< Polish

Introduction to verbs and conjugation

Perfective vs Imperfective

Each Polish verb is either perfective or imperfective. Basically, perfective verbs imply completion, while imperfective verbs imply an ongoing action with no sense of completion.

Perfective verbs are sometimes created by adding a prefix (do-, na-, od-, po-, prze-, przy-, s-, u-, w-, wy-, z-, za-) to an imperfective verb, but not always - the prefix might also change the meaning slightly (e.g., "pisać" means "to write" and "napisać" - "to have written", but "przepisać" means "to rewrite" or "to copy the writing")

Example: czytać

The verb czytać has a very typical conjugation. Many (but not all) verbs ending in -ać conjugate in this way.

czytać, meaning "to read", is an imperfective verb. For now we only look at the present tense:

Subject Pronoun (optional) Conjugate verb Translation
1st person ja czytam I am reading /I read
2nd person ty czytasz You (singular) are reading /You read
3rd person on / ona / ono czyta He/she/it is reading /He/she/it reads
1st person, plural my czytamy We are reading /We read
2nd person, plural wy czytacie You (plural) are reading /You read
3rd person, plural oni / one czytają They are reading /They read


In modern Polish there is no grammatical difference between "W tej chwili czytam książkę." - I am reading a book right now - and "Codziennie czytam gazetę" - I read (the) paper every day.

Exercises


Przeczytać means "to have read". Polish does have an equivalent of present perfect, but it will probably seem a bit unclear to an English speaker. Don't worry, there is a hidden logic to it. Remember that perfective verbs imply completion so Przeczytam książkę means "I will read the book (and finish)." In other words, "I will have read the entire book (in the future)."

Note that, like in Spanish and Italian, subject pronouns (ja, ty, on, my, wy, oni) are usually omitted, because they are redundant.

Ok, let's try conjugating this verb (Click "▼" to check your answer):

I will have read (the entire book)

Przeczytam

To one person: You will have read (the entire book)

Przeczytasz

She/he will have read (the entire book)

Przeczyta

We will have read (the entire book)

Przeczytamy

To a group of people: You will have read (the entire book)

Przeczytacie

They will have read (the entire book)

Przeczytają


kupować

Other ować verbs will follow this pattern.

kupować (to buy) is an imperfective verb,

This is how you conjugate it:

Subject Pronoun Conjugated verb Translation
1st person Ja kupuję I am buying /I buy
2nd person Ty kupujesz You (singular) are buying /You buy
3rd person On / Ona / Ono kupuje He/she/it is buying /He/she/it buys
1st person, plural My kupujemy We are buying /We buy
2nd person, plural Wy kupujecie You (plural) are buying /You buy
3rd person, plural Oni / One kupują They are buying /They buy

As you can see, it's quite regular.

Exercises


Let's try conjugating a verb of this same type. However, our chosen verb narysować (to have drawn a picture) happens to be a perfective verb, therefore, when you conjugate it, you get the future tense.

Ok, let's start conjugating.

I will have drawn

Ja narysuję

To one person: You will have drawn

Narysujesz

He will have drawn

On narysuje

We will have drawn

Narysujemy

To a group of people: You will have drawn

Narysujecie

They will have drawn

Narysują

Introduction to declension

Polish has seven cases. Here's the basic idea - you should be familiar with it if you studied Latin at school:

  • The nominative case (lat. nominativus, pl. mianownik) - this is the "basic" form of a noun you'll find in the dictionary. In a sentence it serves as the subject:
    The man went to the store.
  • The genitive case (lat. genetivus, pl. dopełniacz) - this is the possessive case (in English you just add 's. Believe me or not, the 's is the vestige of more complicated declension English used to have). Besides, the genitive is used for the direct object in negative sentences:
    A country's citizens must defend its honour.
    I did not buy the car.
  • The dative case (lat. dativus, pl. celownik) indicates the indirect object of a verb (To whom? or For whom?):
    We told her the truth.
    The man gave his daughter a book.
    I made them dinner.
  • The accusative case (lat. accusativus, pl. biernik) - in sentences, noun in accusative is the direct object of an action:
    I bought the car.
  • The instrumental case (lat. instrumentalis, pl. narzędnik) tells us with which? or how? an action is performed:
    He shot it with the gun.
  • The locative case (in Latin this case merged with ablativus, pl. miejscownik) indicates a location of something/someone:
    I live in China.
  • The vocative case (lat. vocativus, pl. wołacz) is for directly addressing a person:
    Professor, are you O.K.?


Exercises


Which case should we use for the word or words in red?

He lured the animal with bait.

nominative

He lured the animal with bait.

accusative

He lured the animal with bait.

instrumental

We told her the whole story.

dative

We told her the whole story.

accusative

I wrote a long letter to my aunt.

accusative

I wrote a long letter to my aunt.

dative

He did not win the race.

genitive

I found the kittens a new home.

dative

The tiger lives in a zoo.

locative

That's the neighbor's cat.

genitive

You idiot, why'd you do that!

vocative

His computer is very old.

nominative

We gave him the money.

dative

This article is issued from Wikibooks. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.