mniejszej

Mniejszej is a grammatical form of the Polish adjective mniejszy, meaning smaller or lesser. It is not a separate lexical item on its own, but the feminine singular form used in several grammatical cases. Specifically, mniejszej is the feminine genitive, feminine dative, and feminine locative singular of mniejszy.

In Polish, adjectives agree with the nouns they describe in gender, number, and case. For feminine singular nouns, the forms include mniejsza (nominative), mniejszej (genitive/dative/locative), and mniejszą (accusative or instrumental). This means mniejszej appears in phrases where the overall noun phrase is in one of those cases and the head noun is feminine.

Common usages include descriptive phrases such as:

- produkt mniejszej jakości (a product of lesser quality)—genitive to modify jakości.

- różnica mniejszej wartości (a difference of lesser value)—genitive.

- o mniejszej wartości (about lesser value)—locative after the preposition o.

- dla mniejszej liczby osób (for a smaller number of people)—dative with a feminine noun.

Etymology and related forms: mniejszy is the comparative form derived from mały (small). The comparative suffix -szy yields mniejszy, with mniejszej and related forms used across gender and case in the feminine paradigm.

Notes: mniejszej should be distinguished from mniejsza (nominative feminine singular) and mniejszą (accusative/instrumental feminine). In everyday Polish, mniejszej appears most often in written or formal language when describing attributes of feminine nouns in non-nominative cases.