gatunkami

Gatunkami is the instrumental plural form of the Polish noun gatunek, which means species or kind. It is used in grammatical constructions that require the instrumental case and often appears in phrases indicating accompaniment, association, or means, such as z wieloma gatunkami zwierząt.

In Polish grammar, gatunek has several case forms: nominative plural gatunki, instrumental plural gatunkami, and genitive plural gatunków. The instrumental plural gatunkami is commonly found after prepositions or verbs that govern the instrumental, for example in phrases like różnymi gatunkami roślin or gatunkami zwierząt, where the group of species is described or referenced.

In biology, gatunek denotes the basic unit of classification. The concept of species has several definitions debated by scientists, including the biological species concept (reproductive isolation), the morphological species concept (structural similarity), and the phylogenetic species concept (evolutionary lineage). Species are organized into higher taxa such as genus, family, order, class, phylum, and kingdom, forming the hierarchical framework of taxonomy. The standard method for naming species is binomial nomenclature, which combines the genus name with a species epithet, for example Homo sapiens.

Usage note: gatunki (nominative plural) refers to multiple species as the subject of a sentence, whereas gatunkami (instrumental plural) is used within sentences where the instrumental case is required or when describing the group in that grammatical role. The two forms thus reflect different grammatical cases rather than different meanings.