Chapter 02 · the heart of the system

Aspect
finished, or not

Every Polish verb comes in a pair, and the two halves do not differ in tense. They differ in completion: one describes an action as a process, a habit or something still going on; the other presents it as a single act that is, or will be, done. Learn this one distinction properly and most of what looks hard about Polish verbs stops being hard.

The pair

Take pisać. It is not one verb with several uses; it is one half of a pair, and the other half is napisać. They share a meaning — to write — but they answer a question the English word leaves open: is the writing a process we are looking at, or a piece of writing that now exists?

pisać — to write impf
Present
ja	piszę
ty	piszesz
on / ona / ono	pisze
my	piszemy
wy	piszecie
oni / one	piszą
Past
ja (masc.)	pisałem
ja (fem.)	pisałam
ty (masc.)	pisałeś
ty (fem.)	pisałaś
on	pisał
ona	pisała
ono	pisało
my (masc. persons)	pisaliśmy
my (other)	pisałyśmy
wy (masc. persons)	pisaliście
wy (other)	pisałyście
oni	pisali
one	pisały
Imperative
ty	pisz
my	piszmy
wy	piszcie
Conditional
ja (masc.)	pisałbym
ja (fem.)	pisałabym
ty (masc.)	pisałbyś
ty (fem.)	pisałabyś
on	pisałby
ona	pisałaby
ono	pisałoby
my (masc. persons)	pisalibyśmy
my (other)	pisałybyśmy
wy (masc. persons)	pisalibyście
wy (other)	pisałybyście
oni	pisaliby
one	pisałyby

Every form from Wiktionary.

napisać — to write pf
Future
ja	napiszę
ty	napiszesz
on / ona / ono	napisze
my	napiszemy
wy	napiszecie
oni / one	napiszą
Past
ja (masc.)	napisałem
ja (fem.)	napisałam
ty (masc.)	napisałeś
ty (fem.)	napisałaś
on	napisał
ona	napisała
ono	napisało
my (masc. persons)	napisaliśmy
my (other)	napisałyśmy
wy (masc. persons)	napisaliście
wy (other)	napisałyście
oni	napisali
one	napisały
Imperative
ty	napisz
my	napiszmy
wy	napiszcie
Conditional
ja (masc.)	napisałbym
ja (fem.)	napisałabym
ty (masc.)	napisałbyś
ty (fem.)	napisałabyś
on	napisałby
ona	napisałaby
ono	napisałoby
my (masc. persons)	napisalibyśmy
my (other)	napisałybyśmy
wy (masc. persons)	napisalibyście
wy (other)	napisałybyście
oni	napisaliby
one	napisałyby

Every form from Wiktionary. A perfective verb has no present tense — these are its future forms.

Aspect	Polish name	What it presents	The question it answers
imperfective impf	niedokonany	An action as a process, a habit, a repeated act, or something unfinished.	“What were you doing?” — Co robiłeś?
perfective pf	dokonany	A single act viewed as a whole, with a result: started, finished, or done once.	“What did you do?” — Co zrobiłeś?

The test that works

Ask: can I put “for two hours” on it, or does it need “in two hours”? A process lasts (pisałem list przez dwie godziny), a completed act is reached (napisałem list w dwie godziny). English marks this with verb forms; Polish marks it with a different word.

What aspect changes in a sentence

The same event can be reported with either half, and the two reports are both true. What changes is what the speaker puts in front of you.

Sentence	What it puts in front of you
Wczoraj pisałem list.	I was writing a letter — the writing, possibly unfinished.
Wczoraj napisałem list.	I wrote a letter — and it is written.
Czytałem tę książkę.	I was reading this book / I have read in it. You may not have finished it.
Przeczytałem tę książkę.	I read this book through, to the end.
Kupowałem chleb.	I was buying bread / I used to buy bread.
Kupiłem chleb.	I bought the bread — one purchase, done.

Notice that aspect is not the same as tense. Pisałem and napisałem are both past. Piszę and napiszę look alike but are present and future — because a perfective verb has no present (chapter 3). The two systems run side by side and answer different questions.

How the pairs are made

There are four ways a pair can be built. Recognising which one you are looking at is what lets you predict a partner you have not met before.

1. Prefix: pisać → napisać

The perfective adds a prefix to the imperfective. This is the commonest pattern, and the prefix usually keeps a trace of its own meaning — na- = onto, done to completion; z- = done; prze- = through.

Prefix: pisać → napisać

The perfective adds a prefix to the imperfective. This is the most common way to make a pair, and the prefix usually keeps a trace of its own meaning (na- = onto, done to completion).

Note

A prefix can change the meaning as well as the aspect, so not every prefixed verb is a partner: pisać → podpisać is "to sign", not "to write".

pisać impf → napisać pf to write
na- adds completion, not direction.

czytać impf → przeczytać pf to read
prze- = through: to read something through.

robić impf → zrobić pf to do, to make
z- is the plainest completing prefix in the language.

jeść impf → zjeść pf to eat
zjeść = to eat up; jeść is the process.

pić impf → wypić pf to drink
wy- = out, to the end.

kończyć impf → skończyć pf to finish
s- here completes without adding direction.

słyszeć impf → usłyszeć pf to hear
u- marks the single act of hearing something.

dzwonić impf → zadzwonić pf to ring, to phone
za- = the one ring that reaches someone.

prosić impf → poprosić pf to ask for
po- softens and completes the request.

pytać impf → zapytać pf to ask a question
zapytać is one question; pytać is asking in general.

rozumieć impf → zrozumieć pf to understand
zrozumieć = to come to understand, and now you do.

uczyć się impf → nauczyć się pf to learn
Both keep się.

uczyć impf → nauczyć pf to teach
nauczyć kogoś czegoś — the person in the accusative, the thing in the genitive.

cieszyć się impf → ucieszyć się pf to be glad
u- completes the feeling; both keep się.

pamiętać impf → zapamiętać pf to remember
pamiętać is the state; zapamiętać is the act of committing it to memory.

iść impf → pójść pf to go on foot
pójść is the one journey, started and completed; iść is the walking.

jechać impf → pojechać pf to go by vehicle
Same po- as pójść, for the same reason.

biec impf → pobiec pf to run
pobiec = to set off running.

spać impf → wyspać się pf to sleep
wyspać się = to get one's sleep, to sleep it off; the się is part of the verb.

myć impf → umyć pf to wash
umyć ręce = to wash one's hands (and have them clean).

pracować impf → popracować pf to work
po- here means "for a while": popracować nad czymś.

mieszkać impf → zamieszkać pf to live, to dwell
zamieszkać = to move in, to take up residence.

jeździć impf → pojeździć pf to drive about
The repeated, back-and-forth partner of jechać.

chodzić impf → pójść pf to go about on foot
The repeated, back-and-forth partner of iść — and its perfective is pójść, not a prefixed chodzić.

leżeć impf → poleżeć pf to lie
poleżeć = to lie for a while. The single act of lying down is położyć się.

siedzieć impf → posiedzieć pf to sit
posiedzieć = to sit for a while; the act of sitting down is usiąść.

The trap inside the pattern

Prefixes also make new words. Pisać → napisać is a pair, but pisać → podpisać is not: podpisać means “to sign”, a different action that happens to use the same root. When you meet a prefixed verb, ask whether it means the same thing as the base. If it does, it is probably the partner. If it does not, you have found a new verb.

2. Suffix: kupić → kupować

Here the direction is the other way round: the imperfective is the longer word. The suffixes are -ować, -ywać, -ać and -awać. This is the biggest family among verbs that describe single acts, and the rule to hold on to is short: the longer verb is the one that repeats or continues.

Suffix: kupić → kupować

The imperfective is made longer, with -ować, -ywać, -ać or -awać, and the perfective is the shorter word. This is the direction to remember: the longer verb is the one that repeats.

Note

This is the largest group for the verbs that describe a single act: kupić/kupować, dać/dawać, zamknąć/zamykać.

dawać impf → dać pf to give
The short perfective is the older word; dawać is the lengthened imperfective.

kupować impf → kupić pf to buy
kupować is the repeated or ongoing act; kupić, one purchase, done.

sprzedawać impf → sprzedać pf to sell
Same -awać / -ać pattern as dawać/dać.

otwierać impf → otworzyć pf to open
-ać / -yć; the perfective has the -yć of a single completed act.

zamykać impf → zamknąć pf to close
A different suffix again: -ykać / -knąć.

zaczynać impf → zacząć pf to begin
The perfective is a single starting point; the imperfective is the run-up.

odpowiadać impf → odpowiedzieć pf to answer
The -ać / -eć pattern, like czytać/przeczytać's cousins.

zapominać impf → zapomnieć pf to forget
-ać / -eć again.

3. Suppletive: brać → wziąć

Two unrelated roots. There is no rule to apply and nothing to predict — the pair has to be learnt whole. There are only a handful, but they are among the most used verbs in the language.

Suppletive: brać → wziąć

Two unrelated roots. There is no rule to apply — the pair has to be learnt whole, like an irregular verb in English.

Note

Only a handful, but they are among the most used verbs in the language: brać/wziąć, mówić/powiedzieć, widzieć/zobaczyć.

mówić impf → powiedzieć pf to say, to speak
Also powiadać, a bookish imperfective of powiedzieć.

brać impf → wziąć pf to take
No shared root at all.

widzieć impf → zobaczyć pf to see
zobaczyć is "to catch sight of", a different root from widzieć.

stać impf → stanąć pf to stand
stać = to be standing; stanąć = to take a stand, one act.

4. No partner at all

Some imperfective verbs have no perfective, because their meaning does not allow an end point: być (to be), mieć (to have), wiedzieć (to know a fact), znać (to know a person or place), mieszkać (to live somewhere). These are states, not acts. Where English says “to get”, Polish uses a different verb: dostać, not a perfective of mieć.

The pairs on this site

Every pair below is used somewhere in the twelve chapters. Learn a pair as one item — both halves together, with one meaning — and say them out loud, because the difference is heard before it is understood.