In short

Personal pronouns tell you who does the action (I, you, he…) and drive the whole conjugation system. Polish splits the third person by gender - on / ona / ono - and, in the plural, by whether the group contains a male person: oni vs one. Because the verb ending already shows the person, Polish usually drops the subject pronoun (pro-drop) - you add one mainly for contrast or emphasis.

The rule

Polish has a fuller pronoun grid than English. It marks gender in the third person and separates a formal way of saying “you” (covered in Lesson 8) from the informal ty / wy below.

The core pronouns:

• 1st singular: ja (I) - lowercase inside a sentence, unlike English “I”.
• 2nd singular, informal: ty (you, one person).
• 3rd singular: on (he / it - masculine), ona (she / it - feminine), ono (it - neuter).
• 1st plural: my (we).
• 2nd plural, informal: wy (you all).
• 3rd plural: oni (they - male or mixed group), one (they - everyone/everything else).

on / ona / ono follow grammatical gender

Every Polish noun has a gender (Lesson 1), so a thing is on, ona, or ono - never a neutral “it”. The pronoun simply matches the noun’s gender:

• on for a masculine noun: stół (table) -> on, samochód (car) -> on.
• ona for a feminine noun: książka (book) -> ona, kawa (coffee) -> ona.
• ono for a neuter noun: okno (window) -> ono, dziecko (child) -> ono.

oni vs one (the plural split)

In the plural Polish looks at who is in the group:

• oni - the virile (masculine-personal) form: use it whenever the group includes at least one male human. Marek i Anna -> oni, Marek i Paweł -> oni.
• one - the non-virile form: for everything else - groups of women, of children, of animals, or of things: Anna i Ewa -> one, koty (cats) -> one, książki (books) -> one.

This virile / non-virile split runs through the whole plural (adjectives, verbs, past tense); it is developed in Lesson 30.

ty vs the formal “you”

ty and wy are informal - for family, friends, peers, children. To address a stranger, an elder, or in any polite situation, Polish does not use ty; it uses pan (to a man) / pani (to a woman) / państwo (to a mixed group) with a third-person verb. That polite system is its own topic - see Lesson 8.

Pro-drop

The verb ending already identifies the person, so the subject pronoun is normally omitted: Mówię po polsku (not “Ja mówię po polsku”). Add a pronoun only to:

• contrast: Ja pracuję, a ty odpoczywasz. (I work, and you rest.)
• emphasize: -Kto to zrobił? -Ja. (-Who did it? -Me.)

Forms & patterns

The pronoun grid:

Third person by gender:

Plural: virile vs non-virile:

How each pronoun pairs with a verb (here być, to be - see Lesson 3):

Examples

Common mistakes

• Ja mówię, ja mieszkam, ja pracuję… -> Mówię, mieszkam, pracuję - Polish normally drops the subject pronoun; a ja in every sentence sounds unnatural. Use it only for contrast or emphasis.
• Marek i Anna, one są tutaj -> oni są tutaj - a group with a male person takes oni, not one.
• kobiety… oni -> one - an all-female (or animal/thing) group is one, never oni.
• To jest stół. Ona jest duża. -> On jest duży - a thing takes the pronoun of the noun’s gender; stół is masculine, so on.
• ty to a stranger or an elder -> pan / pani + third-person verb - informal ty where politeness is expected can sound rude (Lesson 8).
• Ja mieszkam w Polsce with capital Ja mid-sentence -> ja lowercase - unlike English “I”, ja is capitalized only at the start of a sentence.

Tips

• Default to no pronoun - let the verb ending carry the subject. Add one only where you would stress it in English (“I pay, you choose”).
• A thing is never “it”: match the noun’s gender - on (masc.), ona (fem.), ono (neut.).
• For “they”, ask one question: is there a man in the group? Yes -> oni; no -> one.
• ono is rare in speech - it mostly appears for neuter nouns like dziecko (child) or okno (window).
• With someone you don’t know, avoid ty and reach for pan / pani - it is the polite, safe choice (Lesson 8).
• Learn each pronoun together with its verb form - Polish verbs change shape for every person (Lessons 3 and 6).

In short

Być (“to be”) is the single most important verb in Polish, and it is irregular, so you must memorize its forms. It links a subject to a description, a place, or another noun, and it is also the building block of the compound future tense (Lesson 22). Learn its present, past, and future by heart now and the rest of the course stands on firm ground.

The rule

Być does not follow any of the regular conjugation groups (Lesson 5). Learn each form separately, then watch how much of Polish leans on it.

What być is used for

• Identity / description: Jestem Marta. On jest wysoki.
• Origin: Jesteśmy z Polski.
• Location: Kot jest w ogrodzie.
• Linking to another noun (see the case rule below): Ona jest lekarką.

The Instrumental predicate - a key Polish rule

When być joins the subject to a noun (“X is a Y”), that predicate noun goes into the instrumental case (Lesson 10), not the nominative:

• Jestem studentem. (I am a student - masc.)
• Ona jest nauczycielką. (She is a teacher - fem.)

But when the predicate is an adjective, it stays in the nominative and simply agrees in gender and number with the subject:

• Jestem zmęczony. (masc.) / Jestem zmęczona. (fem.) - I am tired.

to jest / to są - pointing at things

To point something out (“this is / these are”), Polish uses the fixed frame to jest / to są. Here the noun stays in the nominative, because to (“this”) is the real subject:

• To jest książka. (This is a book.) - nominative, not instrumental.
• To są moje klucze. (These are my keys.)

Dropping the pronoun

Because each ending already shows the person, the subject pronoun is usually dropped and used only for emphasis or contrast: Jestem gotowy rather than Ja jestem gotowy.

Forms & patterns

Present tense (czas teraźniejszy)

Negate by putting nie before the verb: nie jestem, nie ma jej tu (note: “there is no X” uses nie ma + genitive, an idiom you will meet in Lesson 15).

Future tense (czas przyszły) - być is the base of the compound future

Past tense (czas przeszły) - gendered, mobile endings

The past of być is built on the stems był- (singular) and byl-/był- (plural), and the endings change with gender. In the plural, Polish splits into virile (masculine-personal: a group that includes at least one man) and non-virile (everything else) - see Lesson 30.

The personal endings -m, -ś, -śmy, -ście are mobile: they can detach from the verb and hop onto an earlier stressed word - Gdzie byłeś? can become Gdzieś był? (both correct). As a beginner, keep them on the verb; just recognize the pattern when you hear it.

Examples

Common mistakes

• Jestem student -> Jestem studentem - a predicate noun after być takes the instrumental case.
• Ona jest nauczycielka -> Ona jest nauczycielką - same rule: instrumental, not nominative.
• To jest książką -> To jest książka - after to jest the noun stays nominative.
• Ja jestem, ty jesteś, on jest zmęczony said with every pronoun -> drop the pronoun: Jestem zmęczony - the ending already shows who.
• Byłem used by a woman -> Byłam - the past tense must match your gender.
• Będę jestem w domu -> Będę w domu - the future będę already means “I will be”; do not add a second być.

Tips

• Drill the six present forms aloud until they are automatic - you will use być in almost every lesson from here on.
• One quick test for the case: noun after być -> instrumental (Jestem lekarzem); adjective after być -> nominative (Jestem chory).
• To jest / to są is the everyday way to say “this is / these are” - and it keeps the noun in the plain nominative you already know.
• Remember that the past tense carries gender: a man says byłem, a woman says byłam, and the plural splits into virile byli vs. non-virile były.
• Będę, będziesz, będzie… is not just “I will be” - these forms also build the compound future of other verbs (Lesson 22), so this paradigm pays off twice.

In short

Polish nouns, adjectives and pronouns change their endings depending on their role in the sentence - this is called case. The nominative (Polish mianownik) is the base, dictionary form: it is the case of the subject, the person or thing doing the action. It answers the questions kto? (who?) and co? (what?). Every word you meet in a dictionary is given in the nominative, so this is where learning a noun begins.

The rule

The nominative marks the subject of a clause - the doer of the verb - and it is also the form used after the linking verb być (to be) in simple identifying statements at the very start of learning (To jest kot - This is a cat). It is the citation form: when you look a word up, you find its nominative singular.

What the nominative does

• Names the subject: Kot śpi. (The cat sleeps.) - kot does the sleeping, so it is nominative.
• Answers kto? / co?: ask “who or what is doing this?” and the answer is nominative. Kto to jest? To jest Anna. (Who is this? This is Anna.)
• Follows “to (jest)”: in the pattern To jest / To są + noun, the noun stays nominative: To jest dom (This is a house), To są koty (These are cats).

Why endings matter

Because the subject is marked by case, Polish does not need a fixed word order the way English does. Kot widzi psa and Psa widzi kot both mean “The cat sees the dog” - the endings (kot = nominative subject, psa = accusative object), not the position, tell you who does what. Learning the nominative first gives you the anchor against which all the other cases are contrasted.

Gender is read off the nominative

The nominative singular ending is what tells you a noun’s gender, which then controls agreement everywhere else:

• Masculine: usually ends in a consonant - kot (cat), dom (house), student (student).
• Feminine: usually ends in -a - kobieta (woman), książka (book), lampa (lamp).
• Neuter: usually ends in -o, -e, -ę, -um - okno (window), morze (sea), imię (name), muzeum (museum).

Forms & patterns

The nominative is the unmarked, base form, so there is little to “build” here - the point is to recognise the typical endings by gender, singular and plural.

Nominative singular by gender

Nominative plural

The plural ending depends on gender and, for masculine nouns, on whether the noun is personal masculine (a male human = męskoosobowy / virile) or not.

Consonant alternations in the masculine personal plural

Forming the plural of male-human nouns often triggers a softening of the final consonant - a key A1 pattern to recognise:

The demonstrative “to” and the pattern To jest / To są

Note that to here is invariable - it does not agree with the noun; only the following noun and verb (jest / są) change.

Examples

Common mistakes

• To jest kota -> To jest kot - after to jest the noun stays nominative (kot), not accusative (kota).
• studentzy -> studenci - the male-human plural of student softens t -> ci, it is not a simple added -y.
• Polakowie -> Polacy - Polak takes -cy with k -> c softening, not the ending -owie here.
• dwa okno -> dwa okna - neuter plural of okno is okna; the noun must be plural, not left in the singular.
• ta dom -> ten dom - dom ends in a consonant, so it is masculine and takes ten, not the feminine ta.
• Kot widzi pies meant as “the cat sees the dog” -> Kot widzi psa - only the subject kot stays nominative; the object pies must take the accusative (psa). Polish reads the roles off the endings, not off English word order.

Tips

• Learn every noun in its nominative singular - that is the dictionary form and it reveals the gender at a glance.
• Quick gender test: ends in a consonant -> masculine; ends in -a -> feminine; ends in -o/-e/-ę -> neuter (a handful of exceptions exist, e.g. mężczyzna “man” is masculine despite -a).
• Ask kto? co? (“who? what?”) of the verb - whatever answers is your nominative subject.
• The nominative is your baseline: every other case is easier to learn as “the nominative, but changed to show a different role.”
• Watch for softening in male-human plurals (Polak -> Polacy, student -> studenci); it is regular once you spot which consonant changes.
• Remember that to in to jest / to są never changes - only the noun after it moves between singular and plural.

In short

Polish has one present tense, and it covers both English “I read” and “I am reading” - there is no separate continuous form. To conjugate, you drop the infinitive ending, find the present stem, and add a personal ending. Which endings you use depends on the verb’s conjugation group (koniugacja), so the main job at A1 is learning to recognise the four groups.

The rule

A Polish verb in the dictionary is an infinitive, almost always ending in -ć: czytać (to read), mówić (to speak), pisać (to write). The present tense of imperfective verbs is built in two steps.

• Find the present stem - this is the 1st-person-singular form minus its ending; it is not always just the infinitive minus -ć, and it can differ from the infinitive stem (e.g. pisać -> stem pisz-).
• Add the personal ending for the subject. Because the ending already shows the person, the pronoun (ja, ty, on… - see Lesson 2) is usually dropped: czytam on its own means “I read”.

The four conjugation groups

Polish verbs are traditionally sorted into four koniugacje, named after the 1sg and 2sg endings:

• Group I - -ę / -esz: pisać -> piszę, piszesz; pracować -> pracuję, pracujesz. The 3sg ends in -e.
• Group II - -ę / -isz (or -ysz): mówić -> mówię, mówisz; robić -> robię, robisz. The 3sg ends in -i / -y.
• Group III - -am / -asz: czytać -> czytam, czytasz; mieć -> mam, masz. The 3sg ends in -a.
• Group IV - -em / -esz: rozumieć -> rozumiem, rozumiesz; jeść -> jem, jesz. The 3sg ends in -e (like Group I) but the 1sg is -em, not -ę.

Two shortcuts help enormously:

• Every verb whose infinitive ends in -ować / -ywać / -iwać goes to Group I and swaps that ending for -uj-: pracować -> pracuj-ę, kupować -> kupuj-ę, studiować -> studiuj-ę.
• The plural endings are almost the same across all groups: -my (my), -cie (wy). Only the singular vowels and the 3pl ending really vary.

The 3rd-person plural (oni/one)

The “they” ending is the one to watch:

• Groups I and II take -ą: piszą, pracują, mówią, robią.
• Group III takes -ają: czytają, mają.
• Group IV takes - eją for rozumieją, but jeść and wiedzieć are irregular here: jedzą, wiedzą.

The verb być (to be) is fully irregular and was covered separately in Lesson 3.

Forms & patterns

Personal endings by group (the vowel/ending that changes is in bold):

Full paradigms, one verb from each group:

More Group I verbs (note the -ować -> -uj- swap and stem changes):

Group IV irregular plurals - jeść and wiedzieć against regular rozumieć:

Examples

Common mistakes

• ja jestem czytać / ja jestem czytam -> czytam - Polish has no auxiliary “to be” for the present; one word carries it all.
• robiesz -> robisz - robić is Group II, so 2sg is -isz, not -esz.
• czytę -> czytam - Group III uses -am in the 1sg, never -ę.
• czytą -> czytają - the 3pl of Group III is -ają; bare -ą belongs to Groups I and II.
• pisam -> piszę - pisać is Group I with the stem pisz-; watch the s -> sz change.
• rozumie for “I understand” -> rozumiem - rozumie is the 3sg (he/she); the 1sg is rozumiem.
• jeją / wieją -> jedzą / wiedzą - these two Group IV verbs have irregular 3pl forms.

Tips

• Learn each new verb as a pair: the 1sg and 2sg together tell you the whole group (e.g. piszę, piszesz = Group I).
• The plural is the easy part: -my for “we” and -cie for “you all” show up in every group.
• If the infinitive ends in -ować, you can almost always predict -uję, -ujesz: malować -> maluję, dziękować -> dziękuję, gotować -> gotuję.
• Group I often reshapes the stem (pisać -> piszę, brać -> biorę); when in doubt, memorise the 1sg form and build the rest from it.
• One present tense = “I do”, “I am doing”, and even a scheduled near future (Jutro piszę egzamin = “Tomorrow I am taking an exam”).

In short

Many everyday Polish verbs come with the little word się: nazywam się (“my name is”), uczę się (“I study”), myję się (“I wash”). Unlike its French or Spanish cousins, Polish się never changes - it is the same one word for every person and number. Your job at A1 is simply to learn which verbs carry it and where to put it in the sentence.

The rule

A reflexive verb (czasownik zwrotny) is a verb plus the invariable marker się. You conjugate the verb normally (Lesson 5) and just add się somewhere in the clause.

się is a fixed marker, not a changing pronoun

In Spanish the reflexive word shifts with the person (me lavo, te lavas, se lava). Polish does not do this. For every person you use the same się:

• ja myję się, ty myjesz się, on myje się, my myjemy się …

Because się does not tell you the person, the verb ending has to. So the verb ending is doing all the grammatical work - się is just a flag that says “this verb is reflexive”.

What się adds to the meaning

się does several jobs, but at A1 you meet three:

• True reflexive - the action falls back on the doer: myję się = I wash myself, ubieram się = I dress myself.
• Lexical / idiomatic - the verb simply “lives” with się and you learn them as a pair, even when there is no “self” idea in English: nazywać się (to be called), uczyć się (to study/learn), bać się (to be afraid), cieszyć się (to be glad).
• Introducing yourself - the single most useful A1 phrase: Jak się nazywasz? (“What is your name?”, literally “How do you call yourself?”) -> Nazywam się Anna.

Treat nazywać się and uczyć się as fixed vocabulary: the się is not optional, and dropping it changes or breaks the meaning.

Where to put się

się is a clitic - a small unstressed word that cannot stand alone. Two practical A1 rules:

• Never start a sentence with się. Say Nazywam się Tomek, never Się nazywam Tomek.
• With a question word or another short word up front, się likes to sit right after it: Jak się nazywasz?, Gdzie się uczysz? Otherwise it comfortably follows the verb: Uczę się polskiego.

You will study clitic placement in detail later (Lesson 32); for now, “after the verb” or “right after the question word” is always safe.

Forms & patterns

się is identical in every cell - only the verb changes. Three common models:

nazywać się - to be called (like czytać, group with -am, -asz):

uczyć się - to study / learn (group with -ę, -ysz):

myć się - to wash (oneself) (group with -ę, -esz; note y -> j before the endings):

Notice: across all eighteen cells się never changes. Compare the columns and you see the reflexive marker is constant while the personal ending does the work.

Examples

Common mistakes

• Se nazywam Anna -> Nazywam się Anna - the marker is always się, never Spanish-style se/me/te.
• Ja się myję, ty ci myjesz -> ty się myjesz - się does not change for the person; only the verb ending does.
• Się nazywam Tomek -> Nazywam się Tomek - a clause cannot begin with się.
• Uczę polskiego (meaning “I study Polish”) -> Uczę się polskiego - without się, uczyć means “to teach”, not “to learn”.
• Jak nazywasz? -> Jak się nazywasz? - the introduction phrase needs się; omitting it sounds wrong.
• Ja myję (for “I wash / get washed”) -> Myję się - drop się and myć becomes transitive (“I wash [something]”).

Tips

• Learn each reflexive verb as a two-word chunk: nazywać się, uczyć się, myć się - store the się with the verb like a suffix.
• One word for all persons: memorize się once and reuse it - Polish is easier than Spanish here.
• Never let a sentence open with się; if you have a question word, tuck się right behind it.
• Watch the uczyć się trap: uczyć się = to learn (yourself), uczyć (no się) = to teach (someone else).
• Jak się nazywasz? - Nazywam się… is the single most useful pattern to overlearn on day one.

In short

Asking and denying are the first things you need in a real conversation. Polish makes both easy: for “who / what / where” you use a small set of question words, for a plain yes/no question you can add czy at the front (or just raise your voice), and to say “not” you put one little word - nie - right before the verb. No helper verb like English “do” is ever needed.

The rule

Question words (interrogative pronouns)

An information question starts with a question word, usually at the very beginning of the sentence. Word order after it stays natural - you do NOT invert the subject and verb the way English does:

• Gdzie mieszkasz? = Where do you live? (literally “Where you-live?”)
• Co to jest? = What is this?

The core A1 set: kto (who), co (what), gdzie (where), kiedy (when), jak (how), dlaczego (why). Two of these - kto and co - are pronouns and change their form for case (see the table below); the rest are invariable adverbs.

Yes/no questions with czy and with intonation

For a question that expects yes or no, put the particle czy at the front of the statement and leave everything else unchanged:

• Statement: Mówisz po polsku. (You speak Polish.) -> Question: Czy mówisz po polsku? (Do you speak Polish?)

In everyday speech you can drop czy and just use rising intonation - the words stay in statement order and only your voice goes up:

• Mówisz po polsku? = You speak Polish? / Do you speak Polish?

Both are correct. czy is a touch more careful and is the safe choice in writing; bare intonation is more casual. Note that czy here is never translated - there is no Polish word for the English “do/does” of questions.

Negation with nie

To make any verb negative, place nie directly in front of it. Nothing else moves:

• Rozumiem. (I understand.) -> Nie rozumiem. (I do not understand.)
• On tu mieszka. (He lives here.) -> On tu nie mieszka. (He does not live here.)

The same nie is also the word for no as a full answer: Nie, dziękuję. (No, thank you.) Do not confuse it with the reflexive się or with anything else - one word does all the negating.

Genitive after a negated verb. A very Polish rule: when you negate a verb that in the positive takes the accusative (the direct object), the object switches to the genitive case:

• Mam czas. (I have time - accusative) -> Nie mam czasu. (I do not have time - genitive)
• Znam ten adres. -> Nie znam tego adresu. (I do not know this address.)

nie ma = there is not. The frozen phrase nie ma (+ genitive) is the negative of “there is / there are” and of “to have”: Nie ma mleka. (There is no milk.) You will meet the case rules in full in Lessons 9 and 16; just recognise the pattern for now.

Forms & patterns

Core A1 question words:

Declension of the pronouns kto and co (you meet these cases across later lessons):

Yes/no question - the same statement, three registers:

Negation of the present tense of mieszkać (to live), affirmative vs negative - only nie is added:

Accusative object -> genitive after negation:

Examples

Common mistakes

• Do ty mówisz po polsku? -> Czy mówisz po polsku? - Polish has no “do/does”; use czy or just intonation.
• Gdzie ty mieszkasz jest? -> Gdzie mieszkasz? - after a question word keep normal order; do not add an extra verb or invert.
• Mam nie czas. -> Nie mam czasu. - nie goes right before the verb, and a negated object turns genitive.
• Nie mam czas. -> Nie mam czasu. - after a negated verb the accusative object becomes genitive (czas -> czasu).
• Co jest ten człowiek? -> Kto to jest? - use kto for people, co only for things.
• Nie ma mleko. -> Nie ma mleka. - nie ma is always followed by the genitive (mleko -> mleka).

Tips

• Only two question words bend: kto and co. Learn kto/kogo/komu/kim and co/czego/czemu/czym as little chants - the rest never change.
• The quickest question of all is intonation: say the statement and lift your voice at the end. Add czy when you want to sound tidier or are writing.
• One word negates everything: put nie immediately before the verb, with no “do”, no auxiliary, nothing else.
• Watch the object: the moment a verb goes negative, its accusative object flips to genitive. “Mam kawę” -> “Nie mam kawy”.
• nie (no / not) and się (reflexive marker) are different words - do not swap them.
• Remember the pair nie ma = “there isn’t / there aren’t” (+ genitive); it is also how you say “X doesn’t have”.

In short

When you speak politely to a stranger, an older person, an official, or anyone you are not on first-name terms with, Polish does not use ty (“you”). Instead it uses the nouns pan (“sir / Mr”) for a man and pani (“madam / Mrs / Ms”) for a woman. The catch for English and even Spanish speakers: because pan and pani are grammatically third person, the verb takes the same ending as with on (“he”) or ona (“she”), not the ty ending. This is the single most important politeness rule at A1.

The rule

Polish has two levels of address. Informal (ty singular, wy plural) is for family, friends, children, and peers you have agreed to be casual with. Formal / polite uses pan / pani and takes a third-person verb.

pan and pani are third-person nouns

Literally pan means “gentleman / lord” and pani means “lady”. Because they are nouns, Polish treats them like on and ona: the verb agrees in the 3rd person singular, exactly as it would with “he” or “she”.

• to a man: Czy pan mówi po polsku? = “Do you (sir) speak Polish?” (verb mówi, same as on mówi)
• to a woman: Czy pani mówi po polsku? = “Do you (madam) speak Polish?” (verb mówi, same as ona mówi)

So you must never say Czy pan mówisz…? - the -sz ending belongs to ty, and pairing it with pan is a classic beginner error.

Choosing pan or pani

The choice follows the person’s gender, not the noun:

• pan - addressing one man
• pani - addressing one woman

You often add the person’s name or role: pan Kowalski (Mr Kowalski), pani Anna (Ms Anna), pani doktor (doctor, to a woman).

The plural: państwo, panowie, panie

When you politely address more than one person, the form depends on who is in the group, and the verb goes into the 3rd person plural:

• państwo - a mixed group (men and women together), or a couple: Czy państwo mówią po angielsku? = “Do you speak English?” (to several people)
• panowie - two or more men only
• panie - two or more women only

When to use which level

• Use pan / pani / państwo with anyone you address by surname, and with strangers, officials, shop and restaurant staff, teachers, and elders.
• Use ty / wy with friends, family, children, teenagers, animals, and after someone has invited you to switch (Możemy przejść na ty? - “Shall we switch to first names?”).
• When unsure, choose the polite form. It is never rude to be too formal.

Forms & patterns

The address words themselves (nominative, the “subject” form you use here):

Verb agreement - compare informal ty/wy with the polite forms. The verb is mówić (“to speak”), present tense:

Key point: the polite singular = 3rd person singular (mówi), and the polite plural = 3rd person plural (mówią). The politeness lives in pan/pani/państwo, and the verb simply follows them.

A second model verb, być (“to be”), to confirm the pattern:

Examples

Common mistakes

• Czy pan mówisz po polsku? -> Czy pan mówi po polsku? - pan is 3rd person; use mówi (like on), not the ty form mówisz.
• Ty pan / pan ty -> pan alone - never mix ty with pan/pani; pick one level of address.
• Pani jesteś… -> Pani jest… - with pani the verb być is jest (3rd person), not jesteś.
• Czy państwo jest gotowi? -> Czy państwo są gotowi? - państwo takes the 3rd person plural są, not the singular jest.
• using pan for a woman -> pani for a woman - the choice follows the person’s gender.
• Pan Kowalski, mówisz… (to his face) -> pan Kowalski, pan mówi… - addressing him by surname still requires the polite 3rd person.

Tips

• Memory hook: pan/pani = “he/she to your face” - use the exact verb you would use for on/ona.
• Default to polite with any adult stranger; over-formality is safe, over-familiarity can offend.
• Learn the two most useful openers by heart: Czy pan/pani mówi po…? and Przepraszam, gdzie pan/pani…?
• For groups, remember one umbrella word - państwo - covers any mixed company and always takes a plural verb (są, mówią, mają).
• The move to informal is a social event: wait to be invited with przejść na ty rather than dropping pan/pani on your own.
• pan/pani also change endings in other cases (e.g. panu, panią); at A1 focus on the nominative subject form shown here and let the other cases come with later lessons.

In short

The accusative (Polish biernik) is the case of the direct object - the thing that the action acts on. When you see, have, buy, love, drink, or read something, that something goes into the accusative. It answers the questions kogo? (“whom?”) and co? (“what?”). Because most Polish verbs take a direct object, this is the case you will use every single day.

The rule

After a transitive verb (mam, widzę, kupuję, lubię, piję, czytam, znam…), the object is put in the accusative. What that ending looks like depends on the noun’s gender and, for masculine nouns, on animacy (żywotność).

Feminine singular

Feminine nouns ending in -a change that -a to -ę: kawa -> kawę, książka -> książkę. Feminine nouns ending in a consonant (like noc, rzecz) do not change - accusative equals nominative.

Neuter singular

Neuter nouns (okno, dziecko, piwo) never change in the accusative. The accusative is identical to the nominative: mam małe dziecko.

Masculine singular - animacy (żywotność)

This is the heart of the lesson. Masculine nouns split into two groups:

• Animate masculine (people and animals - pies, kot, brat, student, pan): the accusative is identical to the genitive. You add -a: pies -> psa, kot -> kota, brat -> brata, student -> studenta.
• Inanimate masculine (objects - stół, dom, samochód, komputer, chleb): the accusative is identical to the nominative. Nothing changes: stół -> stół, dom -> dom.

So widzę psa (“I see a dog”, animate -> genitive-like ending) but widzę stół (“I see a table”, inanimate -> unchanged). This animate/inanimate contrast exists only in the masculine singular - nowhere else.

Note the vowel drop: many inanimate masculines have a “mobile e” or an ó -> o shift when they do take an ending in other cases, but in the accusative they stay bare, so stół stays stół. Animate ones show the alternation: pies -> psa (the e disappears), lew -> lwa, chłopiec -> chłopca.

Forms & patterns

Singular accusative by gender:

The two masculine paths side by side:

Personal pronouns in the accusative (full forms; you meet the short clitics in Lesson 19):

Examples

Common mistakes

• Widzę pies. -> Widzę psa. - pies is animate masculine, so the accusative copies the genitive.
• Widzę stoła. -> Widzę stół. - stół is inanimate, so the accusative equals the nominative; no ending.
• Piję kawa. -> Piję kawę. - feminine -a becomes -ę as a direct object.
• Mam brat. -> Mam brata. - brat is animate; add -a.
• Czytam książka. -> Czytam książkę. - the object of czytać is accusative, not nominative.
• Widzę dziecku. -> Widzę dziecko. - neuter never changes in the accusative.

Tips

• Ask “is it alive?” for a masculine object. Alive (person or animal) -> use the genitive-style ending (-a). Not alive -> leave it as it is.
• Feminine -a -> -ę is the single most frequent change you will make: mam siostrę, robię herbatę, znam Annę.
• Neuter and consonant-feminine nouns are “free” - you copy the nominative straight across.
• The animate rule is why widzę psa rhymes with the genitive nie ma psa (“there is no dog”): learn the animate accusative and you already know that genitive.
• Watch the disappearing e: pies -> psa, lew -> lwa, chłopiec -> chłopca, pan -> pana (no drop here, but the pattern varies - memorize the animate nouns you use most).

In short

The instrumental (Polish narzędnik) is the case you use to say what something is after the verb być (to be) - Jestem studentem (I am a student) - and to say by what means you do something - piszę długopisem (I write with a pen). Its name comes from narzędzie (a tool), and that is a good hint: it answers kim? (as whom?) and czym? (with/by what?). For a beginner it matters most because Polish does not keep the noun in its dictionary form after być: you must change the ending.

The rule

The instrumental has two everyday jobs at A1 level.

1. The predicate after być (jestem studentem)

When być links a subject to a noun that names or classifies it (profession, nationality, role, identity), that noun goes into the instrumental, not the nominative:

• Jestem nauczycielem. - I am a teacher.
• Ona jest lekarką. - She is a doctor.
• Oni są studentami. - They are students.

This is different from English, where the noun does not change (“I am a student”), and different from the nominative you learned in To jest student. Compare the two Polish patterns carefully:

• To jest / To są + nominative - pointing at / identifying: To jest student. (This is a student.)
• subject + być + instrumental - saying what the subject is: On jest studentem. (He is a student.)

One important limit: if the predicate is only an adjective, it stays in the nominative, agreeing with the subject - Jestem młody (I am young), Ona jest miła (She is nice). The instrumental is for the noun. When you have both, the noun is instrumental and any adjective with it also becomes instrumental: Jestem dobrym studentem (I am a good student).

2. The means or instrument (czym?)

Without any preposition, the instrumental says with/by what an action is done:

• Piszę długopisem. - I write with a pen.
• Jem widelcem. - I eat with a fork.
• Jadę autobusem. - I go by bus.

3. After the preposition z (with = together with)

The instrumental is also used after several prepositions; the first one you need is z meaning (together) with somebody or something:

• Idę do kina z bratem. - I am going to the cinema with my brother.
• Kawa z mlekiem. - Coffee with milk.

Other instrumental prepositions - nad (above), pod (under), przed (in front of), za (behind), między (between) - come later, but they all take the same endings.

Forms & patterns

The endings are unusually regular: -em for masculine and neuter singular, -ą for feminine singular, and -ami for (almost) all plurals.

Instrumental singular

Note the spelling rule: after k and g you write -iem, never plain -em (Polakiem, not Polakem).

Instrumental plural

A small group of nouns take -mi instead - learn them as fixed items:

Adjective agreement in the instrumental

An adjective (or ten, mój) with the noun takes matching instrumental endings:

być + instrumental: the full frame

Examples

Common mistakes

• Jestem student -> Jestem studentem - after być, a predicate noun takes the instrumental, not the nominative.
• Ona jest lekarka -> Ona jest lekarką - feminine nouns in -a become -ą here (lekarka -> lekarką).
• Jadę autobusiem -> jadę autobusem - only stems in k/g take -iem; a plain consonant stem takes -em.
• Polakem -> Polakiem - after k you must write -iem, not -em.
• z ludziami -> z ludźmi - ludzie is one of the irregulars taking -mi (with softening), not -ami.
• Jestem młodym (meaning “I am young”) -> Jestem młody - a predicate that is only an adjective stays nominative; the instrumental is for the noun.
• To jest studentem -> To jest student - the to jest pointing pattern keeps the nominative; use the instrumental only with jestem / jest / są and a subject.

Tips

• Memory hook: narzędnik = “the tool case” - czym? (with what?). Piszę długopisem = writing with a pen.
• Two words, two endings: -em covers masculine and neuter; -ą is the feminine one - the same -ą you hear at the end of ona jest miłą osobą.
• After być, ask “am I saying what someone is (a noun)?” If yes, use the instrumental. If it is just an adjective, keep the nominative.
• Keep To jest student (nominative) apart from On jest studentem (instrumental) - the pointing pattern never changes the ending, the linking pattern always does.
• Spelling reflex: k/g are never followed by -em - it is always -kiem, -giem (Polakiem, pociągiem).
• Learn the -mi irregulars as a short list (ludźmi, dziećmi, gośćmi, końmi); everything else is safely -ami.

In short

In Polish an adjective must match the noun it describes in three things at once: gender, number and case. This matching is called agreement (Polish związek zgody). So the same adjective “good” looks different in dobry student (a good student), dobra książka (a good book) and dobre dziecko (a good child). Once you know the noun’s gender and case, the adjective ending is fully predictable, so a small set of endings covers everything.

The rule

An adjective is a word that answers jaki? jaka? jakie? (what kind of? / which?) - for example nowy (new), mały (small), dobry (good), polski (Polish). It never stands on its own grammar: it copies the noun.

Agreement in gender, number and case

When you attach an adjective to a noun, you read off three properties of the noun and give the adjective the matching ending:

• Gender - masculine, feminine or neuter (in the singular).
• Number - singular or plural.
• Case - nominative, accusative, instrumental, etc. (Lessons 4, 10, 11 and later).

So dobry changes with the noun: dobry student (masc.), dobra studentka (fem.), dobre dziecko (neut.). The adjective and its noun form one unit that moves through the cases together.

Reading the citation ending

Dictionaries give an adjective in the masculine nominative singular, which ends in -y or -i:

• -y after most consonants: nowy (new), mały (small), dobry (good).
• -i after k, g and after soft stems: polski (Polish), drogi (dear/expensive), tani (cheap).

From that citation form you can build every other ending.

Hard vs. soft stems (the -y/-i split)

The choice between -y and -i in an ending is not free - it follows the stem’s final consonant. After k and g you can never write y, so you get -i (polski, drogi) and, in the feminine/neuter plural, -ie rather than -e. This is the same spelling rule you met for nouns: k, g dislike y and e.

Position

The default position is before the noun: nowy samochód (a new car). A following adjective usually marks a fixed type or category: język polski (the Polish language), scyzoryk szwajcarski (a Swiss army knife). At A1 the neutral choice is adjective before noun.

Forms & patterns

Nominative singular and plural (the base agreement)

The plural has only two genders: masculine personal (męskoosobowy / virile - a group that includes a male human) and everything else (niemęskoosobowy / non-virile). See Lesson 30.

Note the softening in the masculine personal plural: nowy -> nowi, mały -> mali, dobry -> dobrzy, polski -> polscy, drogi -> drodzy.

Full singular declension - hard stem (nowy, “new”)

The masculine accusative copies the genitive (nowego) for animate nouns but the nominative (nowy) for inanimate ones - exactly the rule you saw for nouns in Lesson 9. The feminine accusative and instrumental share the ending -ą: nową (widzę nową książkę - I see a new book; z nową książką - with a new book).

Full singular declension - velar/soft stem (polski, “Polish”)

The only difference from nowy is that k/g force -i- and -ie where a hard stem has -y- and -e (polskie, not polske; polski, not polsky).

Examples

Common mistakes

• dobry książka -> dobra książka - the adjective must take the feminine ending to match książka.
• nowe samochód -> nowy samochód - a masculine noun needs masculine -y, not neuter -e.
• polske jedzenie -> polskie jedzenie - after k you must write -ie, never -e.
• widzę dobra książkę -> widzę dobrą książkę - in the accusative the adjective takes -ą just like the noun; keep the whole unit in one case.
• dobre studenci -> dobrzy studenci - a group of male humans is masculine personal, so the adjective takes -i with the r -> rz softening.
• z nowy dom -> z nowym domem - after a preposition the adjective changes case too, not only the noun.

Tips

• Learn each new adjective in its masculine nominative form (nowy, dobry, polski) - all other endings grow from it.
• Say the adjective and noun together as one chunk: dobra książka, mały pies. If the noun moves to another case, move the adjective with it.
• The -i/-ie endings (not -y/-e) are the giveaway of a k/g stem: polski, drogi, wysoki -> polskie, drogie, wysokie.
• Neuter singular and non-virile plural share the ending -e (nowe okno, nowe okna, nowe domy) - a handy overlap.
• The masculine personal plural (nowi, mili, dobrzy, polscy) is the one form worth drilling, because it triggers consonant softening.
• Ask jaki? jaka? jakie? to find the right gender ending, then apply the noun’s case.

In short

Demonstrative pronouns (ten, ta, to = this / that) point something out, and possessive pronouns (mój, twój, nasz, wasz = my, your, our, your-pl) say whose it is. In Polish both are really adjective-like words: they stand in front of the noun and agree with it in gender, number and case. So the ending you pick depends on the Polish noun, never on the English word - mój changes to moja, moje, moich and so on.

The rule

A demonstrative or possessive pronoun agrees with its noun exactly the way an adjective does (see Lesson 11): it copies the noun’s gender (masculine / feminine / neuter), number (singular / plural) and case (nominative, accusative, etc.). Unlike English, there is no separate article system - ten dom covers both “this house” and “that house”, and the pronoun itself carries the gender.

Demonstratives: ten / ta / to

One set of forms means both “this” and “that”. The base (nominative singular) forms are:

• ten - masculine: ten kot (this cat), ten dom (this house)
• ta - feminine: ta kobieta (this woman), ta książka (this book)
• to - neuter: to okno (this window), to dziecko (this child)

In the plural Polish splits by virility (see Lesson 30): ci for a group that includes male humans, te for everything else.

• ci - masculine personal (virile): ci studenci (these students, males)
• te - all other plurals: te koty (these cats), te kobiety (these women), te okna (these windows)

If you truly need to contrast near vs far, add tu / tutaj (here) or tam (there): ten dom tutaj (this house here) vs ten dom tam (that house there). Formal or emphatic “that” can also be tamten / tamta / tamto, which declines just like ten.

Do not confuse the two “to”. The demonstrative to (neuter, “this/that”) agrees with a neuter noun: to okno. The invariable pointing word to in To jest…/To są… (“This is…/These are…”, Lesson 4) never changes for gender: To jest kot, To jest kobieta, To są koty all use the same to.

Possessives: mój / twój / nasz / wasz

These decline like adjectives and agree with the thing possessed, not the owner:

• mój / moja / moje = my
• twój / twoja / twoje = your (one person, informal)
• nasz / nasza / nasze = our
• wasz / wasza / wasze = your (more than one person, informal)

For the formal “your” (addressing pan / pani, Lesson 8) Polish uses pana (of a man) / pani (of a woman) / państwa (of a group): pana samochód (your car, sir), pani książka (your book, madam). These do not decline for the noun.

Third-person possessives: jego / jej / ich

“His”, “her/its” and “their” are the indeclinable words jego (his / its), jej (her) and ich (their). They never change to match the noun:

• jego dom, jego siostra, jego dzieci - his house / sister / children
• jej brat, jej książka, jej oczy - her brother / book / eyes
• ich samochód, ich matka - their car / mother

These are the same words as the genitive of the personal pronouns on / ona / oni (Lesson 19), reused for possession.

Forms & patterns

Demonstrative ten - full declension

*Masculine accusative singular: ten for inanimate nouns (Widzę ten dom - I see this house), tego for animate/personal nouns (Widzę tego kota - I see this cat). The feminine accusative is tę (a special short form; you will also hear tą in speech).

Possessive mój - full declension

twój declines identically (twój, twoja, twoje, twoi…).

*Same animacy split as ten: inanimate mój (mój dom), animate/personal mojego (mojego brata). Contracted forms mego, memu, mej, mych exist but are literary - stick to the full forms.

Possessive nasz - full declension

wasz declines identically (wasz, wasza, wasze, wasi…).

*Inanimate nasz (nasz dom), animate/personal naszego (naszego syna).

Nominative agreement at a glance

Examples

Common mistakes

• ta dom -> ten dom - dom is masculine, so the demonstrative is ten, not the feminine ta.
• ten kobieta -> ta kobieta - kobieta is feminine (-a), so use ta.
• mój siostra -> moja siostra - the possessive agrees with the noun’s gender; siostra is feminine -> moja.
• te studenci -> ci studenci - a group of male humans is virile, so the plural is ci, not te.
• ci koty -> te koty - cats are non-virile, so the plural demonstrative is te.
• Widzę ten pies -> Widzę tego psa - a masculine animate accusative takes tego (and psa), not the nominative ten pies.
• jego dom meaning “her house” -> jej dom - jego is his/its, jej is her; pick by the owner even though the word itself does not change.
• jejego / ichni samochód -> jej / ich samochód - jej and ich are fixed forms and never take adjective endings.

Tips

• Choose the ending by the Polish noun: think of its gender and case first, then attach the matching form of ten or mój.
• mój, twój, nasz, wasz march in step with adjectives - if you can decline dobry / dobra / dobre (Lesson 11), you already know their pattern.
• jego, jej, ich are your easy wins - three fixed words, no endings to learn.
• The masculine forms have a built-in animacy split in the accusative: things keep ten / mój, living beings switch to tego / mojego (just like the accusative of nouns, Lesson 9).
• Remember two different to: neuter demonstrative to (agrees: to okno) vs the frozen presenting to in To jest… (never agrees).
• For the plural, ask “does the group include a man?” - yes -> virile ci / moi / nasi; no -> te / moje / nasze.
• Contracted mego, mej, mych are fine to recognise in reading but sound old-fashioned; produce the full mojego, mojej, moich.

In short

Cardinal numerals (Polish liczebniki główne) are the counting words jeden, dwa, trzy, cztery, pięć… - the answer to ile? (how many?). Two things make Polish numbers harder than English: jeden and dwa change form for the gender of what they count, and - most importantly - a numeral governs the case of the noun after it (nominative plural after 2-4, genitive plural from 5 up). This lesson gives you the words and the basic agreement; the finer syntax gets its own lesson later.

The rule

The words

0-10 are unique words you simply memorise. 11-19 are built with the suffix -naście (roughly “-teen”): jedenaście, dwanaście, …. The tens end in -dziesiąt (or -dzieścia for 20/30) and the hundreds in -set (or sto, dwieście, trzysta, czterysta). See the tables below.

Compound numbers are written as separate words, biggest first, with no “and”: dwadzieścia jeden (21), sto pięćdziesiąt trzy (153), tysiąc dziewięćset osiemdziesiąt cztery (1984).

jeden agrees in gender

jeden (“one”) behaves like an adjective and takes the gender of its noun: jeden (masculine), jedna (feminine), jedno (neuter). It also declines through all the cases, but at A1 the nominative forms are what you need first.

dwa vs dwie

dwa is used with masculine and neuter nouns; dwie with feminine nouns: dwa koty (two cats, m.), dwa okna (two windows, n.), but dwie książki (two books, f.). Male-human groups take a special form - dwaj studenci or dwóch studentów - covered in the numeral-syntax lesson. From trzy (3) up, only male-human reference brings extra forms; otherwise the numeral word itself does not change for gender.

The case a numeral governs

This is the heart of Polish counting. What case the counted noun takes depends on the numeral:

• 1 (jeden/jedna/jedno) -> noun in the nominative singular: jeden kot, jedna książka, jedno okno.
• 2, 3, 4 -> noun in the nominative plural: dwa koty, trzy książki, cztery okna.
• 5 and up -> noun in the genitive plural: pięć kotów, dziesięć książek, sto lat.

For compound numbers the last word decides: dwadzieścia dwa koty (ends in 2 -> nom. pl.), but dwadzieścia pięć kotów (ends in 5 -> gen. pl.). One trap: 11-14 always take the genitive plural (dwanaście kotów), even though 12/13/14 look like they “end in” 2/3/4.

The verb

Numbers 2-4 take a plural verb (Dwa koty śpią - Two cats are sleeping), while 5 and up take a singular, neuter verb (Pięć kotów śpi - Five cats are sleeping; Przyszło pięć osób - Five people came).

Forms & patterns

0-10

11-20 (suffix -naście)

Tens

Hundreds and big numbers

Thousands and millions: 1000 tysiąc - 2000 dwa tysiące - 5000 pięć tysięcy - 1 000 000 milion - 2 000 000 dwa miliony - 5 000 000 pięć milionów.

jeden - gender (nominative)

dwa - gender (nominative)

Case governed by the numeral

Examples

Common mistakes

• dwa książki -> dwie książki - feminine “two” is dwie, not dwa.
• jeden kobieta -> jedna kobieta - jeden must agree in gender (feminine jedna).
• pięć koty -> pięć kotów - from 5 up the noun goes into the genitive plural.
• dwa kotów -> dwa koty - 2, 3, 4 take the nominative plural, not the genitive.
• dwanaście koty -> dwanaście kotów - 11-14 take the genitive plural even though 12 seems to “end in two.”
• pięć osób przyszły -> pięć osób przyszło - a “5 and up” subject takes a singular, neuter verb.
• sto i pięć -> sto pięć - Polish uses no word for “and” inside a number.

Tips

• Master the split first: 2-4 -> nominative plural, 5+ -> genitive plural. Everything else in numeral syntax builds on it.
• Only jeden and dwa care about gender in everyday counting; trzy, cztery, pięć… stay the same for masculine/feminine/neuter things.
• Read a compound number from the last word to decide the noun’s case: trzydzieści cztery koty (nom. pl.), trzydzieści pięć kotów (gen. pl.).
• Remember the genitive-plural trap of 11-14: jedenaście, dwanaście, trzynaście, czternaście all take kotów, not koty.
• The tens rhyme by shape: -dzieścia for 20/30, -dziesiąt for 40-90; the hundreds share -set from 500 up.
• Learn the survival phrases with their case baked in: dwie kawy (two coffees), pięć minut (five minutes), sto złotych (a hundred zlotys).

In short

A coordinate clause is what you get when you glue two equal, standalone sentences together with a small linking word. Neither half depends on the other - each could live on its own - so this is the simplest way to build longer, more natural sentences. With just five little words - i, a, ale, lub, więc - you can already join ideas the way a native does: “and”, “but”, “or”, “so”. The grammar of the two clauses does not change; you only slot the connector in between.

The rule

A coordinating conjunction (spójnik współrzędny) links two clauses of the same rank. Compare with a subordinate clause (Lesson 34), where one clause is grammatically inside the other. Here both clauses stay independent:

• Ja czytam i ona czyta. = I am reading and she is reading.

Below are the five you need at A1. Each has its own precise job - Polish keeps some distinctions that English blurs into a single word.

i - “and” (adding, same direction)

i simply adds one thing to another when there is no contrast. It joins clauses, but also single words and phrases:

• Mam kota i psa. = I have a cat and a dog.
• Ona gotuje i on sprząta. = She cooks and he cleans.

Before the last item of a list you normally use i and drop the comma: chleb, masło i ser.

a - “and / but / whereas” (mild contrast, comparison)

a is the tricky one, because English has no single equivalent. Use a when the two clauses compare or gently contrast two different subjects doing different things - “and” with a hint of “whereas”. It is weaker than ale:

• Ja mieszkam w Warszawie, a ona mieszka w Krakowie. = I live in Warsaw, whereas she lives in Krakow.
• To jest kot, a to jest pies. = This is a cat, and (by contrast) this is a dog.

A clause with a almost always has a comma before it.

ale - “but” (real contrast, something unexpected)

ale marks a genuine contrast: the second clause goes against what you would expect from the first. Always put a comma before ale:

• Chcę spać, ale muszę pracować. = I want to sleep, but I have to work.
• Ona jest mała, ale silna. = She is small but strong.

lub - “or” (a choice / alternative)

lub offers one option or another. Its close synonym albo means the same at A1 level (albo can also mean an exclusive “either…or”). No comma before a single lub:

• Napijesz się kawy lub herbaty? = Will you have coffee or tea?
• Możemy zostać w domu lub pójść do kina. = We can stay home or go to the cinema.

więc - “so / therefore” (result, conclusion)

więc introduces a consequence - the second clause is the result of the first. Put a comma before więc:

• Pada deszcz, więc zostaję w domu. = It is raining, so I am staying home.
• Nie mam czasu, więc muszę iść. = I do not have time, so I have to go.

Punctuation summary

The single rule to remember: i and lub usually take no comma; a, ale and więc almost always take a comma before them.

Forms & patterns

Coordinating conjunctions are invariable - they never change form for case, gender, or number. What matters is which meaning each one carries and whether it needs a comma.

Two independent clauses joined - the skeleton stays the same, only the connector changes:

Near-synonyms you will hear (all A1-friendly):

Examples

Common mistakes

• Ja pracuję i ty odpoczywasz. -> Ja pracuję, a ty odpoczywasz. - contrast between two subjects needs a, not i.
• Chcę spać, i muszę pracować. -> Chcę spać, ale muszę pracować. - a real “but” contrast takes ale, not i.
• Ja lubię kawę i on woli herbatę. -> Ja lubię kawę, a on woli herbatę. - comparing two people = a with a comma.
• Napijesz się kawy, lub herbaty? -> Napijesz się kawy lub herbaty? - no comma before a single lub.
• Pada deszcz więc zostaję w domu. -> Pada deszcz, więc zostaję w domu. - always a comma before więc.
• Mam kota, i psa. -> Mam kota i psa. - no comma before i joining two items.
• To jest kot i to jest pies. -> To jest kot, a to jest pies. - “and” that sets one thing against another is a.

Tips

• Match the connector to the relationship: adding = i, comparing = a, contrasting = ale, choosing = lub, concluding = więc.
• English “and” splits in Polish: plain adding is i, but “and / whereas” between two different subjects is a. If you could say “whereas”, use a.
• Comma trick: the three “contrast/result” words - a, ale, więc - want a comma in front; the two “plus/choice” words - i, lub - do not.
• więc is a great filler for storytelling: string events together with ”…, więc …, więc …”.
• albo = lub; lecz = ale (more formal). Learn the everyday pair first and add the synonyms later.
• These words never inflect - once you know the meaning, they work in every sentence unchanged.

In short

The genitive (Polish dopełniacz) is the busiest case in Polish. It answers kogo? (“of whom?”) and czego? (“of what?”). You use it to show possession (książka brata = “the brother’s book”), after quantity words and many numbers, after a long list of prepositions (do, od, z, bez, dla), and - crucially - as the object of a negated verb. Learn it early: you will need it in almost every sentence you build.

The rule

The genitive marks what a thing belongs to or comes from, how much of something there is, and what is absent. Its ending depends on gender, and for masculine nouns on animacy and the individual word.

Possession and “of”

Polish has no word for “of” and no apostrophe-s. The owner simply goes into the genitive, after the thing owned: samochód ojca (“father’s car”), koniec filmu (“the end of the film”).

After quantity and negation

Words of amount take the genitive: dużo czasu (“a lot of time”), kilogram cukru (“a kilo of sugar”), szklanka wody (“a glass of water”). And the object of a negated verb switches out of the accusative into the genitive - the topic below.

Genitive of negation - nie ma, nie mam

This is the single rule A2 learners trip on most. When you negate a transitive verb, its direct object leaves the accusative and takes the genitive:

• Mam czas (“I have time”) -> Nie mam czasu (“I do not have time”).
• Widzę psa (“I see a dog”) -> Nie widzę psa (already genitive-like, so it looks the same).
• Czytam książkę (“I am reading a book”) -> Nie czytam książki.

The frozen phrase nie ma means “there is no / there isn’t / (someone) is not here”. It is the negated, impersonal form of jest/są, and whatever is missing goes into the genitive: Nie ma czasu (“there’s no time”), Nie ma Adama (“Adam isn’t here”), Nie ma problemu (“no problem”). Its counterpart in the affirmative uses the nominative (Jest czas / Jest Adam), so the case literally flips when you negate. In the past it becomes nie było + genitive, and in the future nie będzie + genitive: Nie było czasu, Nie będzie problemu.

Forms & patterns

Singular endings by gender

Masculine singular is the tricky one. Animate nouns (people, animals) almost always take -a. Inanimate nouns split between -a and -u and you must learn each word: concrete/countable and many food words lean to -a (chleb -> chleba, ser -> sera), while abstracts, masses, places and borrowings lean to -u (czas -> czasu, dom -> domu, problem -> problemu, telefon -> telefonu).

Feminine -a becomes -y, but after k or g spelling forces -i: matka -> matki, droga -> drogi. Consonant-final feminines add -y/-i: noc -> nocy, mysz -> myszy.

Watch the same vowel/consonant shifts you met in the accusative: pies -> psa (the e drops), stół -> stołu and samochód -> samochodu (ó -> o, i.e. the o-kreskowane becomes plain o).

Plural genitive (overview)

Masculine nouns usually take -ów; soft-stem ones take -i/-y. Feminine and neuter nouns typically take a zero ending (bare stem), often with an inserted -e- to break up the final consonant cluster: książka -> książek, okno -> okien.

The case flip under negation

Examples

Common mistakes

• Nie mam czas. -> Nie mam czasu. - the object of a negated verb takes the genitive, not the accusative.
• Nie ma Adam. -> Nie ma Adama. - what is absent after nie ma goes into the genitive.
• Nie widzę pies. -> Nie widzę psa. - negation still forces the genitive (here it matches the animate accusative).
• samochód ojcu -> samochód ojca - possession is genitive (ojca), not dative (ojcu).
• do dom -> do domu - do governs the genitive; dom is inanimate with the -u ending.
• dużo czas -> dużo czasu - quantity words like dużo require the genitive.
• książka bratu -> książka brata - “the brother’s book” is genitive brata.

Tips

• Memory hook for negation: negate the verb, genitive the object. If a positive sentence had an accusative object, its negative twin has a genitive one.
• nie ma is a fixed unit meaning “there isn’t / isn’t here” - it never changes for person or number, and it is always followed by the genitive: nie ma mleka, nie ma ludzi, nie ma mnie.
• Its tense partners keep the same rule: past nie było + genitive, future nie będzie + genitive.
• For masculine inanimate -a vs -u, a rough guide: countable objects and many foods -> -a (chleba, sera, banana); abstracts, liquids, places and loanwords -> -u (czasu, soku, domu, hotelu). When unsure, check the dictionary - this pair really must be learned per word.
• The genitive is the door to prepositions: do, od, z/ze, bez, dla, u, obok, koło, według, wokół all take it. Learn the case with these little words attached and it will stick.

In short

The locative (Polish miejscownik) is the case you use to say where something is and what you are talking about. It answers o kim? (“about whom?”) and o czym? (“about what? / on what?”). Its one unique feature: the locative is the only Polish case that never stands alone - it always follows a preposition (w, na, o, po, przy). It is also the case most famous for consonant softening, so it is worth learning slowly.

The rule

Use the locative after five common prepositions:

• w = in (w domu - in the house)
• na = on, at (na stole - on the table)
• o = about (o tobie - about you)
• po = after, along, around (po lekcji - after the lesson)
• przy = by, near, at (przy oknie - by the window)

Because it never appears without one of these words, you can treat the preposition + noun as a single unit: first pick the preposition, then put the noun in the locative.

Where the endings come from

The locative singular splits nouns into two groups by the final consonant of the stem:

• Hard-consonant stems take -e, and that -e softens the preceding consonant (this is the tricky part): t -> ci, d -> dzi, st -> ści, r -> rz, ł -> l, s -> si, n -> ni, m -> mi, w -> wi, p -> pi.
• Soft consonants and the velars k, g, ch take -u in the masculine and neuter (park -> w parku), and -y/-i in the feminine (ulica -> na ulicy). Feminine nouns whose stem ends in k, g, ch instead take -e with k -> c, g -> dz, ch -> sz (apteka -> w aptece).

The plural is easy

In the plural, every gender takes the same ending: -ach. No softening, no exceptions to speak of: w domach, na stołach, o kobietach, w miastach.

Forms & patterns

Masculine singular

A small set of masculines takes -u against the hard-stem rule: dom -> w domu, syn -> o synu, pan -> o panu. Learn these three by heart.

Neuter singular

Feminine singular

Plural (all genders) - always -ach

Adjectives and pronouns

Examples

Common mistakes

• Mieszkam w Warszawa. -> Mieszkam w Warszawie. - w takes the locative; hard w softens to wi.
• Myślę o ty. -> Myślę o tobie. - pronouns also inflect; ty becomes tobie here.
• Jestem w domie. -> Jestem w domu. - dom is one of the few masculines that take -u, not -e.
• Na stołe. -> Na stole. - the hard ł softens to l before the locative -e.
• W miescie. -> W mieście. - the st cluster becomes ści (and a -> e): miasto -> mieście.
• W parkie. -> W parku. - stems ending in k, g, ch take -u, with no softening.
• O dzieci. -> O dzieciach. - the locative plural always ends in -ach.

Tips

• No preposition, no locative. If there is no w, na, o, po or przy, you are in the wrong case. This is the easiest case to recognise.
• The tricky part is not the ending but the softening it triggers. Say the noun out loud: brat -> o bracie, kot -> o kocie, list -> w liście. Your ear will start to expect the shift.
• The hard-stem softenings (t -> ci, d -> dzi, r -> rz, ł -> l…) are the same ones you meet in the dative feminine, so learning them here pays off twice - see Lesson 18.
• Plural is a gift: whenever the noun is plural, just add -ach and stop worrying about softening.
• w and na can also govern the accusative to show motion (idę do… / na) versus location. When they mean “still, at rest,” it is the locative: jestem w szkole (I am at school) vs idę do szkoły (I go to school).

In short

A Polish preposition (przyimek) never stands alone - it forces the noun (and any adjective) after it into a particular case. This is called case government (rekcja). do always wants the genitive, z meaning “with” always wants the instrumental, and w meaning “in” always wants the locative. You cannot pick the case freely: each preposition owns its case, and a handful own two cases with a meaning split. Learning prepositions therefore means learning them together with the case they trigger.

The rule

Every preposition assigns a fixed case to the noun phrase that follows it. The good news: the case is a property of the preposition, so once you memorize “bez + genitive”, you apply it every time. Group the prepositions by the case they govern.

Genitive prepositions

The largest group. Movement from, absence, and most “position around” words take the genitive: do (to/until), od (from/since), z / ze (out of, from), bez (without), dla (for), u (at someone’s place), obok (beside), koło / około (near / about), według (according to), oprócz (except), podczas (during), naprzeciwko (opposite).

Instrumental prepositions

“Company” and static “position relative to” words take the instrumental: z / ze (with), nad (above), pod (under), przed (in front of / before), za (behind), między (between), poza (beyond).

Locative prepositions

The locative never appears without a preposition. Only these govern it: w / we (in), na (on), o (about), przy (next to), po (after / around).

Dative prepositions

A small closed set: dzięki (thanks to), przeciw(ko) (against), wbrew (contrary to), ku (towards).

Accusative prepositions

Few take only the accusative; the main one is przez (through / across / by / for [a duration]).

The two-case prepositions: motion vs rest

Some prepositions govern two cases and the case tells you the meaning. The pattern is: direction / motion -> accusative, location / rest -> instrumental or locative.

• na: kładę książkę na stół (accusative = onto the table, motion) vs książka leży na stole (locative = on the table, rest).
• nad, pod, przed, za, między: idę pod stół (accusative = to under the table, motion) vs jestem pod stołem (instrumental = under the table, rest).
• w: w domu (locative = in the house) vs w piątek (accusative = on Friday - a fixed time expression).
• o: o książce (locative = about the book) vs o metr wyższy (accusative = taller by a metre).
• po: po obiedzie (locative = after lunch) vs idę po chleb (accusative = I’m going to get bread).

Spelling: z/ze, w/we, od/ode

Before an awkward consonant cluster the vowelless prepositions add -e: ze mną (with me), we Wrocławiu (in Wroclaw), ze szkoły (from school), ode mnie (from me). Same preposition, easier to pronounce.

Forms & patterns

Prepositions grouped by the case they govern (with a sample phrase and the case ending in bold):

The two-case prepositions - one preposition, two cases, two meanings:

The one preposition that flips meaning by case - z / ze:

Examples

Common mistakes

• do dom -> do domu - do governs the genitive; masculine dom takes -u.
• z brat -> z bratem - z meaning “with” needs the instrumental (-em).
• z Polską (meaning “from Poland”) -> z Polski - “from” is z + genitive; the instrumental would mean “with Poland”.
• w Warszawę (as “I live in”) -> w Warszawie - static location is w + locative; the accusative would signal motion into.
• idę na poczcie -> idę na pocztę - motion “to” needs the accusative, not the locative.
• bez cukier -> bez cukru - bez is a genitive preposition; drop to -u.
• dla ja -> dla mnie - after a preposition the pronoun must take its cased form.

Tips

• Memorize each preposition as a pair: not do but “do + genitive”, not z (with) but “z + instrumental”. The case is baggage the preposition always carries.
• Big rule for two-case prepositions: where to? -> accusative; where at? -> locative/instrumental. na stół (onto) vs na stole (on).
• z / ze is the tricky twin: genitive = from, instrumental = with. The case, not the word, tells them apart.
• w, na, o, przy, po are the only gateways to the locative - it never appears bare, so a locative ending is always a signal that one of these five preceded it.
• Add -e to z, w, od, przed before a cluster: ze mną, we Wrocławiu, ode mnie, przede mną. It is the same preposition, just pronounceable.
• The dative prepositions (dzięki, wbrew, przeciwko, ku) are rare but fixed - learn the four and you are done.

In short

The dative (Polish celownik) is the “to whom / for whom” case. It marks the recipient or beneficiary of an action - the person you give something to, help, or thank - and it answers komu? (to whom?) and czemu? (to what?). Just as important for a learner, Polish uses the dative for the experiencer: the person who feels something. Where English says “I am cold” or “I like it”, Polish makes me the dative recipient of the sensation - jest mi zimno, podoba mi się. This is one of the most frequent everyday patterns, so the small clitic forms mi, ci, mu are worth learning early.

The rule

1. Recipient and beneficiary (komu?)

The core job of the dative is to name the indirect object - the person who receives something or benefits from the action. Many common verbs govern the dative:

• dawać / dać komuś coś (to give someone something): Daję bratu książkę. - I give my brother a book.
• pomagać / pomóc komuś (to help someone): Pomagam mamie. - I help my mum.
• dziękować komuś (to thank someone): Dziękuję panu. - Thank you, sir.
• mówić / powiedzieć komuś (to tell someone): Powiem ci wszystko. - I will tell you everything.

Notice that verbs like pomagać and dziękować take the dative where English uses a direct object (“help him”, “thank you”) - there is no to in English, but Polish still puts the person in the dative. Other everyday dative verbs: ufać (to trust), wierzyć (to believe someone), przeszkadzać (to disturb), życzyć (to wish).

2. The experiencer (jest mi zimno, podoba mi się)

Polish very often expresses feelings and states with a dative experiencer plus an impersonal predicate. The person does not do anything - the state simply “is to them”:

• jest + dative + adverb for physical or emotional states: Jest mi zimno. - I am cold (lit. “it is cold to me”). Jest jej smutno. - She is sad. Było nam miło. - It was nice for us.
• podobać się komuś - to please someone = English “to like”: Podoba mi się ten film. - I like this film (lit. “this film pleases me”). The thing you like is the subject (nominative); the person is dative.
• smakować komuś (to taste good to someone): Smakuje ci zupa? - Do you like the soup?

The dative pronoun typically comes early in the clause, right after the first stressed element: Zimno mi., Podoba mi się., Jest mu przykro.

3. mam na imię

The fixed phrase for giving your first name uses a set expression: mieć na imię (literally “to have as a name”). The name itself stays in the nominative, but this is the standard way to introduce yourself and belongs with the dative-heavy “personal” phrases you learn here:

• Mam na imię Anna. - My name is Anna.
• Jak masz na imię? - What is your name? (informal)
• On ma na imię Piotr. - His name is Piotr.

Forms & patterns

The dative answers komu? czemu? Its endings are compact: masculine nouns mostly take -owi, neuter takes -u, feminine takes -e/-i (like the locative), and the plural is a uniform -om.

Dative singular

The feminine dative singular is identical to the locative you met in step 17: the same -e with a consonant change (t -> ć, r -> rz, k -> c: kobieta -> kobiecie, siostra -> siostrze, matka -> matce), and -i/-y for soft and velar stems.

Only a small closed set of masculine nouns take -u instead of -owi; learn them as items: pan, brat, chłopiec, pies, kot, Bóg, ksiądz, świat, diabeł. Everything else is safely -owi.

Dative plural

The plural is beautifully regular: -om for every gender, no exceptions to memorise.

Personal pronouns in the dative

Most dative pronouns have a short (clitic) form for normal use and a long (stressed) form for emphasis or after a preposition:

Use the short form by default (Daj mi to.); use the long form to stress the person or at the start of a sentence (Mnie się to nie podoba. - I don’t like it). The clitic never begins a clause.

Adjective / determiner agreement

An adjective or ten / mój with a dative noun matches it:

Examples

Common mistakes

• Pomagam mamę -> Pomagam mamie - pomagać takes the dative, not the accusative, even though English says “help mum”.
• Dziękuję cię -> Dziękuję ci - dziękować governs the dative (ci), never the accusative cię.
• Ja jestem zimno -> Jest mi zimno - the experiencer goes in the dative; you do not make yourself the subject.
• Lubię się ten film / Podobam ten film -> Podoba mi się ten film - the thing liked is the subject; podobać się stays 3rd person and you are the dative mi.
• Daję bratowi said as daję bratu -> daję bratu is correct here (brat is in the -u list), but daję studentu -> studentowi - most masculine nouns take -owi.
• kobiecie misspelt kobiete -> kobiecie - the feminine dative softens the stem (t -> ć) exactly like the locative.
• Mnie zimno mi / clitic first -> Mnie jest zimno or Jest mi zimno - the short mi cannot start the clause; use the long mnie for emphasis instead.
• Nazywam na imię -> Mam na imię - the fixed phrase is mieć na imię, not nazywać.

Tips

• Memory hook: celownik shares its root with cel (a goal / target) - the dative points the action at a target person: komu?
• The three clitics mi / ci / mu cover “to me / to you / to him” and appear constantly - drill them until they are automatic.
• Feeling cold, warm, sad, bored, sorry? Reach for dative + adverb: jest mi zimno / ciepło / smutno / nudno / przykro.
• “I like X” is X podoba mi się - flip the English: the thing is the subject, you are the dative. Same trick for smakuje mi (food) and pasuje mi (a time suits me).
• The plural is your friend: -om for every gender, always. When in doubt in the plural, you are almost certainly right.
• Feminine dative = feminine locative. If you already know o kobiecie, then daję kobiecie costs you nothing new.

In short

Polish personal pronouns (ja, ty, on, ona…) change their form for case just like nouns do, so he can appear as on, jego, jemu, go, mu, nim. On top of that, several of them come in two shapes: a heavy stressed form (jego, jemu, ciebie, tobie, mnie) and a light enclitic short form (go, mu, cię, ci, mi). Picking the right shape is not optional style - the short forms are banned from certain positions, and using the wrong one sounds distinctly foreign. This lesson gives you the full pronoun paradigm and the simple rules for when to use go versus jego.

The rule

A personal pronoun stands in for a noun and therefore takes whatever case the sentence needs: nominative for the subject, accusative for the direct object, dative for the recipient, and so on. So the single English word him corresponds to jego / go (accusative), jemu / mu (dative), nim (instrumental/locative), depending on its job in the clause.

Object clitics: go, mu, ją, jej, cię, mi, mnie

The most frequent pronouns in speech are the object ones - the words for him, her, it, you, me as the target of a verb. Several of them have a special enclitic (unstressed, “leaning”) short form used in the normal, neutral middle of a sentence:

• go = him / it (accusative or genitive) - Znam go. (I know him.)
• mu = to him / to it (dative) - Daj mu klucze. (Give him the keys.)
• cię = you (accusative/genitive, singular) - Kocham cię. (I love you.)
• ci = to you (dative, singular) - Pomogę ci. (I will help you.)
• mi = to me (dative) - Powiedz mi. (Tell me.)

Two of the listed forms have no shorter partner - they are simply the ordinary object form:

• ją = her / it fem. (accusative) - Widzę ją. (I see her.) There is no separate short form; ją is used everywhere except after a preposition (then nią).
• jej = her / to her (genitive and dative) - Szukam jej. (I am looking for her.) / Daj jej to. (Give her that.)
• mnie = me (accusative/genitive, and the stressed dative) - Nie ma mnie w domu. (I am not at home.) First-person singular has only mnie for accusative/genitive; the short partner exists only in the dative, where it is mi.

Stressed vs. enclitic pronoun forms

Where a pronoun has both a long and a short form, the choice is governed by three positions. Use the stressed (long) form in exactly these cases:

1. At the start of a clause. A short clitic can never open a sentence. Jego nie znam. (Him I do not know.) - not Go nie znam.
2. After a preposition. Any preposition forces the long form, and for the 3rd person that long form starts with n-: dla niego (for him), do niej (to her), na nich (on them). Never dla go.
3. Under contrast or emphasis, including a one-word answer. Daj to jemu, nie jej. (Give it to HIM, not her.) - Komu? - Tobie. (To whom? - To you.)

Everywhere else - the neutral, unstressed body of the sentence - use the enclitic (short) form: Znam go, powiem ci, daj mu. The short form is the default; the long form is the marked, “pointed-at” choice.

Forms & patterns

Singular personal pronouns

Bold = the enclitic short form; the plain form to its left is the stressed one.

Plural personal pronouns

Plurals have no separate short forms - each cell is a single, ordinary word.

After a preposition: the n- forms

Every 3rd-person pronoun swaps its bare form for one beginning with n- as soon as a preposition precedes it. This is automatic and has no exceptions.

The 1st- and 2nd-person forms do not add n-: do mnie (to me), o tobie (about you), dla nas (for us).

Stressed vs. enclitic: where the pair exists

Only five slots have a genuine long/short pair; memorize this short list.

Everything not on this list (ją, jej, nas, was, nam, wam, ich, im…) has a single form used in every neutral position.

Examples

Common mistakes

• Znam jego (neutral) -> Znam go - in the plain middle of a sentence the short clitic go is required; jego only for emphasis or contrast.
• Daj mnie książkę -> Daj mi książkę - the neutral dative is the short mi; mnie is the stressed form.
• Go nie widzę / Mu powiem -> Jego nie widzę / Jemu powiem - a short clitic can never open a clause; use the long form at the start.
• dla go, do jej -> dla niego, do niej - after any preposition the 3rd person takes the n- form.
• czekam na jego -> czekam na niego - the preposition na forces niego, not bare jego.
• Kocham ciebie (as neutral “I love you”) -> Kocham cię - use the short cię unless you are contrasting (“I love YOU, not her”).
• z jej, o ją -> z nią, o niej - the feminine pronoun also switches to n- after a preposition.

Tips

• Think “short = weak”: go, mu, cię, ci, mi cannot stand at the start of a clause, cannot follow a preposition, cannot be stressed, and cannot stand alone as an answer. In all four of those spots, reach for the long form.
• One reflex covers the biggest error source: preposition + 3rd person = n-. do niego, dla niej, z nimi, o nich - drill these until they are automatic.
• The feminine ją and jej have no short/long split, so you only have to decide the n- question (bare ją/jej vs. prepositional nią/niej).
• Default to the short form and only “promote” to the long form when the sentence starts with the pronoun, a preposition sits in front, or you are pointing a finger (“to HIM”).
• Word-order note: short clitics like to huddle just before the verb and avoid the very last position; the finer placement rules come in Word order and clitics.

In short

Almost every Polish verb comes as a pair: one imperfective partner and one perfective partner. They share a meaning but differ in how you view the action - as an ongoing/repeated process, or as a single completed whole. This is aspect (aspekt), and Polish uses it instead of the many tenses English has. Choosing the right aspect is one of the biggest hurdles for learners, so it pays to meet it now, before you build the past and future tenses on top of it.

The rule

Polish has only three tenses (past, present, future), but each verb carries an aspect that colours the action.

Imperfective - aspekt niedokonany

The imperfective (niedokonany) presents the action as a process, a habit, or a repetition, with no focus on completion. Use it for:

• actions in progress: Czytam książkę. (“I am reading a book.”)
• habits / repetition: Codziennie robię kawę. (“I make coffee every day.”)
• general facts / ability: Ona mówi po polsku. (“She speaks Polish.”)
• the process itself, whether or not it finished.

An imperfective verb conjugates in the present (I do / am doing) and forms a compound future with będę (I will be doing).

Perfective - aspekt dokonany

The perfective (dokonany) presents the action as a single, completed, bounded whole - it has a result or a clear endpoint. Use it for:

• a finished action: Przeczytałem książkę. (“I read the whole book / I have read the book.”)
• a one-off result: Zrobiłem kawę. (“I made a coffee / the coffee is ready.”)
• a future single event: Jutro kupię chleb. (“Tomorrow I’ll buy bread.”)

Crucially, a perfective verb has no present tense. You cannot be in the middle of a completed action, so its “present-looking” conjugation actually means the future: zrobię = “I will do/make”, not “I am doing”.

The core opposition

Forms & patterns

How pairs are built

A perfective is usually derived from an imperfective in one of three ways:

Note the surprise: with a prefix the longer verb is usually perfective (robić -> zrobić), but in suffix pairs the shorter verb is perfective (kupować -> kupić). You must simply learn each pair.

The two model pairs

robić / zrobić (“to do, to make”)

kupować / kupić (“to buy”)

Read the “present” column of the perfective again: zrobię and kupię look like a present tense but mean the future - “I will make”, “I will buy”. This is the heart of the system.

Same three tenses, both aspects

Examples

Common mistakes

• Teraz zrobię obiad. (meaning “I am making lunch now”) -> Teraz robię obiad. - the perfective has no present; zrobię means “I will make”.
• Wczoraj kupowałem telefon. (meaning “I bought a phone yesterday, done”) -> Wczoraj kupiłem telefon. - a single completed purchase needs the perfective.
• Będę zrobił obiad. -> Zrobię obiad. or Będę robił obiad. - you cannot build będę + perfective; the perfective future is a one-word form (zrobię).
• Codziennie zrobiłem kawę. -> Codziennie robiłem kawę. - a repeated habit (“every day”) takes the imperfective.
• Czytałem całą książkę i wszystko rozumiem. (meaning “I finished it”) -> Przeczytałem całą książkę… - a result/completion calls for the perfective.
• Ona przeczyta książki każdego dnia. -> Ona czyta książki każdego dnia. - habitual present is imperfective, not perfective future.

Tips

• Ask yourself: process or result? Process, habit, “how long” -> imperfective. Whole thing, one time, “did it get done” -> perfective.
• Perfective = no present. If a perfective-looking verb sits where you expect “now”, it is really talking about the future.
• Learn every new verb as a pair, both partners together: robić / zrobić, kupować / kupić, pisać / napisać. Flashcards should have two verbs on the front.
• Time signals help: zwykle, często, codziennie, ciągle, długo pull toward the imperfective; nagle, wreszcie, już, raz, na chwilę pull toward the perfective.
• The prefixes z-, na-, prze-, wy-, po- most often just “perfectivise” a verb, but some also change the meaning - so trust the dictionary pairing, not the prefix alone.
• This lesson is the foundation for the next three: the past, the compound (imperfective) future, and the simple (perfective) future all rest on knowing a verb’s aspect.

In short

Polish has one past tense, and it works for both English “I read” and “I was reading” - aspect (Lesson 20), not a separate tense, tells you whether the action was finished. What makes the Polish past unusual is that the verb form agrees with the gender of the subject (a man and a woman say the past differently) and that the personal endings are mobile: the little -m, -ś, -śmy, -ście can slide off the verb and hook onto an earlier word. Master those two things and the whole tense falls into place.

The rule

The past tense is built on the l-participle (sometimes called the l-form), not on the present stem. For most verbs you take the infinitive, drop -ć, and add a gendered suffix:

• -ł for masculine singular: czytał (he read)
• -ła for feminine singular: czytała (she read)
• -ło for neuter singular: czytało (it read)
• -li for the virile plural (any group that includes at least one male person): czytali
• -ły for the non-virile plural (everything else - women, children, animals, things): czytały

Gendered l-forms

Unlike the present tense, the Polish past shows the subject’s gender. A single English “I read” therefore has two Polish forms: a man says czytałem, a woman says czytałam. The same split runs through ty and through the plural, where the key contrast is virile vs non-virile (see Lesson 30): oni czytali (men, or a mixed group) versus one czytały (women/things).

Mobile personal endings

The l-participle already shows gender and number, but for the 1st and 2nd person you must also add a personal ending:

• 1sg -m, 2sg -ś, 1pl -śmy, 2pl -ście.
• The 3rd person has no personal ending at all - the bare l-form był / była / byli already means “he/she/they was/were”.

These endings are clitics: they are not glued to the verb. In neutral order they sit on the verb (czytałem), but they can detach and jump onto the first stressed word of the clause - a question word, a conjunction, an emphasised pronoun:

• Gdzie byłeś? -> Gdzieś był? (Where were you?)
• Dlaczego nam nie powiedziałeś? -> Dlaczegoś nam nie powiedział?
• Co ty robiłeś? -> Co tyś robił? / Coś robił?

This is optional and stylistic, but it is everywhere in speech and writing, so you must be able to recognise it. One firm rule: the ending is written as one word with its host (gdzieś, dlaczegoś, tyś), and it never lands on the negation nie.

Vowel change in -eć verbs

Verbs whose infinitive ends in -eć shift e -> a in the singular and the non-virile plural, but keep e (as i/e) in the virile plural: mieć -> miałem, miał, miała, miało, miały but mieli. The same pattern hits widzieć (widział / widzieli) and słyszeć (słyszał / słyszeli).

Forms & patterns

Personal endings of the past tense (l-form + ending; 3rd person adds nothing):

Note the connecting -e- in the masculine singular (czytał-e-m, czytał-e-ś); the feminine and plural forms attach the ending straight onto the vowel (czytała-m, czytały-śmy).

Full paradigm - regular czytać (to read, imperfective):

The verb być (to be) - the model for all past forms:

A perfective verb - zrobić (to do, once/completed): same endings, aspect gives “did / got done”.

Consonant/vowel alternations to expect (the l-form is not always infinitive minus -ć):

Examples

Common mistakes

• ja byłem said by a woman -> byłam - the l-form must match your own gender.
• oni czytały (group with a man) -> czytali - a group that includes a male person is virile (-li).
• czytałm -> czytałem - the masculine 1sg needs the linking -e- before -m.
• niem widział / niem widział -> nie widziałem - the ending never attaches to nie; keep it on the verb.
• gdzie byłeś -> writing gdzieś był as two words gdzie ś był -> gdzieś był - the clitic is written together with its host.
• miałem used for “they (men) had” -> mieli - the virile plural of mieć keeps -e- (mieli), not -a-.
• mogłem -> mogłem is right for a man, but a woman says mogłam, and “he could” is mógł with ó, not mogł.

Tips

• Learn every new verb’s past by its three anchors: był / była / byli. From those you can rebuild the whole table.
• Tie the -m / -ś / -śmy / -ście endings to the present-tense persons you already know: same “I / you / we / you-all” markers, just movable.
• The plural boils down to one question: is there a male human in the group? Yes -> -li; no -> -ły.
• When a sentence starts with a question word (gdzie, dlaczego, co, kto) or że, expect the personal ending to have jumped onto it: gdzieś, dlaczegoś, coś, ktoś, żeś.
• Only 1st and 2nd person carry an ending; if you see a bare był, robiła, poszli, the subject is automatically he / she / they.

In short

The compound future (Polish czas przyszły złożony) is how Polish says “will be doing” - an action that is ongoing, repeated or open-ended in the future. You build it from the future of być (będę, będziesz, będzie…) plus an imperfective verb. It works only with imperfective verbs; perfective verbs use the simple future in the next lesson. This is your everyday future: plans, habits, promises and background actions all live here.

The rule

The compound future has two moving parts:

1. The verb być conjugated in its own future (będę, będziesz, będzie, będziemy, będziecie, będą) - this carries person and number.
2. An imperfective verb attached to it in one of two forms that mean exactly the same thing:
   • the infinitive (czytać, pracować) - invariant, never changes;
   • the l-form - the very same past participle you learned for the past tense (czytał, czytała, czytali…), which agrees in gender and number with the subject.

So “I will be reading” is either będę czytać or będę czytał (male speaker) / będę czytała (female speaker). Both are fully correct standard Polish and completely interchangeable.

Only for imperfective verbs

The whole point of this tense is imperfective aspect - an unfinished, ongoing or habitual action. You cannot put a perfective verb into it: będę przeczytać is impossible. A perfective verb like przeczytać is already future by itself (przeczytam = “I will read (through)”), and that is the topic of the next lesson. If you are unsure which aspect a verb is, review the aspect lesson - it decides which future you may use.

The l-form takes no personal ending

This is the trap. In the past tense the l-form carries a personal ending (czytałem, czytałeś). In the compound future the person is already shown by być, so the l-form appears bare: będę czytał (never będę czytałem). Think of it as “być does the person, the l-form does the gender.”

Word order

The two parts can sit together or be split by other words; both będę jutro pracować and jutro będę pracować are fine. The l-form variant most often follows być directly: będziemy oglądać film.

Forms & patterns

Future of być (the engine of this tense)

Full paradigm: czytać (to read, imperfective) - singular

Full paradigm: czytać - plural

The l-form endings are exactly the past-tense participle endings: -ł / -ła / -ło in the singular and -li (virile) / -ły (non-virile) in the plural. Virile means a group that includes at least one man; everything else is non-virile.

Other common imperfective verbs (3rd person shown)

Note jeść: its l-form is irregular (jadł, not jeśł), just as it was in the past tense - the compound future simply reuses whatever past participle the verb already has.

Examples

Common mistakes

• będę przeczytać książkę -> będę czytać książkę / przeczytam książkę - the compound future takes only imperfective verbs; the perfective przeczytać uses the simple future.
• będę czytałem -> będę czytał - the l-form in this tense is bare; być already shows the person, so drop the -em/-eś ending.
• będę czytał (said by a woman) -> będę czytała - the l-form must agree in gender; a female subject needs -ła.
• będę będę czytać -> będę czytać - use być once; do not double it.
• bede / bendziesz -> będę / będziesz - spell the nasal vowel and the soft dz: będę, będziesz, będzie.
• panowie będą czytały -> panowie będą czytali - a group of men is virile and needs -li, not -ły.

Tips

• One tense, two options: pick infinitive when you want a form you never have to inflect (będę czytać), or the l-form when you are comfortable matching gender (będę czytał / czytała). Natives use both freely.
• Litmus test for which future to use: if the English is “will be doing” or describes a habit/plan, it is imperfective -> compound future. If it is a single, completed “will do (and finish)”, it is perfective -> simple future.
• The l-form is not new vocabulary - it is the exact past participle from Lesson 21. Learn the past tense well and this future costs you nothing extra.
• Reflexive się stays with the verb: będę się uczyć or będę się uczył(a).
• być has no separate imperfective future of its own - its future forms będę, będziesz… simply mean “I will be”: Będę w domu (“I will be at home”).

In short

Polish has a second, simpler way to talk about the future - and it is the mirror image of the compound future from Lesson 22. You take a perfective verb and conjugate it with the ordinary present-tense endings. Because a perfective verb cannot mean “now”, those present-tense forms are automatically thrown into the future: zrobię looks like a present tense but means “I will do (and finish)”. This is the go-to future for a single, completed action.

The rule

Every Polish verb belongs to an aspect pair (Lesson 20): an imperfective partner (robić, pisać, kupować) and a perfective partner (zrobić, napisać, kupić). The two futures split cleanly along that line.

• The imperfective partner has no simple future of its own, so it builds the compound future with będę + infinitive/l-participle: będę robić / będę robił (“I will be doing / I’ll do”).
• The perfective partner has no present tense at all (a finished action cannot be happening right now). So when you attach the normal present endings to it, the only meaning left is future. This is the czas przyszły prosty - the simple (perfective) future.

Same endings you already know

There is nothing new to conjugate. The personal endings are exactly the four-group present-tense endings from Lesson 5 (-ę/-esz, -ę/-isz, -am/-asz, -em/-esz). The perfective prefix or stem is what flips the meaning.

• robić (imperf., Group II) -> present robię = “I do / I am doing”
• zrobić (perf., Group II) -> zrobię = “I will do” (and complete it)

Same endings, same conjugation group as the imperfective partner in most cases - only the meaning moves to the future.

What each future says

• Perfective (simple) future = one whole, completed action, a result, a single event: Jutro napiszę list. (“Tomorrow I’ll write the letter” - and it’ll be done.)
• Imperfective (compound) future = an ongoing, repeated or open-ended process: Jutro będę pisać listy. (“Tomorrow I’ll be writing letters” - the activity, no endpoint promised.)

Choosing the perfective future is therefore the same aspect decision you make in the past tense, just pointed forwards.

Watch the stem, not just the prefix

Many perfective verbs are the imperfective + a prefix (na-, z-/s-, prze-, po-, u-, wy-), so they conjugate like the base verb: pisać -> napisać (napiszę), czytać -> przeczytać (przeczytam). But some pairs change the root, and then the whole stem is different: kupować -> kupić, brać -> wziąć, mówić -> powiedzieć. Learn those pairs as vocabulary.

Forms & patterns

One perfective verb from each conjugation group (endings identical to the present tense):

Root-changing pairs - the perfective has a different stem from its imperfective partner:

Aspect pairs side by side - imperfective (compound) vs perfective (simple) future, 1sg:

Examples

Common mistakes

• będę zrobić / będę zrobię -> zrobię - a perfective verb never combines with będę; that would double-mark the future.
• robię jutro wszystko (meaning “I will do”) -> zrobię jutro wszystko - the imperfective robię is present tense (“I am doing”); use the perfective for a future result.
• kupować -> kupuję used for the future -> kupię - kupuję is a real present tense (“I am buying”); the future needs the perfective kupić.
• wezmiesz -> weźmiesz - the stem of wziąć alternates: wezmę, wezmą but weź- elsewhere (weźmiesz, weźmie, weźmiemy, weźmiecie).
• powiedzą written as powią -> powiedzą - like wiedzieć, this Group IV verb keeps -dzą in the 3pl.
• dają for “they will give” -> dadzą - dać has the irregular 3pl dadzą; dają is the present of imperfective dawać.
• kiedy wrócę, dzwonię -> kiedy wrócę, zadzwonię - a single future event after kiedy/jeśli takes the perfective future, not the present.

Tips

• Rule of thumb: perfective verb + present endings = future. If the verb is perfective, you have already “used up” the present, so the form can only point forward.
• You do not learn a new conjugation here - reuse the four present-tense patterns from Lesson 5 and just feed them a perfective verb.
• Store verbs as aspect pairs (robić/zrobić, pisać/napisać, kupować/kupić). Knowing the perfective partner instantly gives you the simple future.
• A quick test: can the form mean “right now”? If yes, it is imperfective present (piszę = I am writing); if it can only mean “later”, it is perfective future (napiszę = I will write).
• Choose the aspect the same way you would in the past: one completed result -> perfective future; an ongoing/repeated process -> compound (imperfective) future.
• After kiedy, jeśli, gdy, jak about the future, Polish uses a future verb (usually the perfective simple future), where English slips into the present.

In short

Polish expresses ability, wish, obligation and preference with a small set of modal verbs - móc (can), chcieć (to want), musieć (must), umieć (to know how to), woleć (to prefer) and powinien (should) - each conjugated for person and followed directly by an infinitive. The core rule is simple: conjugate the modal, and leave the second verb in the infinitive with no linking word. Only powinien breaks the mould - it agrees in gender and number like an adjective, not like an ordinary verb.

The rule

Polish has no separate grammatical class of modals like English “can / must / will”. Instead a handful of ordinary (mostly irregular) verbs carry modal meaning, and they all use the same frame: conjugated modal + bare infinitive. The infinitive never changes, whatever the subject.

• móc = can, to be able to, may: Mogę przyjść. (I can come.)
• chcieć = to want to: Chcę spać. (I want to sleep.)
• musieć = must, to have to: Muszę iść. (I have to go.)
• umieć = to know how to (a learned skill): Umiem pływać. (I can swim / I know how to swim.)
• woleć = to prefer: Wolę zostać. (I prefer to stay.)
• powinien = should, ought to: Powinienem odpocząć. (I should rest.)

móc vs umieć - two kinds of “can”

English “can” splits in Polish. móc is possibility or permission depending on circumstances (“I am able to / I may”); umieć is an acquired skill or know-how (“I know how to”).

• Nie mogę dzisiaj przyjść. (I can’t come today - circumstances.)
• Nie umiem gotować. (I can’t cook - I never learned the skill.)

For physical, learnable abilities you can also hear potrafić (to be able to, to manage), a close synonym of umieć.

Negation

Negation puts nie directly before the conjugated modal; the infinitive stays put: Nie muszę pracować. (I don’t have to work.) Note the meaning shift with musieć: nie musieć means “not have to / need not”, not “must not”. To say “must not”, use nie wolno (see Tips) or nie powinien.

powinien - the adjectival modal

powinien is special: it has no infinitive and no ordinary present tense. It behaves like a short adjective, agreeing with the subject in gender and number, and it takes the same mobile personal endings (-em, -eś, -śmy, -ście) you met in the past tense (Lesson 21). So a man says powinienem, a woman says powinnam, for “I should”.

Forms & patterns

Present tense of the five conjugated modals (all with stem changes):

powinien - agrees in gender/number and carries mobile personal endings:

Impersonal modal expressions (one fixed form, then an infinitive):

Examples