Impersonal constructions
B2 Formy bezosobowe (się, -no/-to) 49 / 52
In short
Polish loves to say things without naming who does them: “Polish is spoken here”, “the bridge was built in 1900”, “one shouldn’t smoke here”. Where English reaches for one, you, they, or the passive, Polish has two dedicated impersonal tools: the reflexive marker się on a frozen 3rd-person verb, and the special past-tense endings -no / -to. Both drop the subject entirely yet - unlike the true passive (Lesson 48) - keep the verb active and keep the object in the accusative. Mastering them makes your Polish sound like signs, recipes, news reports, and rules really sound.
The rule
An impersonal construction (forma bezosobowa) is a full sentence with no grammatical subject - nobody is in the nominative. The doer is a vague, generic “people / one / they”, and the focus falls on the action or its object.
1. The się impersonal (present, future, conditional)
Take a verb, put it in the 3rd person singular, and add się. The verb never agrees with anything, because there is nothing to agree with:
- Tu mówi się po polsku. - “Polish is spoken here / one speaks Polish here.”
Crucially the verb stays transitive and active: any direct object stays in the accusative, exactly as in a normal active clause.
- Tu sprzedaje się bilety. - “Tickets are sold here.” (bilety = accusative plural, not a nominative subject).
This is the everyday impersonal of signs, instructions, recipes and generalisations. In the past the verb takes the frozen neuter singular -o ending; in the future you use będzie się + infinitive; in the conditional, the neuter -łoby się.
2. The -no / -to impersonal (past only)
For past events with an unnamed doer, Polish has a special one-word form built on the passive participle stem (Lesson 47) but ending in -o. It is invariable - one single form for any gender or number of anything in the sentence:
- W 1900 roku zbudowano most. - “In 1900 the bridge was built / they built the bridge.”
- Wczoraj otwarto nową wystawę. - “Yesterday the exhibition was opened.”
Formation rule:
- participles in -ny / -ony / -any -> -no: zbudowany -> zbudowano, napisany -> napisano, zrobiony -> zrobiono.
- participles in -ty -> -to: otwarty -> otwarto, zamknięty -> zamknięto, wypity -> wypito.
Like the się impersonal, the -no/-to form is active: it keeps the direct object in the accusative (and switches it to genitive under negation), not the nominative you would use with a real passive.
- Znaleziono klucze. - “The keys were found.” (accusative)
- Nie znaleziono kluczy. - “The keys were not found.” (genitive of negation)
-no/-to vs. the true passive
Compare with Lesson 48. The passive makes the patient a subject and agrees with it; -no/-to keeps the patient an object and never agrees:
- Passive: Most został zbudowany. (“The bridge was built” - most is the subject, participle agrees, masculine.)
- Impersonal: Most zbudowano. / Zbudowano most. (one frozen form; most is the accusative object.)
Forms & patterns
The się impersonal across tenses
Model verb robić / zrobić (“to do/make”); the verb sits in the neuter/3sg slot, się is invariable:
| Tense | Impersonal form | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| Present | robi się | ”one does / it is done” |
| Past | robiło się | ”one did / it was done” |
| Future (imperf.) | będzie się robić / będzie się robiło | ”one will do” |
| Conditional | robiłoby się | ”one would do” |
More present-tense examples (always 3sg + się):
| Infinitive | Impersonal (present) | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| mówić | mówi się | ”one says / it is said” |
| pisać | pisze się | ”one writes / it is written” |
| jeść | je się | ”one eats” |
| czytać | czyta się | ”one reads” |
| widzieć | widzi się | ”one sees” |
Building the -no / -to form
Derive it from the passive participle (Lesson 47): drop the adjectival ending and add -o.
| Infinitive | Aspect | Passive participle | Impersonal -no/-to | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| zbudować | perf. | zbudowany | zbudowano | ”was/were built” |
| napisać | perf. | napisany | napisano | ”was/were written” |
| zrobić | perf. | zrobiony | zrobiono | ”was/were done” |
| znaleźć | perf. | znaleziony | znaleziono | ”was/were found” |
| czytać | imperf. | czytany | czytano | ”was/were being read” |
| mówić | imperf. | mówiony | mówiono | ”was/were being said” |
| otworzyć | perf. | otwarty | otwarto | ”was/were opened” |
| zamknąć | perf. | zamknięty | zamknięto | ”was/were closed” |
| wypić | perf. | wypity | wypito | ”was/were drunk (up)“ |
| wziąć | perf. | wzięty | wzięto | ”was/were taken” |
Object case is the same as the active verb
The impersonal keeps whatever case the verb normally governs (Lesson 46):
| Base clause | Impersonal version | Object case |
|---|---|---|
| Ktoś zbudował most. | Zbudowano most. | accusative |
| Ktoś nie znalazł kluczy. | Nie znaleziono kluczy. | genitive (negation) |
| Ludzie używają słownika. | Używa się słownika. | genitive (verb government) |
Examples
| Polski | English |
|---|---|
| Tu mówi się po polsku. | Polish is spoken here. |
| Jak się to pisze? | How do you write this? / How is this spelled? |
| W Polsce je się dużo ziemniaków. | In Poland one eats a lot of potatoes. |
| Zbudowano nowy most nad Wisłą. | A new bridge was built over the Vistula. |
| Znaleziono zaginionego psa. | The missing dog was found. |
| Otwarto wystawę o godzinie dziesiątej. | The exhibition was opened at ten o’clock. |
| Nie znaleziono żadnych dowodów. | No evidence was found. |
| Mówiono o tym w wiadomościach. | It was talked about on the news. |
| Na zebraniu postanowiono zmienić plan. | At the meeting it was decided to change the plan. |
| Dawniej pracowało się ciężej niż dziś. | In the old days people worked harder than today. |
Common mistakes
- Się mówi tu po polsku -> Tu mówi się po polsku - a clause cannot begin with się; it is a clitic (Lesson 32).
- Mówią się po polsku -> Mówi się po polsku - the się impersonal verb is always 3rd person singular, never plural.
- Zbudowany most w 1900 roku (meaning “they built a bridge”) -> Zbudowano most w 1900 roku - use the frozen -no form, not the adjectival participle, for the impersonal.
- Zbudowano nowy most został otwarty mixing forms -> keep ONE construction: either -no/-to or the passive został, never both for the same verb.
- Znaleziono klucze under negation -> Nie znaleziono kluczy - negation flips the accusative object to the genitive (Lesson 15).
- Zbudowana / zbudowane for the impersonal -> zbudowano - the -no/-to form never agrees in gender or number; there is only one ending, -o.
- Otwarno wystawę -> Otwarto wystawę - -ty participles give -to, not -no (otwarty -> otwarto).
Tips
- Think of -o as the “nobody” ending: robiło się, zbudowano, otwarto - the neuter -o signals “no subject, generic doer”.
- Route to -no vs -to through the passive participle: if it ends in -ny/-ony/-any -> -no; if in -ty -> -to. Learn the participle (Lesson 47) and the impersonal comes for free.
- The impersonal is active, so keep objects in the accusative (genitive under negation). If you catch yourself putting the patient in the nominative, you have drifted into the true passive (Lesson 48).
- Use się impersonals for timeless generalisations (signs, rules, recipes: tak się nie robi) and -no/-to for specific past events, especially in news and formal reports.
- -no/-to has no present or future - for those you must switch to the się impersonal (mówi się) or będzie się + infinitive.
- Don’t confuse the impersonal się with reflexive się (Lesson 6): reflexive myję się = “I wash myself” (I am the subject); impersonal myje się = “one washes / people wash” (no subject at all).