# Future Perfect & Past Perfect Questions



## Roy776

Cześć,
Przykro mi, jeśli pytanie zostało już zadane, ale zacząłem uczyć się polskiego kilka tygodni temu i nadal nie rozumiem, jak tworzyć Future Perfect i Past Perfect. Ja czytałem jedną dyskusję o Future Perfectu ale odpowiedzi nie są dla mnie wystarczające.

Mój przykład dla Future Perfect:
"I will be have read the book, before you come home."
"Będę przeczytał kśiążkę, gdy chodzisz domu."

But unfortunately, for the Past Perfect, I don't know how to build it in Polish, and can also not give you an example phrase now, out of the blue. So, sorry for that.

I would really appreciate your help!


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## majlo

"I will be have read the book, before you come home." That's not Future Perfect. It should read: I will have read the book before you come home. And in Polish it simply takes the future simple form: "Przeczytam książkę zanim przyjdziesz do domu".

"Będę przeczytał kśiążkę, gdy chodzisz domu." is incorrect. It should read: Będę czytał książkę, gdy przyjdziesz do domu ("I will be reading the book when you come home").

In contemporary Polish the Past Perfect is extremely rare, and I must say I don't know it well enough to explain it to you fully. Maybe others can help.


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## Roy776

The Future Perfect is already a great help, thank you. And thanks for the correction, the "be" was a typo 
Yeah, I have a basic understanding of how the Past Perfect should work, yet I never get it right. It's somehow formed with the conjugated form of być + and I think it was the infinitive of the verb you want use.

EDIT:
Found an example on the Wikipedia page for the Pluperfect with the example "to hear".

1st person: Ja słyszałem był, Ja słyszałam była
2nd person: Ty słyszałeś był, Ty słyszałaś była
3rd person: On słyszał był, Ona słyszała była, Ono słyszało było

And so on in the plural.


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## BezierCurve

Yes, that's how it's constructed. But, as majlo wrote, you practically don't hear it these days. Some people still use it in conditional sentences though:

If I had known... > Gdybym był wiedział...

I'd say you shouldn't worry about this aspect of contemporary Polish anyway, most people just don't use it (using just past tense instead: Gdybym wiedział...).


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## Roy776

Okay, thank you very much. I guess the lack of a Past Perfect is easily acceptable for me. Yet, the (to me as a german) strange construction of the Future Perfect will still be a problem, I suppose.
But, to try it, I want to give another example and my translation:

"I will have finished my studies at the beginning of summer."
"Ja skończę moje studia na początku lata."

Could someone please tell me, wether that phrase is right or wrong?


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## BezierCurve

Yes, this one's just fine. Usually you'd leave out the initial Ja though, as the form of the verb (skończ-ę) indicates it's the 1st person.

Unless you wanted to emphasize it's YOU who is going to have finished the studies (as opposed to someone else), then "Ja" is OK.

EDIT: Also, usually you'd hear "swoje" instead of "moje", but then again, you might want to emphasize the fact it's about YOUR studies and not someone else's.


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## Roy776

Thank you for your advice. Well, normally I know the fact of leaving out the pronouns, but it's just quite hard to do so in Polish, as (at least for me, and my environment here) the first and third person sounds identical. For example in Chcę und Chce. Secondly, I also learn it a bit through my polish friends and they also tend to use pronouns almost always. But it may also just be that they never really learned the grammar as it should be.
And regarding the use of swój... this one's a little more problematic, as the languages that I know (German, English, Spanish, Portuguese) lack such a word. Same counts for się. I know how to use it, yet I more often than not forget to use it, in fear to use it wrong. As for example, I once said to my friend "Mi się podoba swój samochód.", but that is wrong, as he (of course) did not know whose car I meaned.


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## tatsuhiro

Roy776 said:


> Okay, thank you very much. I guess the lack of a Past Perfect is easily acceptable for me. Yet, the (to me as a german) strange construction of the Future Perfect will still be a problem, I suppose.
> But, to try it, I want to give another example and my translation:
> 
> "I will have finished my studies at the beginning of summer."
> "Ja skończę moje studia na początku lata."
> 
> Could someone please tell me, wether that phrase is right or wrong?



As BezierCurve has already pointed out, one would rather say "swoje" instead of "moje". However I think the best option is simply to skip the possessive pronoun: "Skończę studia na początku lata" (it's not possible to finish someone else's studies).
One more comment:
The original English sentence ("I will have finished my studies at the beginning of summer") somehow suggests that one will graduate before the summer. "Skończę studia na początku lata" implies, that the graduation will take place at the beginning of summer. Hence better translation would be: "Skończę studia do początku lata" ("I will have finished my studies by the beginning of summer")


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## tatsuhiro

Roy776 said:


> And regarding the use of swój... this one's a little more problematic, as the languages that I know (German, English, Spanish, Portuguese) lack such a word. Same counts for się. I know how to use it, yet I more often than not forget to use it, in fear to use it wrong. As for example, I once said to my friend "Mi się podoba swój samochód.", but that is wrong, as he (of course) did not know whose car I meaned.



Swój is sometimes called possessive-reflexive pronoun. It should be used if the subject of the sentence equals the owner. The sentence "Podoba mi się swój samochód" is incorrect, because in this case  the car is the subject, not object (the construction is more similar to German "Mein Auto gefällt mir” rather then English "I like my car"). 
That is why it is recommended not to use "swój" if the noun is in nominative case (the subject of the sentence is almost always in nominative).


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## Thomas1

Bezier, I hope you won't mind I'm going to use your post. 





BezierCurve said:


> Yes, that's how it's constructed. But, as majlo wrote, you practically don't hear it these days. Some people still use it in conditional sentences though:
> 
> If I had known... > Gdybym był wiedział...
> Byłbym wiedział, że go nie będzie, to bym nie przychodził.
> Byłbym nie przychodził gdybym wiedział, że go nie będzie.
> It's something I use once in a while and my grandmother on a quite regular basis. It is , however, the irrealis. I don't use the realis past perfect in Polish, neither does anyone I know unless for some specific purpose.
> I'd say you shouldn't worry about this aspect of contemporary Polish anyway, most people just don't use it (using just past tense instead: Gdybym wiedział...).


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## Roy776

@Thomas
I heard just that. It's still used by the elderly. So I suppose it is definitely something I should know, but also something I do not need to use.


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## Ben Jamin

Roy776 said:


> Okay, thank you very much. I guess the lack of a Past Perfect is easily acceptable for me. Yet, the (to me as a german) strange construction of the Future Perfect will still be a problem, I suppose.
> But, to try it, I want to give another example and my translation:
> 
> "I will have finished my studies at the beginning of summer."
> "Ja skończę moje studia na początku lata."
> 
> Could someone please tell me, wether that phrase is right or wrong?


You should remember that to express the perfective aspect of an action in Polish you have to use a separate verb. Most actions have at least two verbs to express the meaning: one perfective and one imperfective. Very many actions have more than one perfective verb, each with a more or less different shade of meaning. There is no inflectional way of distinguishing between perfective and imperfective aspect, only lexical.
You just use the same tense but different verbs.


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## Roy776

Ben Jamin said:


> You should remember that to express the perfective aspect of an action in Polish you have to use a separate verb. Most actions have at least two verbs to express the meaning: one perfective and one imperfective. Very many actions have more than one perfective verb, each with a more or less different shade of meaning. There is no inflectional way of distinguishing between perfective and imperfective aspect, only lexical.
> You just use the same tense but different verbs.



So in other words, there's no real "conjugation" guideline, but I will rather need to learn (so to say) the double amount of verbs?


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## Ben Jamin

Roy776 said:


> So in other words, there's no real "conjugation" guideline, but I will rather need to learn (so to say) the double amount of verbs?


Yes, that's true. This is one of the major problems for foreigners learning Polish and other Slavic languages. Very few really learn it well enough not to make frequent mistakes.
In principle it works this way:
basic verb (imperfective) pracować
Present tense: pracuję (I work, I am working)
Past tense: pracowałem (I worked (during a period of time), I was working (at that moment))

perfective verbs:
opracować (bearbeiten)
if you add the present tense ending -uję, the meaning is future II (perfective)
opracuję 
if you add the past tense ending -ałem the meaning is past perfective:
opracowałem
There are more perfective verbs formed from the imperfective pracować, for example:
*wy*pracować (ausarbeiten)
*prze*pracować (durcharbeiten)
*roz*pracować (zerarbeiten)
*dop*racować (zuarbeiten)
*od*pracować (zurückarbeiten)
NB!The meaning of each of these perfective verbs is narrower than that of the imperfective one. None of them is simply a perfective counterpart of it! 

NB! The German translations do not necessarily show the real meaning, many of them simply do not exist, as far as I know, or are inaccurate. They are given only as an exampleto show the structure.
If you want to learn more, you should find a good grammar in German or English.


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## Roy776

Well, thank you very much for explaining this to me. To some extent, it sometimes seems like the german changes of verbs, though. For example:

-arbeiten -> bearbeiten -> erarbeiten -> verarbeiten

Just an added prefix, but everytime a quite different significance. Of course, we donźt have something that can be compared to the perfective aspect of verbs.

And in reference to your suggestion of getting some help in grammar:
I have already looked for something like this for quite a while, but have not been able to find anything useful. I already understand the several noun cases (declensions) and the syntax of the polish language is also not as complicated, as it has a rather free structure (even more so than German, it seems). And I have never been someone to learn by books. My English is (in some way) native, but my Spanish and Portuguese are almost completely self-taught by writing and speaking with natives.

Well, seeing the immense difficulty of Polish, I think it would still be a good idea to get myself such aid. Could you tell me a page or book in english that could help me learning polish?


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## Ben Jamin

Roy776 said:


> Well, thank you very much for explaining this to me. To some extent, it sometimes seems like the german changes of verbs, though. For example:
> 
> -arbeiten -> bearbeiten -> erarbeiten -> verarbeiten
> 
> Just an added prefix, but everytime a quite different significance. Of course, we donźt have something that can be compared to the perfective aspect of verbs.
> 
> And in reference to your suggestion of getting some help in grammar:
> I have already looked for something like this for quite a while, but have not been able to find anything useful. I already understand the several noun cases (declensions) and the syntax of the polish language is also not as complicated, as it has a rather free structure (even more so than German, it seems). And I have never been someone to learn by books. My English is (in some way) native, but my Spanish and Portuguese are almost completely self-taught by writing and speaking with natives.
> 
> Well, seeing the immense difficulty of Polish, I think it would still be a good idea to get myself such aid. Could you tell me a page or book in english that could help me learning polish?


 
Grammar:
I am sure, that there is a good book on Polish grammar, even if i do not know its name, maybe other foreros will help here.

Perfective and imperfective aspect:
Surprisingly, non Slavic languages, including English and the Scandinavian languages have also perfective and imperfective verbs. These verbs are not, however, put into such a strict system like the Slavic verbs. Specially in English, with its simple past, which is unmarked in relation to perfectiveness, different verbs will be perceived as naturally perfective or imperfective. Other verbs are biaspectual.
Examples of imperfective verbs:
sleep, work, breathe
Examples of biaspectual verbs:
eat, drink, travel, see, change, pull
Examples of perfective verbs:
eat up, drink up, breathe in, kill, die, break, pull out, betray.
Of course, the aspect is never 100% fixed.


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## ckcharlie

Okay, I've always had trouble with the lack of a future perfect tense in Polish (I learnt Polish and English simultaneously as a child, but English is my dominant language).  It would be simple enough if _będę_ could take a perfective verb, but it absolutely cannot, so "będę przeczytał książkę, gdy przyjdziesz do domu" doesn't work.  No, that's far too logical for a Slavic language, haha.

Anyone who knows Polish really well, correct me please.

So far, I've been getting around the problem like this:
"skończę czytać książkę zanim przyjdziesz do domu,"
literally "I will finish reading the book before you come home."

"skończę studia przed początkiem lata"
literally "I will finish my studies before the beginning of summer," which is effectively the same as "I will have finished my studies at the beginning of summer."

I could also say:
"Na początku lata, moje studia już będą skończone" 
(lit. My studies will be finished at the beginning of summer)

"Na początku lata, studia będę już miał za sobą," or 
"Na początku lata, już będę po studiach."
(lit. My studies will be behind me at the beginning of summer)

"Na początku lata, studia już będę miał skończone/zaliczone,"
(lit. I will have my studies finished at the beginning of summer)

The latter one is almost a calque of the English future perfect, except it's not a separate tense, it's somewhat awkward, and won't work in most situations.  If I try and say "I will have already eaten my breakfast at 9" by saying "Śniadanie już będę miał zjedzone przed 9," it would sound awkward because in Polish it's not clear who ate my breakfast.  People would generally say, "O 9 już będę po śniadaniu."

So I usually use words like "skończę" (I will finish) or adverbs like "wtedy" (then, at that point in time), "zanim" (before), "już" (already), "po" (after) "za sobą" (behind [the subject of the verb]) to convey the meaning of the future perfect.

The past perfect is less of a problem for me, since colloquial English often substitutes simple past for the perfect tenses, so it maps easily to Polish.  Sentences like, "I went for a walk after I had eaten," are easily conveyed by "Po jedzeniu poszedłem na spacer," or "Jak zjadłem, poszedłem na spacer."  I could also say, "Jak skończyłem jeść..."


As for perfective vs imperfective verbs, root verbs (brać, spać, iść, słyszeć, chodzić, but NOT dać) tend to be imperfective, and a prefix like *wy-* or *na-* will turn an imperfective verb into a perfective one.  

An infix will turn it back into an imperfective one.  I can't say there's a simple rule as to what the infix will be, but look out for *-w-*, *-yw-*, *-ja-*, *-a-*.  And a *po-* prefix will make a complicated prefixed and infixed verb perfective again!  How beautifully convoluted!

piszę - I am writing (pisać - to be writing, imperf)
zapiszę - I will write down (zapisać - to write down, perf,)
zapisuję - I am writing down (zapisywać - to be writing down, imperf)
pozapisuję - I will finish (repeatedly) writing down (pozapisywać - to finish repeatedly writing down)

bić - to be beating (imperf)
zabić - to kill (perf)
zabijać - to be killing (imperf)
pozabijać - to kill them all (perf)

robić - to be doing (imperf)
zarobić - to earn (perf)
zarabiać - to be earning (imperf)

So, root verbs are typically imperfective.  A prefix like *na-*, in the absence of an infix will be perfective.  And the irregular infix (and sometimes additional sound changes) will make it imperfective again.  And a stack of two prefixes is always perfective.

So I actually second the opinion that it's best to learn them individually.  After you know a few and can notice the patterns, you'll be able to look at other verbs and figure the aspect out (or make a very good guess.)


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## Thomas1

For the sake of understanding, I'm going to be nitpicky. 


ckcharlie said:


> Okay, I've always had trouble with the lack of a future perfect tense in Polish (I learnt Polish and English simultaneously as a child, but English is my dominant language).  It would be simple enough if _będę_ could take a perfective verb, but it absolutely cannot, so "będę przeczytał książkę, gdy przyjdziesz do domu" doesn't work.  No, that's far too logical for a Slavic language, haha.
> 
> Anyone who knows Polish really well, correct me please.
> 
> So far, I've been getting around the problem like this:
> "skończę czytać książkę zanim przyjdziesz do domu,"
> literally "I will finish reading the book before you come home."
> 
> "skończę studia przed początkiem lata" [a stylistic note: I think someone already gave this form in the thread, but it sounds much better with  this adverbial phrase: 'do lata' or 'przed latem' (it's already implied that przed latem means przed początkiem lata and not przed środkiem or przed końcem).  So 'skończę studia do lata'.]
> literally "I will finish my studies before the beginning of summer," which is effectively the same as "I will have finished my studies at the beginning of summer." It may be the same but not necessarily, 'before the beginning' may mean at any point before the beginning of the summer whereas 'at the beginning of summer' has just one interpretation, which translates into Polish as 'na początku lata'.
> 
> I could also say:
> "Na początku lata, moje studia już będą skończone"
> (lit. My studies will be finished at the beginning of summer)
> Technically fine, but not so much stylistically, though acceptable. We don't use the passive voice in Polish as much as you do in English.
> 
> "Na początku lata, studia będę już miał za sobą," or
> "Na początku lata, już będę po studiach."
> (lit. My studies will be behind me at the beginning of summer)
> 
> "Na początku lata, studia już będę miał skończone/zaliczone,"
> (lit. I will have my studies finished at the beginning of summer)
> I would've used a little different word order unless you used the marked one on purpose. However, this particular sentence seems a tad heavy  to me, I mean the perfective construction is a bit unwieldy, but maybe  it's just me.
> 
> 
> The latter one is almost a calque of the English future perfect, except it's not a separate tense, it's somewhat awkward, and won't work in most situations.  If I try and say "I will have already eaten my breakfast at 9" by saying "Śniadanie już będę miał zjedzone przed 9," it would sound awkward because in Polish it's not clear who ate my breakfast.  People would generally say, "O 9 już będę po śniadaniu."
> 
> So I usually use words like "skończę" (I will finish) or adverbs like "wtedy" (then, at that point in time), "zanim" (before), "już" (already), "po" (after) "za sobą" (behind [the subject of the verb]) to convey the meaning of the future perfect.
> 
> The past perfect is less of a problem for me, since colloquial English often substitutes simple past for the perfect tenses, so it maps easily to Polish.  Sentences like, "I went for a walk after I had eaten," are easily conveyed by "Po jedzeniu poszedłem na spacer," or "Jak zjadłem, poszedłem na spacer."  I could also say, "Jak skończyłem jeść..."
> 
> 
> As for perfective vs imperfective verbs, root verbs (brać, spać, iść, słyszeć, chodzić, but NOT dać-->it's 'dawać') tend to be imperfective, and a prefix like *wy-* or *na-* will turn an imperfective verb into a perfective one.
> It's not always the case, compare the following:
> Właśnie wychodził z domu, jak przypomniał sobie, że nie wziął biletu.
> The verb 'wychodzić' is an imperfective verb, but it's lexial content presents the action as complete. It may be clearer if you use it to express a routine in the past: Zawsze wychodził z domu przed piątą. Its trully perfective counterpart is 'wyjść'. The same holds true for 'nachodzić'.
> An infix will turn it back into an imperfective one.  I can't say there's a simple rule as to what the infix will be, but look out for *-w-*, *-yw-*, *-ja-*, *-a-*.  And a *po-* prefix will make a complicated prefixed and infixed verb perfective again!  How beautifully convoluted!
> Those infixes produce very often frequentative verbs (a kind of subclass of the imperfective aspect.)
> [...]


Weclome to the forums, Charlie.


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## ckcharlie

Thanks for the welcome!

Awesome critique of my work-around constructions, thank you.  I sometimes struggle finding something that sounds appropriate so it helps a lot.

And yes, it's absolutely true what you said about perfective vs imperfective verbs.  I was just pointing out some tendencies I've noticed, though they're definitely not hard and fast rules.

And there is a small class of frequentative verbs (I've also heard them called iterative), like pisywać, miewać, jadać, etc., but I've noticed they're quite rare, and though I can make up verbs like rabiać and bierać by analogy, I've noticed they don't exist in practice.

No, that would just make too much sense, haha.  Don't get me wrong, I love Polish, as mind-bending as it is.


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## Roy776

Wow, a lot of thanks for your great and useful post, Charlie, and also for your additional information, Thomas.

I guess, I begin to understand the all those little details in the language. It is really quite complicated, but I'm quite positive that I'll be able to learn and comprehend it.
But I have one more question, although not fitting the topic, I suppose that it's just a small one for you.
The question is: Does być always take the Instrumental case? And if not, what are the rules?


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## ckcharlie

Regarding _być_ and the instrumental case, I've been wondering about that too.

If the word "to" is anywhere nearby, it seems "być" takes the nominative.  I don't know why.  It's just something I've noticed tends to happen.

Pies to potomek wilka
The dog is a descendant of the wolf

Pies to jest potomek wilka
The dog is a descendant of the wolf

Pies jest potomkiem wilka
The dog is a descendant of the wolf

The word "to" doesn't seem to mean anything in the above sentences other than an '=' (equals) sign.  There does seem to be a slight difference in meaning between these three sentences, but I can't put my finger on it, and I can't tell if one of the above is or isn't acceptable in this context.  It seems to me that if the word "to" is absent, być seems to take the instrumental.

Marek to prawnik
Mark is a lawyer/As for Mark, he is a lawyer

Marek to jest prawnik
Mark is a lawyer/As for Mark, he is a lawyer

Marek jest prawnikiem
Mark is a lawyer

Somebody help?


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## Thomas1

Charlie, I forgot to add, well-done. 





ckcharlie said:


> [...]
> And there is a small class of frequentative verbs (I've also heard them called iterative), like pisywać, miewać, jadać, etc., but I've noticed they're quite rare, and though I can make up verbs like rabiać and bierać by analogy, I've noticed they don't exist in practice.
> 
> No, that would just make too much sense, haha.  Don't get me wrong, I love Polish, as mind-bending as it is.


I've heard the name as well and I think that there  may also be a difference between them, though I can't tell that for  sure. I concur, people use them less and less, it's a pity IMHO.
As to 'bierać', you may be surprised but it exists. Not in in standard  Polish, but I've heard many people in rural areas saying 'bierę', though  I'm not sure the meaning is frequentative in their usage.


Roy776 said:


> Wow, a lot of thanks for your great and useful post, Charlie, and also for your additional information, Thomas.
> 
> I guess, I begin to understand the all those little details in the language. It is really quite complicated, but I'm quite positive that I'll be able to learn and comprehend it.
> But I have one more question, although not fitting the topic, I suppose that it's just a small one for you.
> The question is: Does być always take the Instrumental case? And if not, what are the rules?


Soon a moderator is going to reveal themselves... 
No it doesn't. I'll paste the information given by my dictionary. It's in Polish, so let us know if someting is problematic:





			
				Nowy słownik poprawnej polszczyzny PWN © Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN SA said:
			
		

> Orzecznik przybiera regularnie formę narzędnika, jeżeli jest rzeczownikiem lub zaimkiem osobowym, np. On jest wynalazcą; Chcę być kimś. Przymiotniki (imiesłowy przymiotnikowe, zaimki dzierżawcze, liczebniki porządkowe, mnożne i wielorakie) przybierają formę narzędnikową tylko w paru typach struktur: a) jako określenia rzeczowników, np. On jest młodym wynalazcą; Marcin jest początkującym architektem; b) przy bezokoliczniku i imiesłowie przysłówkowym, np. Lepiej być mądrym niż bogatym; Będąc wykształconym, zyskasz szansę zdobycia ciekawej pracy; c) w konstrukcjach symetrycznych, mających w jednym członie rzeczownik, np. Jak się jest studentem, to się jest ciekawym świata; On nie jest ani kawalerem, ani żonatym.
> Narzędnik jest zastępowany przez mianownik tylko w konstrukcjach potocznych, z pominiętym podmiotem, oraz w formułach zawierających imię i/lub nazwisko, np. To nasz wychowawca; Brat adwokat, ojciec inżynier; To jest pan Krzysztof Piesiewicz; Jestem Teresa Budzisz-Krzyżanowska.


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## Roy776

No need for question in regards to that text, understood it perfectly well.
Thanks for that 
Well, as for me, this thread could now be closed, as all my questions have been answered.

Thanks a lot, all of you.


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## Ben Jamin

ckcharlie said:


> Okay, I've always had trouble with the lack of a future perfect tense in Polish (I learnt Polish and English simultaneously as a child, but English is my dominant language).  It would be simple enough if _będę_ could take a perfective verb, but it absolutely cannot, so "będę przeczytał książkę, gdy przyjdziesz do domu" doesn't work.  No, that's far too logical for a Slavic language, haha.



There is no problem with lack of future perfect in Polish. There is future II ( future perfective) that can be used to render the English sentence "I'll have read the book when you come home" =
Przeczytam już książkę gdy przyjdziesz do domu.
The meaning is exactly the same, even if you do not use tenses that express time sequence, the little word już with the perfective future will do. 
In informal language you can also say "Będę miał książkę przeczytaną". This is not official "literary Polish" but both used and understood.


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## ckcharlie

I get the feeling that "już" with the future tense means "in a second," as though to procrastinate or "at last."

"Już przeczytam," "już ci oddam pieniądze," 
("I'll read it in a second," "I'll give the money back to you in a moment,")

So if I said "Oddam ci już pieniądze, gdy przyjdziesz do domu," I'd imagine it would be understood as "I'll give the money back to you at last once you come home."  In this case the "już" seems to give more of a sense of reluctance than to place the action of returning the money before the return home.

It seems there are lots of ways to express the future perfect in Polish, but no one-size-fits-all.


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## kknd

ckcharlie said:


> I get the feeling that "już" with the future tense means "in a second," as though to procrastinate or "at last."
> 
> "Już przeczytam," "już ci oddam pieniądze,"
> ("I'll read it in a second," "I'll give the money back to you in a moment,")


personally i would never use here perfective aspect, only "już czytam" and "już ci oddaję pieniądze"; just as you indicated below.



ckcharlie said:


> So if I said "Oddam ci już pieniądze, gdy przyjdziesz do domu," I'd imagine it would be understood as "I'll give the money back to you at last once you come home."  In this case the "już" seems to give more of a sense of reluctance than to place the action of returning the money before the return home.
> 
> It seems there are lots of ways to express the future perfect in Polish, but no one-size-fits-all.


one can use "wreszcie" instead of "już" which is little more comprehensible here; nonetheless i can remember using "już" in such occasions, especially in phrases like "oddam ci już te pieniądze, jak przyjdziesz do domu"


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## Ben Jamin

ckcharlie said:


> I get the feeling that "już" with the future tense means "in a second," as though to procrastinate or "at last."
> 
> "Już przeczytam," "już ci oddam pieniądze,"
> ("I'll read it in a second," "I'll give the money back to you in a moment,")
> 
> So if I said "Oddam ci już pieniądze, gdy przyjdziesz do domu," I'd imagine it would be understood as "I'll give the money back to you at last once you come home." In this case the "już" seems to give more of a sense of reluctance than to place the action of returning the money before the return home.
> 
> It seems there are lots of ways to express the future perfect in Polish, but no one-size-fits-all.


This interpretation of 'już' is imprecise. 'Już' has many meanings: 'already', 'as early as', 'yet' (and many more in compund expressions). It is also used to convey the meaning of 'finally' and  'just now, in a moment, you won't wait long'. The important thing in the last (rather special meaning) is that the person addressed wil finally be satisfied, the completing of an action, but it has nothing to do with any specific period of time, it may be a second, a minute, an hour, or even more.


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## ckcharlie

Ben Jamin said:


> This interpretation of 'już' is imprecise. 'Już' has many meanings: 'already', 'as early as', 'yet' (and many more in compund expressions). It is also used to convey the meaning of 'finally' and  'just now, in a moment, you won't wait long'. The important thing in the last (rather special meaning) is that the person addressed wil finally be satisfied, the completing of an action, but it has nothing to do with any specific period of time, it may be a second, a minute, an hour, or even more.



Oh, of course, you're completely right.  It's just that colloquially you could phrase it that way.  "I'll be back in a second," doesn't mean a you will be gone for literally just a second but for a short period of time.


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