieth of January). The genitive form is used after numerals and in most written-date styles in Polish.

There is a distinct locative form, styczniu, used in phrases such as w styczniu, meaning “in January.” This demonstrates how the same noun declines across cases, with stycznia serving the genitive function and styczniu serving the locative.

The word occasionally appears in titles or formal phrases where the month is declined as part of a larger expression. To refer to January as the month itself, the nominative form styczeń is used, as in "Styczeń to pierwszy miesiąc roku." In standard writing and everyday speech, stycznia is thus primarily encountered in dates and time expressions requiring the genitive case.