Word formation

Words of the same family have one stem. You just add something in front of the stem (prefix) or at the end (suffix) and you’ve created a new word related to the previous one. They all follow some fixed patterns. For example, places will often end with –nia, professions with –arz. Here are some examples:

czasownik - verb	osoba - person	miejsce - place	przymiotnik* - adjective
czytać to read	czytelnik reader	czytelnia reading room	czytelny readable
pisać – to write opisać – to describe zapisać – to write down	pisarz – writer pisarka – female writer		pisany writen
uczyć – to teach uczyć się – to learn nauczyć się – completed form	nauczyciel – male teacher nauczycielka – female teacher uczeń – learner, pupil uczennica – female pupil uczony - scholar	uczelnia - academy
pracować to work	pracownik - worker pracownica – female worker	pracownia – workshop, atelier	pracowity hardworking
mieszkać to live	mieszkaniec inhabitant mieszkanka female inhabitant	mieszkanie flat	zamieszkany inhabited

* some of them aren't simple adjectives, but it's not that important at the moment