# Polish Conjugation - Present Tense



## Rhand

Hi,

I've been trying to study Polish by myself now the last month as I moved to Poland. I'm a little stuck with learning the Present Tense of Polish verbs.

For some reason all the websites I checked for the explanation on how to form the Present, use 4 Conjugation classes based on the endings of "ja" and "ty". You have class I with "-am, -asz", class II with "-e, -eje", etc.
Fair enough, unfortunately, when I'm reading a Polish text or I wanna say something in Polish and I look up a word, I find the infinitive. I find a verb ending in -ac, -ec, -owac, etc.

Does the Polish language have some groundrules to recognize the conjugation of a verb based on the ending of the infinitive? 
For verbs ending in -owac, -ywac or -iwac it's nearly always -uje, -ujesz. Easy to remember. But verbs ending in -ac can have "-am, -asz" (czytac) or "-e, -eje" (mazac). Is there a rule to discern when to conjugate a verb according to the -am, -asz principle and when one uses the -e, -eje principle? After some research it seems a lot of the "ac" verbs conjugated with "-e, -eje" are verbs ending in "-awac". Coincidence?
Same for the verbs ending in -ec. Different rules for rozumiec, slyszec, pachniec, widziec or mdlec.

Are there some basic rules to discern the conjugation of a verb on the infinitive, or is it basically something to learn by heart as one grammar book seemed to suggest?


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## Thomas1

Hello and welcome. 

Here are some links that may be helpful:
http://wsjp.pl/index.php?pwh=0 - Wielki słownik języka polskiego, a monolingual Polish dictionary with inflections, samples and much more
http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/polish/ - English-Polish (both directions), with inflections and many examples

From the Polish Wikipedia, main conjugation classes: I ~ II ~ III ~ IV ~ Va ~ Vb ~ Vc ~ VIa ~ VIb ~ VIIa ~ VIIb ~ VIIIa ~ VIIIb ~ IX ~ Xa ~ Xb ~ Xc ~ XI
There are exceptions, many.


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## kakapadaka

Uhh... I'm afraid that grammar book was right... A friend of mine who is a Polish teacher once told me that there are SOME rules (as you already know), but there are also many exceptions and it's really hard to classify all of our verbs into categories. Not to worry - you can do it!


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## Ben Jamin

Rhand said:


> Hi,
> 
> I've been trying to study Polish by myself now the last month as I moved to Poland. I'm a little stuck with learning the Present Tense of Polish verbs.
> 
> For some reason all the websites I checked for the explanation on how to form the Present, use 4 Conjugation classes based on the endings of "ja" and "ty". You have class I with "-am, -asz", class II with "-e, -eje", etc.
> Fair enough, unfortunately, when I'm reading a Polish text or I wanna say something in Polish and I look up a word, I find the infinitive. I find a verb ending in -ac, -ec, -owac, etc.
> 
> Does the Polish language have some groundrules to recognize the conjugation of a verb based on the ending of the infinitive?
> For verbs ending in -owac, -ywac or -iwac it's nearly always -uje, -ujesz. Easy to remember. But verbs ending in -ac can have "-am, -asz" (czytac) or "-e, -eje" (mazac). Is there a rule to discern when to conjugate a verb according to the -am, -asz principle and when one uses the -e, -eje principle? After some research it seems a lot of the "ac" verbs conjugated with "-e, -eje" are verbs ending in "-awac". Coincidence?
> Same for the verbs ending in -ec. Different rules for rozumiec, slyszec, pachniec, widziec or mdlec.
> 
> Are there some basic rules to discern the conjugation of a verb on the infinitive, or is it basically something to learn by heart as one grammar book seemed to suggest?



The "-ać verbs" in Polish actually consist of two definitely diferent patterns  those with the infinitive= stem + -ać, and those with stem + -ować/ and those with stem+ -ewać.
They have different ending sets, and the stem + -ać tend to have consonant changes and be irregular, while -ować and -ewać are mostly regular.
The  stem + -ać verbs are usually "old verbs" originating in ProtoSlavic verbs, while -ować and -ewać are much newer, and often formed from nouns.


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## Rhand

Ben Jamin said:


> The "-ać verbs" in Polish actually consist of two definitely diferent patterns  those with the infinitive= stem + -ać, and those with stem + -ować/ and those with stem+ -ewać.
> They have different ending sets, and the stem + -ać tend to have consonant changes and be irregular, while -ować and -ewać are mostly regular.
> The  stem + -ać verbs are usually "old verbs" originating in ProtoSlavic verbs, while -ować and -ewać are much newer, and often formed from nouns.



Okay, cool, thanks.
Something similar for the verbs ending in -(i)ec? Anything at all that would make it a little bit easier to recognize when to use what conjugation?


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## Ben Jamin

Rhand said:


> Okay, cool, thanks.
> Something similar for the verbs ending in -(i)ec? Anything at all that would make it a little bit easier to recognize when to use what conjugation?


There is a difference between -ec and -eć (remember the diacritics, they change not only the sound but also meaning).
Biec: biegam, biegasz, etc.
Piec: piekę, pieczesz, etc
Siec: Siekam, siekasz, or Siekam, sieczesz
Strzec: strzegę, strzeżesz,
Mieć: mam, masz, mamy, macie
Leżeć: leżę, leżysz
Żreć: żrę, żresz, 
Brać: Biorę, bierzesz


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## kknd

Rhand said:


> Okay, cool, thanks.
> Something similar for the verbs ending in -(i)ec? Anything at all that would make it a little bit easier to recognize when to use what conjugation?



as far as i remember you need one of the forms of present tense (maybe even infinitive) and one of the past (1st or 3rd person i am really not sure); this should give you complete information regarding proper conjugation. if i am not mistaken the answer lies in swan's text book (see forum's materials).


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## zapedowski

Hi Rand; I don't envy you on your quest. Since your native tongue is of Germanic origin, English was probably a walk in the park. As you have probably discovered by now, Polish is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Like most of us, I have never given much thought to the idiosyncrasies of my native language. After all, just like you, I have spoken it since I was one.
Your question provoked my curiosity and it appears that there are trends rather than rules in Polish verb conjugations.
it is more than likely that after you learn to conjugate the first hundred verbs, you may be able to guess at most of the others. Good luck in your linguistic journey. I have tried to learn Spanish (a much easier language than Polish) recently and regretfully I gave up.  Between the ages of 8 and 16, I learned 6 languages. At my age, my language learning skills are non-existent. Each of us is an individual and our language learning abilities at various ages are different. Since you now live in Poland you will learn Polish quickly. I will be visiting Poland during the entire month of August. Perhaps we will meet.


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