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

Perfective and imperfective verbs

There are two classes of verbs in Polish - perfective verbs for talking about actions that have already ended or will be finished, and 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). In French it could be translated as 'I'm doing breakfast' or 'I'm doing breakfast'. The first translation is a present indicative and the second an imperfective periphrasis. As in Polish, in French 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 is not as much verbal tense as in French, 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 French 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 French a periphrasis of perfective aspect, because the action is finished). The perfective past is the Polish way of expressing what in French 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.

Ex: Rzadko go widzę (I rarely see it)

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

• zaraz (immediately)
• dopiero co (periphrase "come from + infinitive")
• as soon as (aussitôt)
• już (already)
• wreszcie (finally)
• etc.

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

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

1.  Imperfective:

o       Present -> robię

o       Past -> robiłem (-am)

o       Futur -> I will do

2.  Perfectif :

o       Present -> (there is none)

o       Passé -> made

o       Futur -> I will

Example of perfective and imperfective verbs

Perfectivité	Sense	3rd person singular	Infinitive
				Imperfective	Drink	he drinks	drink
				Perfectif		will drink	drink
Imperfective	To eat	I	eat
Perfectif		will eat	eat
Imperfective	See	sees	see
Imperfective	Read	he reads	to read
Perfectif		will read	read
Imperfective	to write	writes	write
Perfectif		will write	write
Imperfective	To have	my	to have
Imperfective	Think	thinks	think
Perfectif		will think	think
Imperfective	To drive	is driving	to go
Perfectif		he will go	go
Imperfective	Do / Accomplish	do	to do
Perfectif		will do	to do
Imperfective	Earn (money)	he earns	earn
Perfectif		will earn	earn