This present work grew out of the first two editions of the author's more modest and now out-of-print Concise Grammar of Polish. The overall length of this work in its new form ruled out the continuation of the original title.This reference grammar is primarily intended for English-speaking learners of Polish. It is a practical grammar, designed to facilitate the learning of forms and to explain their uses in a way that will be accessible to the non-specialist. At the same time, this book aims to be a fairly complete and reliable technical guide to the rules, regularities, and principles which underpin Polish grammar, taking into account important exceptions and irregularities. No attempt is made to simplify or gloss over matters which are in actuality complex, as many matters of Polish grammar are. The aim is to present complex things as simply as possible, and not to make simple things seem more complex than they are in actuality. A special attempt has been made to describe facts relating to the social implementation of grammatical forms, a point of view which is often inadequately represented in grammars of Polish written by Poles, for whom such matters may seem obvious.

Working on the present version of this book has given me a renewed appreciation for how nothing of this nature can ever aim at being a complete description. Something as simple as the description of use of a single preposition like w in, to do it justice, could be continued for pages and pages. I have tried to be sensible as to the point of cut-off of various discussions, using my best judgment both as to where a potential user's interest naturally wanes, and as to what can realistically be accomplished by a written description of living language phenomena.

In my work on this book, I am indebted to nearly every Polish speaker with whom I have ever come into contact. I know of no country more linguistically friendly to foreigners than Poland, and no body of speakers more linguistically astute and willing to help one learn their language than the Poles.

Oscar E. Swan
Pittsburgh, 2002