# is there a pattern for the prefixes for perfective?



## drei_lengua

Cześć,

Is there a pattern for what prefix to use for a verb in the perfective form?  Sometimes the perfective verbs have prefixes of z, za, prze, etc. as shown below:

jadać (ja jadam)- jeść - zjeść
grywać ( ja grywam)- grać - zagrać
czytywać(ja czytuję)-czytać - przeczytać

Thanks,
Drei


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## Jana337

I hate to disappoint you but I am afraid that there aren't any. Perhaps some vague tendencies. And many imperfective verbs can take on several prefixes.

Jana


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## Marga H

Cześć!
Jana is right(as usual ) there is no rule but one: you usually have lots of possibilities to add prefixes (and then the meaning is different)Prefixes in Polish make verbs pefective but also work like prepositons after verbs in English (look at,look up,look out,look for) creating word family.
I will try to give you an example to explain better.
You have asked earlier about" podpisywać"
the "main" verb is *pisać* (write) imperfective form,*napisać *is perfective,so you add prefix *na *.But you also have *pod*pisać(sign),*za*pisać(note),*wy*pisać(write up),*do*pisać(add writing),*prze*pisać(copy)(all cognate with different meaning)They all are perfective and have their imperfective partners:
podpisać-podpisywać
zapisać-zapisywać
wypisać - wypisywać
dopisać-dopisywać
przepisać-przepisywac
*pisywać* means repeated action of pisać(like present simple tense in English)There are few verbs like that.
Hope it helps a bit.(Feel free to ask more in any doubt )


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## drei_lengua

Cześć,

Did I fill in the table correctly? Also, what is the first column called? 

What should this title be?*/*Perfective*/* Imperfective
? */*podpisać*/* podpisywać
? */*zapisać*/* zapisywać
? */*wypisać*/* wypisywać
? */*dopisać*/* dopisywać
? */*przepisać*/* przepisywac
pisywać*/* napisać*/* pisać


Dziękuję,
Drei


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## Marga H

drei_lengua said:


> Cześć,
> 
> Did I fill in the table correctly? Also, what is the first column called?
> 
> What should this title be?*/*Perfective*/* Imperfective
> ? */*podpisać*/* podpisywać
> ? */*zapisać*/* zapisywać
> ? */*wypisać*/* wypisywać
> ? */*dopisać*/* dopisywać
> ? */*przepisać*/* przepisywac
> pisywać*/* napisać*/* pisać
> 
> 
> Dziękuję,
> Drei


Yes , correctly 
? all don't exist.
Only *pisywać*  is the form of repeated action ( czasownik wielokrotny )
of main verb *pisać.*
Derivate verbs with different prefixes don't have this form.


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## drei_lengua

Marga H said:


> Yes , correctly
> ? all don't exist.
> Only *pisywać* is the form of repeated action ( czasownik wielokrotny )
> of main verb *pisać.*
> Derivate verbs with different prefixes don't have this form.


 
Dziękuję bardzo Marga.  To był swietny.

Drei


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## vince

Is there a default prefix, that although wrong most of the time, can be understood as an attempt to form the perfective?

Kind of like adding "ed" to the end of an English verb to make it past:
"I speaked", "I writed", "I swimmed" - they are all understood to be past even though they are wrong.


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## jazyk

I would say po and za are the "default" that you're looking for, but better to learn any given verb in its imperfective/perfective set.


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## Marga H

vince said:


> Is there a default prefix, that although wrong most of the time, can be understood as an attempt to form the perfective?
> 
> Kind of like adding "ed" to the end of an English verb to make it past:
> "I speaked", "I writed", "I swimmed" - they are all understood to be past even though they are wrong.


I was trying yesterday evening and invented a lot of beautiful verbs  .
Seriously it is not easy.Each prefix added to "basic" verb will make it perfective but the meaning may be quite different, as you see from previous posts or you will make a new verb.I think that comparing with English it is rather like phrasal verbs; impossible to predict the meaning.
Regards.


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## Jana337

I tried to apply this reasoning to Czech and came to the conclusion that "do" is quite informative about the aspect. But I am not sure it is true for Polish. 

Jana


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## Marga H

drei_lengua said:


> Dziękuję bardzo Marga. To był swietny.
> 
> Drei


Glad that I could help a little.
Just a small correction:
To był świetny.. needs something else : post, wykład. any noun masculine gender.
To była świetna.. add any noun feminin gender, for instance rada.
To było świetne tłumaczenie - neuter gender.
But the last one you can also say with the general meaning : To było świetne! That was great!
Pozdrowienia.


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## Marga H

jazyk said:


> I would say po and za are the "default" that you're looking for, but better to learn any given verb in its imperfective/perfective set.


 absolutely better!
wiedzieć ( know ) - powiedzieć ( say )
robić ( make, do ) - zarobić ( earn )
stać ( stand ) - dostać ( receive )
Regards.


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## Thomas1

I am really not sure if perfective/imperfective aspects depend so much on prepositions you tack on to the beginning of a word, at least not in all cases.

If your verb ends in –_wać_ you maybe sure it implies imperfective action. As far as _–ać_ ending is concerned it’s a little bit different my supposition is that verbs ending in _–ać_ are imperfective when without any prefix and perfective when a prefix is added, let’s take an example: 
Imperfective forms:
_pisał _
_pisywać_
_pisywał_
_zapisywał_
_wypisywał_
_przepisywał_
_odpisywał_
_podpisywał_
_wpisywał_
_wypisywał_
_dopisywał_

Perfective ones:
_zapisał_
_wypisał_
_przepisał_
_odpisał_
_podpisał_
_wpisał_
_wypisał_
_dopisał_

It is not hard to see that almost all the imperfective forms are derivatives of _–wać_ form. I don’t agree that there are only few verbs in Polish with this ending.

There are also verbs that express multiple actions by taking on an ending _–ać_ and change their core. An example of such a verb is _jeść_.
jeść
Perfective forms:
_zjadł_
_objadł_
_podjadł_
_wyjadł_
_przejadł_

Imperfective forms:
_jadł_
_jadać_
_zjadał_
_przejadał_
_objadał_
_wyjadał_
_przejadał_

Moreover, single verbs (czasowniki jednokrotne) are the ones that express perfective aspects whereas multiple verbs (czasowniki wielokrotne) express imperfective aspects. In conclusion what you really need to do when determining if a verb is perfective or not is to see what its base form is and then, depending on the type of the base form, look at whether it has a prefix or not. 


Tom


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