{"id":900,"date":"2010-06-28T19:42:31","date_gmt":"2010-06-28T19:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=900"},"modified":"2010-06-29T04:20:15","modified_gmt":"2010-06-29T04:20:15","slug":"czytac-to-read-or-not-to-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/czytac-to-read-or-not-to-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Czyta\u0107 – To read or not to read?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Czyta\u0107<\/strong> translated is Polish for to read. I had a long conversation with one of my family members, and they pointed out how this word was simple, yet a very effective learning tool when learning the Polish language. In fact, you can use this to conjugate many verbs ending in -a\u0107<\/strong>. Now I did say many, NOT ALL. As with every rule, there are exceptions. However, this one gives you a great basis, because there are several verbs that have the\u00a0 -a\u0107<\/strong> ending.<\/p>\n

This is an imperfective aspect verb, meaning that the action is one that is continuous or incomplete and has no known end. It can be conjugated in past, present and future tenses. So we’ll start with the present tense. Let’s conjugate the verb czyta\u0107<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Singular, 1st person\u00a0\u00a0 czytam<\/strong> (I am reading)
\nSingular, 2nd person\u00a0\u00a0 czytasz<\/strong> (You are reading)
\nSingular, 3rd person\u00a0\u00a0 czyta<\/strong> (He\/she\/it is reading)<\/p>\n

Plural, 1st person\u00a0\u00a0 czytamy<\/strong> (We are reading)
\nPlural, 2nd person\u00a0\u00a0 czytacie<\/strong> (You are reading)
\nPlural, 3rd person\u00a0\u00a0 czytaj\u0105<\/strong> (They are reading)<\/p>\n

Now for the past tense, things get a little interesting. When the verb is conjugated, the ending is based on the gender of the noun that is performing the action.<\/p>\n

Singular, 1st person male\u00a0\u00a0 czyta\u0142em<\/strong> (I read)
\nSingular, 1st person female czyta\u0142am<\/strong> (I read)
\nSingular, 2nd person male \u00a0\u00a0 czyta\u0142e\u015b<\/strong> (You read)
\nSingular, 2nd person female\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 czyta\u0142a\u015b<\/strong> (You read)
\nSingular, 3rd person male\u00a0\u00a0 czyta\u0142<\/strong> (He read)
\nSingular, 3nd person female\u00a0\u00a0 czyta\u0142a<\/strong> (She read)
\nSingular, 3nd person neuter \u00a0 czyta\u0142o<\/strong> (It read)<\/p>\n

Plural, 1st person male\u00a0\u00a0 czytali\u015bmy<\/strong> (We read)
\nPlural, 1st person female, neuter or non-personal\u00a0\u00a0 czyta\u0142y\u015bmy<\/strong> (We read)
\nPlural, 2nd person male\u00a0\u00a0 czytali\u015bcie<\/strong> (You read)
\nPlural, 2nd personal female, neuter or non-personal\u00a0\u00a0 czyta\u0142y\u015bcie<\/strong> (You read)
\nPlural, 2nd personal male\u00a0\u00a0 czytali<\/strong> (They read)
\nPlural, 2nd personal female, neuter or non-personal\u00a0\u00a0 czyta\u0142y<\/strong> (They read)<\/p>\n

And last but not least, we’ll go over the future tense of the verb:<\/p>\n

Singular, 1st person male\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119d\u0119 czyta\u0142<\/strong> (I will read)
\nSingular, 1st person female b\u0119d\u0119 czyta\u0142a<\/strong> (I will read)
\nSingular, 2nd person male\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziesz czyta\u0142<\/strong> (You will read)
\nSingular, 2nd person female\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziesz czyta\u0142a<\/strong> (You will read)
\nSingular, 3rd person male\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dzie czyta\u0142<\/strong> (He will read)
\nSingular, 3nd person female\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dzie czyta\u0142a<\/strong> (She will read)
\nSingular, 3nd person neuter\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dzie czyta\u0142o<\/strong> (It will read)<\/p>\n

Plural, 1st person male\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziemy czytali<\/strong> (We will read)
\nPlural, 1st person female, neuter or non-personal\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziemy czyta\u0142y<\/strong> (We will read)
\nPlural, 2nd person male\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziecie czytali<\/strong> (You will read)
\nPlural, 2nd personal female, neuter or non-personal\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziecie czyta\u0142y<\/strong> (You will read)
\nPlural, 2nd personal male\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119d\u0105 czytali<\/strong> (They will read)
\nPlural, 2nd personal female, neuter or non-personal\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119d\u0105 czyta\u0142y<\/strong> (They will read)<\/p>\n

* Side note, the future tense can also be b\u0119d\u0119 <\/strong>czyta\u0107<\/strong>, b\u0119dziesz <\/strong>czyta\u0107<\/strong>, b\u0119dzie <\/strong>czyta\u0107<\/strong>, etc. Essentially, this is the conjugated form of by\u0107<\/strong> (to be) plus the infinitive czyta\u0107<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There it is; to read conjugated in the past, present and future tenses. When I started learning to read and write, it helped me to take the Polish conjugation and write them over and over. Maybe flash cards will work for you. Whatever method works for you, this is a great verb to start with and to learn the endings. I mentioned early on that there were several verbs that were conjugated like this one. A few more to get started with are:<\/p>\n

koch<\/strong>a\u0107<\/strong> (to love)
\nwita\u0107<\/strong> (to greet)
\n\u015bpiewa\u0107 <\/strong>(to sing)
\nzna\u0107<\/strong> (to know)
\npami\u0119ta\u0107<\/strong> (to remember)
\nodwiedz<\/strong>a\u0107<\/strong> (to visit someone)
\nzwiedza\u0107<\/strong> (to visit a place)<\/p>\n

Lastly, I mentioned there were some that looked like they may be conjugated like this verb but are not. So as not to confuse the issue, I won’t get into them, however, a couple examples to look out for are the verbs spa\u0107<\/strong> (to sleep) and sta\u0107<\/strong> (to stand). We’ll go over these in another lesson. And speaking of which, please let us know what you do to help yourself learn Polish verb conjugations. Your little trick may help someone else out there struggling.<\/p>\n

Do nast\u0119pnego czytania\u2026<\/p>\n

Singular, 1st person male\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119d\u0119 czyta\u0142 (I will read)
\nSingular, 1st person female b\u0119d\u0119 czyta\u0142a (I will read)
\nSingular, 2nd person male\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziesz czyta\u0142 (You will read)
\nSingular, 2nd person female\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziesz czyta\u0142a (You will read)
\nSingular, 3rd person male\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dzie czyta\u0142 (He will read)
\nSingular, 3nd person female\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dzie czyta\u0142a (She will read)
\nSingular, 3nd person neuter\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dzie czyta\u0142o (It will read)<\/p>\n

Plural, 1st person male\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziemy czytali (We will read)
\nPlural, 1st person female, neuter or non-personal\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziemy czyta\u0142y (We will read)
\nPlural, 2nd person male\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziecie czytali (You will read)
\nPlural, 2nd personal female, neuter or non-personal\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119dziecie czyta\u0142y (You will read)
\nPlural, 2nd personal male\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119d\u0105 czytali (They will read)
\nPlural, 2nd personal female, neuter or non-personal\u00a0\u00a0 b\u0119d\u0105 czyta\u0142y (They will read)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The verb czyta\u0107 and its conjugation. A good verb to learn a basis for conjugation of several Polish verbs that end in -a\u0107. As with many rules though, there are exceptions.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[7442,3356],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","category-vocabulary","tag-imperfective","tag-present-tense"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}