Past tense in the Polish language

Past tense in the Polish language (czas przeszły w języku polskim)

In the Polish language, in contrast to the German and English, only one past tense exists which is often compared to the German Präteritum past tense. Real usage of this tense covers both German Präteritum and the Perfekt. It refers to activities that took place in the past, both in unfinished and finished manner.

The past tense in the Polish language is not difficult, but it can provide some confusion among the learners with the related gender form creation.

Singular

The initial form to create the past tense of the verb is always the infinitive, which is obtained by removing the suffix, in most cases -(e)n or -(a)ć (detailed explanations about this topic can be found in the chapter about Present tense in the Polish language) and adding the -łem/-łeś/-ł (for masculine) or -łam/-łaś/-ła (for feminine) ending.

We take a look at this phenomenon using verbs czytać (read) and pisać (write) as examples:

Masculine conjugation examples

Example sentences:

1. Wczoraj czytałem ciekawą książkę. I have read a good book yesterday. / I read a good book yesterday.
2. Napisałeś już ten list? Have you written this letter yet?

Feminine conjugation examples

Example sentences:

1. Czytałam we wczorajszej gazecie interesujący artykuł. I have read an interesting article in the newspaper yesterday.
2. Przeczytałaś już tę książkę? Have you read this book to the end?

Neuter conjugation examples

It stands to a reason that neuter is the third person singular. For all other persons either the feminine or masculine conjugation should be used, depending on the gender. We use as an example the word dziecko (child). From a grammatical point of view dziecko is a neuter.

Accordingly, we use it in the third grammatical person:

1. Dziecko czytało książkę.

The child has read a book.

1. Czytałam książkę. (if the child is a girl)

or

1. Czytałem książkę. (if the child is a boy)

The same rule applies to the plural.

It should be noted that, like in the present tense personal pronouns are not always used in the past tense, because verb endings clearly indicate grammatical person.

Plural

In the plural form the past tense in the Polish language uses, as well as in German and English three grammatical persons. However Polish has the specific peculiarity - in all three persons two gender-specific variants are relevant: masculine personal and masculine non-personal (all other).

The masculine conjugation, also ending with-li is used only for men or for group in which at least one man is present. For feminines and neuters feminine conjugation is used with the extension -ly. Examples of specific conjugation for grammatical persons were already described (see above).

Example sentences:

1. Chłopcy (oni) grali na komputerze a dziewczynki (one) bawiły się lalkami. Boys (they) played computer games and girls (they) played with dolls.
2. Dzieci (neuter) grały w ogrodzie w piłkę. Kids played the ball in the garden.

Overview of the endings for the past tense

Verbs być (be) and mieć (have) in past tense

The conjugation of the verb być is in fact a regular one. But it is listed separately below, as this verb is difficult for learners in general.

być (be)

The conjugation of the verb mieć (have) and other verbs with similar consonants in their stem are affected by the phonetic change in the plural form. The letter -e before ł- (also for feminine and neuter forms) change to -a. Masculine form receives also -l letter before ending.

mieć (have)

The same pattern could be also applied to the following verbs: znaleźć (find), nieść (wear), zacząć (begin). Verbs znaleźć and nieść additionaly require some consonant changes (in the singular form z is replaced by ź).

The verb nieść (carry) and also some other verbs have -e before ending -ł replaced by -o/ó (-e before the ending -l will stay intact).

Particularities

Just like in the present tense, in the past tense there are many special verb forms. The most important ones are shown below:

iść (go)

wejść (enter)

usiąść (sit)

zjeść (eat)

Special forms in the past tense apply to the following verb groups:

• Verbs whose infinitive ends with -c, -ść, -źć
• Verbs whose infinitive ending contains -ą/-ną

Some verbs of these groups retain the letters -ną in the past tense (for example those with a vowel preceeding -ną letters), some others drop them. For few verbs both variants are possible.

Examples of verbs keeping -ną letters in the past tense form:

• płynąć (swim)
• minąć (pass)

Past tense form of the following verbs is created using the same rule (it applies to both aspects - refer to chapter Future tense) even they have no vowel before the -ną letters:

• zasnąć/zasypiać (fall asleep)
• puknąć/pukać (knock)
• szczeknąć/szczekać (bark)
• gwizdnąć/gwizdać (whistle)

Past tense form of verbs ending with -nąć is created without the -nąć part. In some cases, both forms are possible, for example: