Today\u2019s post is inspired by Pinolona\u2019s comment and her plea for help. Help with what? Polish verbs, of course.<\/p>\n
She pointed out that both \u201ci\u015b\u0107<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cchodzi\u0107<\/strong>\u201d are imperfective verbs, but since I suspect that to most people the word \u201cimperfective\u201d means about as much as \u201cl\u00e4hteit\u00e4 tai viitteit\u00e4\u201d to me (hint \u2013 not much at all), some basic explanations are in order.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the only things I could find on the subject were written by professional linguists, and as it often happens when you have \u201cprofessionals\u201d writing about something, their explanations tend to be more or less incomprehensible to anyone who is not a \u201cprofessional\u201d in the field, as well.<\/p>\n So, what is this \u201cimperfective\u201d business about, huh? In fancy words, they call it \u201cgrammatical aspect.\u201d There are two of them in Polish. One is imperfective, and the other \u2013 perfective. The difference?<\/p>\n The perfective aspect describes the action as finished, completed, pretty much over and done with. The imperfective, on the other hand, implies that the action is either pending or still going on. That\u2019s it in a nutshell. And that\u2019s the easy part. The hard part is that almost all Polish verbs come in pairs. Yep, you guessed it, perfective and imperfective together. The general meaning of both verbs in such a pair, when translated into English, would be the same \u2013 for example, both \u201ci\u015b\u0107<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cp\u00f3j\u015b\u0107<\/strong>\u201d mean \u201cto go.\u201d But \u201ci\u015b\u0107<\/strong>\u201d is imperfective and \u201cp\u00f3j\u015b\u0107<\/strong>\u201d is perfective.<\/p>\n And this is where things get really funky. Ok, enough of this boring grammar stuff. Let\u2019s take a look at Pinolona\u2019s questions:<\/p>\n The answer is \u201cyes\u201d \u2013 you committed to a date and you are going, whether you like the guy or not.<\/p>\n That would be \u201ci\u015b\u0107<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 I\u2019m stepping out the door, leaving, going on a date \u2013 \u201cId\u0119 na randk\u0119.<\/a><\/strong>” Bye mom, see you tomorrow.<\/p>\n Oooohhh! Here it gets a bit complicated. Let\u2019s say, yesterday you were going a date, and while you were out and going, you ran into your best friend Agnieszka and her new boyfriend along the way. Then you\u2019d say \u2013 \u201cKiedy sz\u0142am wczoraj na randk\u0119, spotka\u0142am Agnieszk\u0119 i jej nowego faceta.<\/a><\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n And when would you use \u201cposz\u0142am<\/strong>\u201d (which is a first person singular, feminine, past tense form)? Bingo! You got it, lady! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Here are the forms of \u201cp\u00f3j\u015b\u0107<\/strong>\u201d :
\nPerfective verbs don\u2019t exist in the present tense, simply because an action which is happening right now can\u2019t be ended, so it cannot be perfective. So, a perfective verb, such as \u201cp\u00f3j\u015b\u0107<\/strong>,\u201d has a basic infinitive form, it has all its future and past tense forms, but no present tense.<\/p>\n\n
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\nOk, so this guy, Maciek, kept asking you out over and over again and to finally shut him up, you went on a date with him. And it\u2019s over and you\u2019re back and it\u2019s not even morning yet. \u201cPosz\u0142am na randk\u0119 z Ma\u0107kiem.<\/a><\/strong>\u201d \u2013 I went on a date with Maciek.<\/p>\n\n
\nFuture tense:<\/span> audio<\/a><\/p>\n\n