Chapter 12 · from verb to adjective, and where the verb sits

Participles and word order
the forms that stop being verbs

A participle is a verb that has taken on an adjective's endings, or an adverb's job. Polish has four of them, and they let you say “the man writing the letter” and “the letter written yesterday” without a relative clause. This last chapter also covers the question every learner asks by the end: with all these endings, does word order matter at all?

Four participles, one idea

Participle	Polish name	Ending	From pisać	Behaves like
active adjectival	imiesłów przymiotnikowy czynny	-ący	piszący	an adjective
passive adjectival	imiesłów przymiotnikowy bierny	-ny / -ony / -ty	pisany	an adjective
adverbial, contemporary	imiesłów przysłówkowy współczesny	-ąc	pisząc	an adverb — it never changes
verbal noun	rzeczownik odczasownikowy	-nie / -cie	pisanie	a neuter noun

One rule that saves you half the work

The active adjectival participle and the contemporary adverbial participle exist only for imperfective verbs. There is no “having written” adjective from napisać — you cannot say napiszący. This is not an exception; it follows from what a perfective verb means. A completed act has no ongoing “while doing it” version.

The active adjectival participle: -ący

Built on the third person plural of the present, with -cy where the verb has -ą. It declines exactly like an adjective, so it agrees with the noun it describes.

Verb	oni	Participle	In a phrase
pisać	piszą	piszący	człowiek piszący list — the man writing a letter
czytać	czytają	czytający	osoba czytająca gazetę — the person reading a paper
robić	robią	robiący	ludzie robiący zakupy — people doing shopping
iść	idą	idący	idący mężczyzna — the walking man
być	są	będący	będący w domu — being at home

It agrees, so it changes

Człowiek piszący list (masculine), kobieta pisząca list (feminine), dzieci piszące list (neuter / mixed plural). These are adjective endings, nothing more: -y, -a, -e.

The passive adjectival participle: -ny, -ony, -ty

This is the one you will see most, because it is also how Polish forms the passive voice. It describes something that has been done to it, and it is built from transitive verbs — both aspects.

Verb	Participle	In a phrase	Meaning
pisać	pisany	list pisany wczoraj	a letter written yesterday
napisać pf	napisany	list jest napisany	the letter is written / has been written
zrobić pf	zrobiony	kolacja jest zrobiona	dinner is made
kupić pf	kupiony	samochód kupiony w Polsce	a car bought in Poland
zamknąć pf	zamknięty	drzwi są zamknięte	the doors are closed
otworzyć pf	otwarty	okno jest otwarte	the window is open
przeczytać pf	przeczytany	książka przeczytana	a book that has been read

Some participles are irregular

Otworzyć → otwarty, not “otworzony”. Zamknąć → zamknięty. Wziąć → wzięty. These are old forms and have to be learnt with the verb; a table is safer than a guess, which is exactly what the verb finder is for.

The passive voice, in one line

być (or zostać) + passive participle, with the participle agreeing with the subject: List jest napisany, Książka jest napisana, Okno jest napisane, Listy są napisane. Zostać emphasises the change: List został napisany — the letter came to be written.

The adverbial participle: -ąc

This one never changes — no gender, no number, no case. It describes an action happening at the same time as the main verb, and it belongs to the same subject.

Verb	Participle	Sentence	Meaning
czytać	czytając	Czytając gazetę, piłem kawę.	Reading the paper, I was drinking coffee.
iść	idąc	Idąc do pracy, myślałem o tobie.	Walking to work, I was thinking about you.
robić	robiąc	Robił to, nie wiedząc, po co.	He did it without knowing why.
mówić	mówiąc	Mówiąc szczerze, nie wiem.	Frankly speaking, I don't know.
być	będąc	Będąc w Łodzi, odwiedź muzeum.	While in Łódź, visit the museum.

The subject must be the same

Czytając gazetę, piłem kawę is fine: I was both reading and drinking. But you cannot use it when the two actions have different subjects — the participle always refers to the subject of the main verb. Polish is strict about this in careful writing.

The “having done” form

There is also an anterior adverbial participle for a completed action: zrobiwszy, przeczytawszy, napisawszy. It is literary and old-fashioned. Recognise it in books; do not use it in speech. Use a normal clause instead: Kiedy przeczytałem książkę, poszedłem spać.

The verbal noun: -nie and -cie

Every verb has a noun built from its infinitive stem, with -nie (or -cie after a consonant that does not take n). It is a neuter noun, it declines like one, and it takes the genitive of its object.

Verb	Noun	In a sentence	Meaning
pisać	pisanie	Pisanie listów zajmuje czas.	Writing letters takes time.
czytać	czytanie	Czytanie książek jest przyjemne.	Reading books is pleasant.
kupować	kupowanie	Kupowanie prezentów to przyjemność.	Buying presents is a pleasure.
jeść	jedzenie	Jedzenie jest ważne.	Eating is important.
myć	mycie	Mycie rąk jest konieczne.	Washing hands is necessary.
pić	picie	Picie wody jest zdrowe.	Drinking water is healthy.

Watch two things

First: the object of the noun goes genitive — pisanie listów, not pisanie listy, because a noun governs the genitive where a verb governed the accusative. Second: some of these nouns have taken on a life of their own: jedzenie is “food”, mieszkanie is “flat”, and picie can be “drink”.

Word order: flexible, not free

Polish endings carry the grammar, so position carries emphasis. That is why the same sentence has several correct orders — and why each one says something slightly different. The neutral order is subject, verb, object.

Order	Sentence	What it answers
S–V–O (neutral)	Anna czyta książkę.	“What's Anna doing?” — Anna is reading a book.
O–V–S	Książkę czyta Anna.	“Who's reading the book?” — Anna is.
V–O–S	Czyta książkę Anna.	same emphasis as above, slightly more marked
O–S–V	Książkę Anna czyta.	“the book — Anna is reading it” (as opposed to something else)
V–S–O	Czyta Anna książkę.	neutral in the negative-elided reading; also “Anna is reading”

The working rule

The last element carries the new information. If you want to stress who did something, put them late; if you want to stress what was done, put the thing late. When you are not stressing anything, use subject–verb–object and you will never be wrong.

The small words have fixed places

Word order is flexible for the big pieces, but the little ones sit where they sit. Getting these right is what makes a sentence sound Polish rather than translated.

nie goes directly before the verb. Nie czytam, nie jestem zmęczony. Never Czytam nie.

się follows the verb. Myję się, uczymy się. Never first in a sentence.

Short object pronouns do not start a sentence. Widzę cię, daj mi to. If the pronoun must come first, use the long form: Ciebie widzę.

by attaches to the past form, or to the front word. Zrobiłbym to or Ja bym to zrobił — but not Ja zrobiłbym bym.

że never comes first in its clause. Myślę, że masz rację — the że part is a separate clause with its own order.

The whole system on one page

Everything in the twelve chapters comes from a small number of decisions. If you can answer these in order, you can build any form in the language.

#	The question	What it decides	Chapter
1	Imperfective or perfective?	whether a present tense exists, and which future you use	02
2	Which half of the pair is it?	the dictionary form, and the partner you must learn	02
3	Which conjugation — I, II, III or IV?	the six present endings	03
4	Who is the subject, and what gender?	every past and conditional form	04, 07
5	Present, past or future?	the stem, and whether będę is needed	03–05
6	Is it a statement, a command, or a hypothesis?	indicative, imperative or conditional	06–07
7	Does the verb need się?	the meaning, and who the object is	10
8	Which case does it govern?	the ending of the object	09
9	Is it negated?	accusative becomes genitive	09
10	Is the verb being used as an adjective or a noun?	a participle or a verbal noun	12
11	What is the new information?	where the pieces sit in the sentence	12

You now have the map

None of these questions is hard on its own. The difficulty of Polish verbs is that they arrive together — a sentence asks you six of them at once. That is a matter of practice, not of new rules. The mixed drill and today's twelve exist exactly for that: short runs, every answer explained, until the questions stop needing to be asked.

Four traps

A participle from a perfective verb. Napiszący does not exist. The active and -ąc participles come from imperfectives only.

A participle that does not agree. List jest napisan**a** is wrong: the participle agrees with the noun it describes, so napisany for a letter, napisana for a book.

A verbal noun with an accusative object. A noun governs the genitive: czytanie książek, not czytanie książki.

Rearranging words for no reason. A scrambled word order is grammatical but says something you may not mean. When in doubt, use subject–verb–object.

What to take away

-ący and -ąc come from imperfective verbs only.
The passive participle (-ny / -ony / -ty) agrees like an adjective and makes the passive with być or zostać.
The adverbial participle always describes the same subject as the main verb.
The verbal noun takes the genitive: czytanie książek.
Word order is flexible because endings carry the grammar — the last element carries the emphasis.

Drills

Flashcards

Verb on the front, participle on the back.

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A 7-day plan

Fifteen minutes a day. Tick the boxes as you go — the ticks are saved.

Participles and word orderthe forms that stop being verbs