Language/Polish/Grammar/Perfective-and-imperfective-verbs

Polish Perfective and imperfective verbs

Hi Polish Learners! 😃

➡ In today's lesson we will learn How to use Polish Perfective and imperfective verbs in Polish.

Happy learning!

After mastering this lesson, these related pages might interest you: Cases, Gender, Locative Case & Prepositions.

Rules

There are two classes of verbs in Polish:

1. perfective verbs for talking about actions that have already ended or will be finished
2. imperfectives for actions that take place at a certain time. They very often form pairs.

Perfective verbs don't have a present tense - if something is already done, you must use the past tense, and if it isn't, the future tense. This "future perfective" is identical in form to the present. Let us take the perfective and imperfective verbs for "to drink":

• Kot pije mleko - "The cat is drinking milk" or "The cat is drinking milk now", pije is an imperfective verb
• Kot wypije mleko - "The cat will drink (all) the milk", wypije is a perfective verb

• Robię śniadanie (in present imperfective Polish). It could be translated as 'I do breakfast' or 'I'm doing breakfast'. The first translation is a present indicative and the second an imperfective periphrasis. We call it imperfective because the action is not finished (we have not yet finished preparing breakfast). But Polish has no imperfective periphrasis, which in English is Present continuous: I'm making breakfast. So in Polish to describe an action in the present tense we use the imperfective.
• Zrobię śniadanie (perfective verb). I'll make breakfast. The change of state implies that the action is finished. The present form of a perfective verb is used to express the future. You have to take into account the fact that in Polish there are not many tenses like in other languages, so we play with the perfective or the imperfective. Perfectives are often used to express actions in the immediate future or in the recent past:
  • Zaraz zrobię śniadanie: I'll make breakfast right away. But in this case in English we can also use the present tense with a future meaning: I'm making breakfast right away.

• Dopiero co zrobiłem śniadanie: (perfective past) I just made breakfast. (in English a periphrasis of perfective aspect, because the action is finished). The perfective past is the Polish way of expressing what in English one expresses with a compound past or with a simple past.

Imperfectives often refer to usual or continuous situations and normally they are accompanied by adverbs like:

• ciągle (constantly)
• czasami (sometimes)
• często (often)
• jeszcze (again)
• nigdy (never)
• rzadko (rarely)
• zawsze (always)
• zwykle (normally)
• etc.

➡ Example: Rzadko go widzę (I rarely see it)

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Perfectives are often accompanied by adverbs (or expressions) such as:

• zaraz (immediately)
• dopiero co (periphrase)
• as soon as (right away)
• już (already)
• wreszcie (finally)
• etc.

➡ Example: I have finally read your article (Finalement j'ai terminé ton article)

Summary

To summarize verbal tenses, an example with the verb robić:

•  Imperfective:
  • Present -> robię
  • Past -> robiłem (-am)
  • Futur -> będę robił (-a)

•  Perfective:
  • Present -> (there is none)
  • Past -> zrobiłem (-am)
  • Futur -> zrobię

Example of perfective and imperfective verbs

Perfectivity	Meaning	3rd person singular	Infinitive
Imperfective	Drink	pije	pić
Perfective		wypije	wypić
Imperfective	To eat	je	jeść
Perfective		zje	zjeść
Imperfective	See	widzi	widzieć
Imperfective	Read	czyta	czytać
Perfective		przeczyta	przeczytać
Imperfective	to write	pisze	pisać
Perfective		napisze	napisać
Imperfective	To have	ma	mieć
Imperfective	Think	myśli	myśleć
Perfective		pomyśli	pomyśleć
Imperfective	To drive	jedzie	jechać
Perfective		pojedzie	pojechać
Imperfective	Do / Accomplish	robi	robić
Perfective		zrobi	zrobić
Imperfective	Earn (money)	zarabia	zarabiać
Perfective		zarobi	zarobić

Sources

• https://www.po-polsku.fr/cas.php
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_grammar

Other Lessons

• Past Tense
• Indefinite Articles in Polish
• Gender
• Personal pronouns
• Questions
• mieć to have
• Possessive Case in Polish
• Definite Articles in Polish
• How to Use Be
• być to be
• Pronouns
• Be Polite
• Plural
• Adverbs in Polish