Intermediate Polish

A Grammar and Workbook

Dana Bielec

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN: 9781134591602
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: German Language
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Intermediate Polish is designed for learners who have achieved basic proficiency and wish to progress to more complex language. Each unit combines clear, concise grammar explanations with examples and exercises to help build confidence and fluency.

Features include:
* focus on areas of particular confusion such as verbs that are difficult to translate and nouns made from numbers
* comprehensive glossary of grammatical terms
* reference list of over 250 Polish verbs
* full key to all exercises.

Suitable for independent learners and students on taught courses, Intermediate Polish, together with its sister volume, Basic Polish, forms a structured course in the essentials of Polish.

Dana Bielec is the author of the popular Polish: An Essential Grammar, as well as Basic Polish: A Grammar and Workbook, both published by Routledge.

Unit 1
Verb aspects

Since so many errors in Polish result from misunderstanding of verb aspects, this unit summarises the concept.

Polish has fewer tenses than English. It has no continuous tenses to express duration or ongoing action (e.g. ’am walking, was singing, will be going‚) and no past tenses with have or had (e.g. ’have walked, had sung, will have gone‚). To compensate, most Polish verbs, including reflexive verbs, come in pairs, imperfective and perfective. Each verb of the pair expresses a different aspect of an action.¹

Verbs with two imperfective forms

A few verbs, mainly of motion, were used so often with such subtle shades of meaning that two distinct imperfective forms, determinate and indeterminate, eventually evolved (Unit 9).

How perfective verb forms are made

Perfective verbs are usually created from imperfective verbs by:

(a)Changing the stem suffix and also often the stem itself:

(b)Adding a prefix:

The various prefixes have subtly different meanings. There is no rule for working out the correct prefix, but it is fairly predictable (Unit 12).

Notes:

^* Some imperfective/perfective pairs do not look alike at all: brać and wziąć (take); mówić and powiedzieć (say); móc and potrafić (be able); k=aśzć and położyć (place).

^* A few verbs have no corresponding perfective forms. This is because the action can only be ongoing: bać się (fear), marzyć (wish), mieć (have), musieć (have to), wiedzieć (know), woleć (prefer), żyć (live), życzyć(wish).

Tenses in imperfective and perfective verbs

(You will meet them all later.)

Imperfective verbs have a range of tenses to express current, habitual, or incomplete action:

• Present (I buy, I do buy, I am buying)
• Past Continuous, much like the Imperfect Tense in some languages (I was buying when . . ., I used to buy, I would normally buy)
• Composite Future, made with być (to be) (I will be buying from now on...)
• Conditional Continuous (I would be buying if... )

Perfective verbs have a range of tenses to express action which is, or will be, complete:

• Past Simple (I bought, I did buy) which also translates the English Present Perfect (I have bought)
• Simple Future, made without być (to be) (I will buy)
• Conditional (I would buy if ... )

Adverbs to clarify meaning in imperfective verbs

Since mperfective verbs can express current, habitual, or incomplete action, we often use adverbs to clarify the meaning.

Exercise 1

Will the italicised verbs be imperfective or perfective in Polish? Say why. Do not translate.

1 I always buy my paper here.

2 She spoketo me yesterday.

3 Karl often goesto Warsaw.

4 I willaskmy brother.

5 I was eatingwhen Tom arrived.

6 I am buying a book for John.

7. I used to gofor long walks.

8. I have boughtsome apples.

9. Jack would always get the last bus.

10. Where did you find this?

Notes

1 Section 5 of Polish: an Essential Grammar covers Verb Aspects in depth.

2 Basic Polish, Unit 5.

3 Basic Polish, Unit 21.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• 1 Verb aspects
• 2 -ać and -ić verbs: present tense consonant change
• 3 Comparisons: adjectives in -er and -est
• 4 Present tense of -nąć verbs
• 5 Short-stem non-wać verbs: padding with ’j‚ (present)
• 6 Comparisons: adverbs with ’more‚ and ’most‚
• 7 Past tense of most imperfective verbs; movable person suffixes
• 8 Past tense of imperfective verbs in -eć and -noć
• 9 Past tense of doubleimperfective verbs
• 10 Short-stem verbs in -ść and-ć (present, past)
• 11 Modal verbs musieć,chcieć, woleć (present,past); because, since
• 12 Past tense of perfectiveverbs (prefixed);when(ever), as soon as
• 13 Past tense of perfectiveverbs (stem-changed)
• 14 ’Can‚:móc, potrafić,umieć (present, past)
• 15 Past tense of perfectiveverbs in -ąć and -nąć
• 16 Unusual verb pairs; politecommands with Proszę
• 17 Higher numbers and dates
• 18 Future with być – imperfective verbs; time expressions
• 19 Future without być – perfective verbs; gdy, jak
• 20 Informal commands
• 21 Commands with niech; -ś and -kolwiek; vocative case
• 22 Verbs from iść (past, future)
• 23 Verbs from iść andchodzić (commands);concessions
• 24 Modal verbs powinienemand mieć (present, past)
• 25 How verbal prefixes change meaning; direction to/from
• 26 Six very precise verbs
• 27 Simple conditions and wishes; jeśli/jeueli, może
• 28 Conditions with ’I would . . .if ‚; avoiding ambiguity
• 29 Modal verbs (future,conditional); źeby; else
• 30 Impersonal verbs (present);cause and result
• 31 Impersonal verbs (past, future, conditional)
• 32 Się to translate ’one‚ and ’you‚
• 33 Impersonal widać, słychać, czuć, znać
• 34 Present adverbial participle in -ąc (while . . . -ing)
• 35 Past adverbial participlein -wszy and -łszy(having . . . )
• 36 Indefinite numbers; -ka nouns from numbers
• 37 Relative pronoun który; adjectives used as nouns
• 38 Present adjectival participle (active) — imperfective verbs
• 39 Present adjectival participles (passive) — imperfective verbs
• 40 Past adjectival participle (passive) — perfective verbs; until, while, before
• Appendix 1 Prepositions and their cases
• Appendix 2 Adjective endings
• Appendix 3 Declension of pronouns
• Appendix 4 Future of stem-changed perfective verbs
• Key to exercises
• Glossary of grammatical terms
• Polish–English verb list
• Index