Polish Verb Aspect: Perfective and Imperfective

Most Polish verbs come in pairs. The imperfective verb shows an action as a process or habit (robić, to be doing), and the perfective verb shows it as one finished event with a result (zrobić, to get it done).

What aspect means

Aspect is about how you look at an action, not when it happens. The imperfective verb shows the action as a process, a habit or an activity: robić, to do, to be doing. The perfective verb shows it as one complete event with a result: zrobić, to get it done.

English does something similar with "I was reading" and "I read it", but Polish builds the difference into the verb itself. Almost every time you talk about the past or the future, you have to choose one of the two.

• Wczoraj czytałem książkę.
  Yesterday I was reading a book. (we don't know if I finished)
• Wczoraj przeczytałem książkę.
  Yesterday I read the book. (all of it, it's done)

The past tense also shows the speaker's gender: a man says czytałem, a woman says czytałam. You will see both forms in the examples below.

Which tenses each aspect has

Polish has only three tenses: present, past and future. The two aspects share them out differently.

The key point: a perfective verb has no present tense. Its forms look like the present, but they mean the future. Zrobię means "I will do it", kupię means "I will buy" and napiszę means "I will write".

How aspect pairs are formed

There are three main ways a pair is built. You cannot always guess which one a verb uses, so learn both verbs together from the start.

1. A prefix makes the perfective

This is the most common type. The imperfective is the plain verb, and a prefix makes it perfective: robić and zrobić, pisać and napisać, czytać and przeczytać, pić and wypić, gotować and ugotować, płacić and zapłacić. There is no rule for which prefix a verb takes.

Be careful: other prefixes do more than finish the action. They change the meaning. From pisać you get przepisać (copy, rewrite), zapisać (write down), podpisać (sign) and opisać (describe). These are new perfective verbs, and each gets its own imperfective with a suffix: przepisywać, zapisywać, podpisywać, opisywać.

2. A suffix makes the imperfective

Here the perfective is the shorter verb and the imperfective is longer. The usual suffixes are -ywać and -iwać: pokazać and pokazywać (show), zapisać and zapisywać, wysłuchać and wysłuchiwać (listen to the end). Other pairs swap the ending or add -wać: kupić and kupować, wrócić and wracać, otworzyć and otwierać, dać and dawać, sprzedać and sprzedawać, wstać and wstawać.

3. A completely different verb

A few very common pairs use two different stems. These you simply memorise: brać and wziąć (take), mówić and powiedzieć (say, tell), widzieć and zobaczyć (see), oglądać and obejrzeć (watch), kłaść and położyć (put), przychodzić and przyjść (come).

Some verbs have no pair at all and are always imperfective, for example być (be), mieć (have), musieć (must) and wiedzieć (know).

When to use the imperfective

• Something in progress. What you were doing when something else happened.
• Habits and repeated actions. Words like codziennie (every day), często (often), zawsze (always) and co tydzień (every week) point to the imperfective.
• The activity, not the result. You spent time doing it, and finishing is not the point. This includes "for how long" with przez: przez godzinę (for an hour).
• After verbs of starting, finishing and stopping. Zaczynać, zacząć, kończyć, skończyć and przestać are followed by an imperfective infinitive.
• Negative commands. "Don't do it" is usually imperfective: nie otwieraj, nie mów.

• Kiedy gotowałem obiad, zadzwonił telefon.
  While I was cooking dinner, the phone rang.
• Codziennie piję kawę.
  I drink coffee every day.
• Przez godzinę czytałam książkę.
  I was reading a book for an hour.
• Skończyłam jeść.
  I've finished eating.
• Nie otwieraj okna, jest zimno.
  Don't open the window, it's cold.

When to use the perfective

• One finished action with a result. It happened once and it is complete.
• A chain of events. One thing after another, each finished before the next starts.
• A one-off future action or promise. "I'll call you tomorrow."
• How long it took to finish. "In an hour" is w godzinę, with the perfective.
• With już (already) and similar words that stress the result.

• Wstałem, zjadłem śniadanie i wyszedłem z domu.
  I got up, ate breakfast and left the house.
• Zadzwonię do ciebie jutro.
  I'll call you tomorrow.
• Przeczytałam tę książkę w tydzień.
  I read this book in a week.
• Już zjadłeś?
  Have you eaten already?

20 common aspect pairs

These are the pairs you will need first. The imperfective is in the first column.

Example sentence pairs

Each pair uses the same verb in both aspects. Read them side by side and notice what changes in the English.

• Co robiłaś wczoraj wieczorem? Oglądałam film.
  What were you doing last night? I was watching a film.
• Obejrzałam ten film dwa razy.
  I've watched this film twice.
• Jutro będę pisać raport cały dzień.
  Tomorrow I'll be writing the report all day.
• Jutro napiszę raport.
  I'll write the report tomorrow. (it will be done)
• Kupowałam chleb w tej piekarni przez wiele lat.
  I bought bread at this bakery for many years.
• Wczoraj kupiłam chleb w nowej piekarni.
  Yesterday I bought bread at the new bakery.
• Zawsze zamykam drzwi na klucz.
  I always lock the door.
• Zamknij drzwi, proszę.
  Close the door, please.
• Nie mów nikomu.
  Don't tell anyone.
• Powiedz mi prawdę.
  Tell me the truth.
• Uczę się polskiego od roku.
  I've been learning Polish for a year.
• W tym roku nauczyłem się dwóch tysięcy słów.
  This year I learned two thousand words.