# wziąć vs brac vs zabierac



## Bormer

_Cześć_!

What are the differences between these verbs?

wziąć vs brac vs zabierac


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## Lorenc

_wziąć _and _brać _are an aspectual pair (wziąć having perfective aspect, brać imperfective) and therefore have the same meaning, namely _to take_. It is impossible to be more specific without a context. _Zabrać_ is a different perfective verb, whose imperfective partner is _zabierać_; its main meaning is _to take away_, although it has other meanings (e.g., to take someone somewhere; to carry) which I believe may sometimes overlap wziąć/brać.


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## LeTasmanien

I have been puzzled by two of these verbs also when these 2 examples were given in a simple online Polish lesson.... 


czy możesz wziąć jabłko? 
can you take an apple?
biorę jabłko
I take an apple



Presumably I should consider the 1st statement to represent an ongoing (possible) action whilst in the 2nd, the action is completed?

Phil.


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## wolfbm1

I am not sure if the following is very helpful. I hope it is.

TAKE (TAKE HOLD OF) - brać/wziąć (chwycić)

I take an apple and I peel it. Biorę jabłko i obieram je.
I have taken an apple and peeled it. Wziąłem jabłko i obrałem je.
I am going to take an appple and peel it. Wezmę jabłko i obiorę je.

Can you take an apple and peel it? Czy możesz wziąć jabłko i obrać je?
Can you keep taking one apple at a time? Czy możesz brać jedno jabłko na raz?
Take it carefully. Bierz/Weź je ostrożnie.


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## LeTasmanien

Thanks for this Wolf.
I have to say though it is quite confusing to me.
Maybe it's best for a novice, such as I am, simply to learn by example in these situations where aspectual pair verbs are used.


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## wolfbm1

Oh, dear me. I was afraid of that.
When I choose a specific word I do not contemplate what aspect it is. It just has to sound right, otherwise it sounds funny.
So, I cannot use 'wziąc' to say a sentence similar to 'Biorę jabłko.'  'Wzię? jabłko' sounds terrible. I cannot use 'wziąć' for a present situation. I would have to use a future form 'Wezmę jabłko.'

In English it is possible to say 'I have been taking apples all morning' but not 'I am taking apples all morning.'  

On the other hand I cannot use 'brać' in the question about permission. I cannot say 'Czy mogę brać jabłko?' when I mean, e. g., taking an apple from a bowl, because how long can one 'brać jabłko' or how many times can one 'brać jabłko.' The verb 'brać' stretches the action a bit or makes it more frequent and it is rather general.

I have to use the verb 'wziąć' in that situation and say 'Czy mogę wziąć jabłko?' when I mean a single action in the future.


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## LeTasmanien

Thanks, that helps.


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## kknd

you could also compare aspectual pair acting in similar way (you may call it 'regular'): _iść_ and _pójść_—meaning generally 'to go, to walk'. wolfbm1 explanations seem to be rather vague (see second sentence) but try to read about perfective and imperfective aspect in polish again in context of those examples and you'll see that facts he has given might be considered as a general rule; you can find some details in this interesting discussion [forum] (you may also want to read an article, even the first page, mentioned in a thread i've provided).


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## LeTasmanien

kknd said:


> you could also compare aspectual pair acting in similar way (you may call it 'regular'): _iść_ and _pójść_—meaning generally 'to go, to walk'. wolfbm1 explanations seem to be rather vague (see second sentence) but try to read about perfective and imperfective aspect in polish again in context of those examples and you'll see that facts he has given might be considered as a general rule; you can find some details in this interesting discussion [forum] (you may also want to read an article, even the first page, mentioned in a thread i've provided).



Thanks very much for these links.
I have had a look at them over the weekend and they are a very good introduction to this question of aspect which is rather more complex than I was hitherto aware of!


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## jasio

wolfbm1 said:


> Oh, dear me. I was afraid of that.
> When I choose a specific word I do not contemplate what aspect it is. It just has to sound right, otherwise it sounds funny.
> So, I cannot use 'wziąc' to say a sentence similar to 'Biorę jabłko.'  'Wzię? jabłko' sounds terrible. I cannot use 'wziąć' for a present situation. I would have to use a future form 'Wezmę jabłko.'



This is where the aspectual pairs come in play. Please note that perfective verbs do NOT have present tense at all (the action must not happen now and be already completed at the same time!). If you want to express the present meaning ('I take an apple / I am taking an apple') you MUST use imperfective verb ("Biorę jabłko"). Full stop. 

There are also inherent differences in future and past tenses, which sometimes sound pretty innatural when translated to English. 

* "Brałem jabłko" - (imperfective) focuses on the activity of taking the apple, but says nothing, if one actually succeded; in some contexts it may be related to continuous tenses in English (such as when something happened when another activity was taking place), but the actual use is significantly different.
* "Wziąłem jabłko" - (perfective) focuses on the result: I took an apple, and I actually have (or had) it. 

Similarly in future tense:
* "Będę brał jabłko" (imperfective) focuses on the activity, and says nothing about one actually having the apple
* "Wezmę jabłko" (perfective) focuses on the result: I will have an apple taken from somewhere.


Please not however, that the actual uses in many cases differ from theory.

There is a whole thread on this in parallel (http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2840318).


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## pacadansc

Hello all, 
I understand the difference between the perfective and imperfective aspect of the conjugated verbs, but what about when both verbs are in the infinitive form, as in : 
- Czy mogę wziąć ten rower?
- Nie, nie możesz brać tego roweru. 
In this case, are they synonyms ? 
Many thanks.


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## jasio

The aspect is a feature of the verb itself, not of its inflected form. It's a fundamental difference between the slavic languages and the romance or germanic languages in which the aspect is actually a part of the tense system. Hence, if the verb is perfective, it's infinitive is also perfective. That's why even similar verbs which form an aspectual pair are considered two separate verbs rather than one verb conjugated by the aspect. This is true even if in particular cases the actual usage is inconsistent with the verb aspect. 

With regards to your specific question:


pacadansc said:


> - Czy mogę wziąć ten rower?
> - Nie, nie możesz brać tego roweru.
> In this case, are they synonyms ?.


The response sounds somewhat odd and does not really respond to the question. The question (perfective) implies a specific, one time case, derived from the context. Perhaps I've just said I would be going shopping or would want to spend some time outside - now or shortly enough to justify the present tense. 

The response (imperfective) is about a general rule: you must not ever take this bike. Not only now, but never. 

So they are not synonyms even in this case.


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## pacadansc

Dziękuję, Jasio. That makes sense and is very helpful.    

The sentences are from a reading book for beginners, and probably was intended to introduce both verbs but without explaining the difference, since it is not a grammar book.


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## jasio

pacadansc said:


> The sentences are from a reading book for beginners, and probably was intended to introduce both verbs but without explaining the difference, since it is not a grammar book.



Actually, I suspected a source like that. In this kind of sources full sentences are used for the sake of the learners. In the real life, you would rather hear: "Nie, nie możesz" ('No, you cannot'). Or, to maintain a semantic consistency with the response in the book: "Nie. Nigdy nie ruszaj/nie bierz/nie dotykaj/nie używaj tego roweru" ('No. Don't you ever move (?) / take / touch / use this bicycle'). I don't think that "don't move' would be naturally used in English in a similar situation (or would it?), but in Polish "nie ruszaj" is probably the most commonly used, generic verb, also in abstract contexts.


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## pacadansc

jasio said:


> Actually, I suspected a source like that. In this kind of sources full sentences are used for the sake of the learners. In the real life, you would rather hear: "Nie, nie możesz" ('No, you cannot').


Yes, especially when we have many new words to learn and practice, it is good to see full sentences. The book, however, does have many "real life" examples of : Tak, jest. / Nie, nie są. / Tak, mam. / Nie, nie ma., etc.      
Jeszcze raz, dziękuję.


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