obydwa

Obydwa is a Polish determiner and pronoun meaning “both of the two,” used to refer to two items or persons. It is part of a small set of forms that mark gender and number in agreement with the noun it modifies. The form obydwa is used with neuter nouns, while other gendered forms exist for two items: oba for masculine personal nouns and obie for feminine nouns. For people, another form, oboje, is commonly used to refer to two individuals in a masculine or mixed-gender context.

In practice, obydwa precedes the noun it describes and agrees in case with that noun, functioning much like the English word “both.” It emphasizes that two items or people are being considered together rather than separately. The term can appear in various grammatical cases, just like adjectives in Polish, and its endings change accordingly when the sentence requires different cases or numbers.

Examples of usage include sentences such as “Obydwa okna są zamknięte” (Both windows are closed), where okna is a neuter plural noun, and “Obie kobiety były na spotkaniu” (Both women were at the meeting), where kobiety is feminine plural. The word conveys a precise scope—two items only—without implying anything about more than two.

Obydwa is widely used in standard Polish and appears in everyday speech, writing, and formal texts. It is typically learned as part of basic pronoun and adjective agreement in Polish grammar.