pierwszych

Pierwszych is a declined form of the Polish adjective pierw-szy, meaning "first." It is not a standalone lexical item but a grammatical form used to modify nouns in certain cases. In everyday language you encounter it when referring to a subset defined as the first part of a group, often after numerals or with prepositions.

In Polish, adjectives agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case. Pierwszych represents the genitive plural form of pierwszy and is also used as the locative plural form after prepositions. This form is common in phrases that describe a portion or subset of items that are regarded as being among the first.

Typical usage includes:

- Genitive plural after numerals: "pierwszych pięćdziesięciu osób" (the first fifty people).

- Locative plural after a preposition: "w pierwszych dniach" (in the first days).

distinction from related forms:

- Pierwszy is the masculine singular form (the first).

- Pierwsza and pierwsze are the feminine and neuter singular forms, respectively, and other plural forms exist for different cases and genders.

- Pierwszych specifically marks the plural and is tied to cases like genitive plural and locative plural, rather than the nominative or accusative forms used with different sentence constructions.

Etymology and reception:

- The word derives from the ordinal root pierwszy, used in Polish to ordinally modify nouns. As a grammatical form, its function is primarily syntactic, helping to specify the position or order of items within a larger group.

See also: pierw-szy, liczebniki porządkowe, gramatyka przymiotnikowa.