Polish verbs make me cry. And I don\u2019t mean the tears of joy here, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never thought about just how evil they can be until recently. I was working on a project, which demanded expert knowledge of verbs, Polish verbs, naturally, and that was a real eye-opener for me. I\u2019ve never realized just how many problems they can cause for a sloppy Polish speaker, even a native one. And if a native gets confused, then what about those who are learning Polish?<\/p>\n
To get some help, I\u2019ve been plodding through \u201cPolish Grammar in a Nutshell\u201d<\/em> by Oscar E. Swan, and needless to say, like most grammar books in the known universe, it also fails miserably when it comes to explaining the finer points of Polish verbs. (And I also think that it switched perfective and imperfective forms of \u201cto buy,\u201d so be careful.)<\/p>\n And it all started when someone very near and dear to me wanted to know the difference between \u201ci\u015b\u0107<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cchodzi\u0107<\/strong>.\u201d Well, he also asked about \u201cp\u00f3j\u015b\u0107<\/strong>\u201d but we\u2019ll leave that one for now.<\/p>\n Frankly, I have never thought about this phenomenon, but these two verbs of motions seem indicative of what happens to Polish verbs in general.<\/p>\n Both \u201ci\u015b\u0107<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cchodzi\u0107<\/strong>\u201d mean \u201cto go.\u201d They\u2019re both imperfective verbs. The difference is in how they\u2019re used.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with \u201ci\u015b\u0107<\/strong>\u201d:<\/p>\n Meaning, going right now, I\u2019m all dressed up, have my high-heels on, my make-up and hair are done, and I\u2019m going.<\/p>\n And now with \u201cchodzi\u0107<\/strong>\u201d:<\/p>\n See what happened? One verb is used to express an immediate action, and the other \u2013 a habitual thing that is done more or less regularly, but not right now. Let\u2019s take another motion verb \u201cto run\u201d \u2013 \u201cbiec<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cbiega\u0107<\/strong>.\u201d I think I should ease you into the world of verbs slowly, so we will stop here for now.<\/p>\n Below you have the present tense forms of \u201ci\u015b\u0107<\/a><\/strong>\u201d and \u201cchodzi\u0107<\/a><\/strong>\u201d and \u201cbiec<\/a><\/strong>\u201d and \u201cbiega\u0107<\/a><\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Polish verbs make me cry. And I don\u2019t mean the tears of joy here, that\u2019s for sure. I\u2019ve never thought about just how evil they can be until recently. I was working on a project, which demanded expert knowledge of verbs, Polish verbs, naturally, and that was a real eye-opener for me. I\u2019ve never realized…<\/p>\n\n
\n
\nThere are tons of verbs like that in Polish, and sadly, you need to know both forms to make sense of what people are saying to you.<\/p>\n
\nYep, you guessed it, the first one means \u201cto run right now\u201d, and the other one \u201cto run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n<\/strong><\/li>\n
\n<\/strong><\/li>\n
\n<\/strong><\/li>\n\n
\n<\/strong><\/li>\n
\n<\/strong><\/li>\n
\n<\/strong><\/li>\n