Aspects

The Polish aspect system distinguishes between imperfective (niedokonany) and perfective (dokonany) verbs. Very roughly, imperfective verbs describe actions as ongoing or repeated, while perfective verbs present them as completed, achieved or singular.

Unlike English, which expresses these differences through context or auxiliary constructions (was doing, used to do vs has done, did), Polish expresses aspect by using separate lexical items. These are not two forms of the same verb, but actually two separate items with different infinitives, although they're closely related in meaning. For example:

• czytać - to read, be in the process of reading, read something regularly (imperfective)
• przeczytać - to read, read something in its entirety (perfective)

The imperfective aspect appears in all tenses: past, present, and future. The perfective aspect - only in the past and future. The table below presents, as an example, the first-person (ja) form of the verbs robić (imperfective) and zrobić (perfective).

czas przeszły past	czas teraźniejszy present	czas przyszły future
imperfective	imperfective	imperfective
robiłem (m) / robiłam (f)	robię	będę robić or będę robił (m) / będę robiła (f)
perfective	perfective	perfective
zrobiłem (m) / zrobiłam (f)	—	zrobię





How are aspectual pairs created?

This section is intended as informational rather than practical (spoiler: it all boils down to learning specific verbs one by one anyway). Skip it if you're not curious or you cry easily.

There are several ways of creating aspectual pairs.

1. Prefixation

As in the example above, a prefix is ​​added to the imperfective verb. The z- / s- is one of the most common, but there are many prefixes that create the perfective aspect:

• próbować → spróbować - to try
• dzwonić → zadzwonić - to call; to ring
• mylić się → pomylić się - to make a mistake
• pisać → napisać - to write
• pić → wypić - to drink
• gotować → ugotować - to cook

Generally speaking, there are several different prefixes that can be added to verbs to make the perfective or modify their meaning: do-, na-, nad-, o-, od-, po-, pod-, prze-, roz-, u-, w-/we-, wy-, za-, z-/ze-/s-. Worth to mention, that the choice of prefix is not arbitrary - in each case it is one or literally a couple of specific prefixes with make the appropriate perfective.

Sometimes the same stem can combine with several prefixes to create different perfective verbs. A good example (found it here) is the verb malować. The imperfective malować can refer to covering a surface with paint, paining a picture, or applying makeup. But each of these meanings will have its own perfective form:

• malować → pomalować - to paint something (e.g. a wall)
• malować → namalować - to paint a picture
• malować → umalować - to apply makeup



2. Stem alternations


• krzyczeć → krzyknąć - to shout
• znikać → zniknąć - to disappear
• wybuchać → wybuchnąć - to explode
A large, or even overwhelming, group of aspectual pairs with stem alternations consists of verbs created by adding a prefix that modifies the meaning. Compare:
• pisać (impf) → napisać (pf) - the prefix only adds perfective meaning
• pisać (impf) → odpisać (pf) → odpisywać (impf!) - here, the prefix od- (often corresponding to English off, re- or back) changes the meaning: to write off / to write back. The perfective verb odpisać becomes the base for creating the imperfective form odpisywać.
  For pairs that have a steam alternation by default, adding a meaning-modifying prefix does not force any subsequent changes:
• dawać (impf) → dać (pf) - to give, oddawać (impf) → oddać (pf) - to give back, to return sth, to submit
• rzucać (impf) → rzucić (pf) - to throw, wyrzucać (impf) → wyrzucić (pf) - to throw away
This characteristic patterns -yCa- / -iCa-, -eCa- and -aCa- (where C stands for a consonant) allow you to easily identify the imperfective:
• zmyć → zmywać - to wash off; to do the dishes
• przekrzyczeć → przekrzykiwać - to shout over
• podlać → podlewać - to water (plants)
• poprzeć → popierać - to support
• omówić → omawiać - to discuss
• wkroczyć → wkraczać - to step in


2. Irregulars

Some aspectual pairs are irregular, as they consist of verbs with different roots. There aren't many of them, but there are some frequently used verbs here:

• mówić → powiedzieć - to say
• widzieć → zobaczyć - to see
• oglądać → obejrzeć - to watch, to look at
• znajdować → znaleźć - to find
• brać → wziąć - to take
• kłaść → położyć - to put, to place

The purpose of the examples above is to show the morphological diversity of aspectual pairs. Understanding how they're created allows for faster orientation in the texts you listen to or read, and therefore facilitates learning new expressions and using them more confidently in the appropriate context.

However, i'm definitely not saying that you should try to memorize the patterns themselves. Learning specific examples - yes, that would makes sense. But as for the patterns - there are simply too many of them, and in a purely synchronic approach (without considering their etymology and historical development), they're quite random. Neither exposure to the input nor learning about the possible ways of creating aspectual pairs will give you enough intuition to predict a completely unfamiliar verb pair with 100% accuracy.

So how do you master aspect? There's no shortcut: one verb at a time. Or two at a time, because you learn them in pairs. And each pair is its own case. Of course, there are some similarities, groups of verbs that behave the same way, and you will notice that. However, there are not ready-made formulas that allow you to predict everything. So, the best way to learn isn't through targeted practice focused only on aspectual pairs patterns, but instead, learning verbs in context: study thematic units from a textbook, or just texts, or communication situations and learn the verbs that are relevant to what you need. Together with their aspectual counterparts.

At least one thing to reassure you - Poles are usually very understanding when it comes to foreigners struggling with verb inflection. Of course, there's a wide field for misunderstandings, but if you use the correct endings showing the person (ja …ę, ty …esz, my …emy etc.), you should be fine, the aspect is much smaller problem than getting the basic verb forms right.




Which aspect to choose?

This topic often feels particularly difficult for native speakers of languages that don't have a grammatical aspect distinction. The English tense system cannot be translated 1:1 into Polish aspects, but even in some non-Slavic languages where aspects do occur, they work according to different patterns and rules. To make things worse, context and unwritten conventions of colloquial language *sometimes* allow the interchangeable use of the imperfective and perfective aspects with little or no difference in meaning of the utterance:

• Nigdy nie czytałem Nocy i dni. = Nigdy nie przeczytałem Nocy i dni. I've never read Nights and Days.
• Zdejmuj buty i siadaj! = Zdejmij buty i usiądź! Take off your shoes and sit down!

As a result, learners may occasionally encounter examples that seem to contradict the rules normally presented in textbooks (I will try to explain the most typical of these situations later in this chapter).

When you're unsure which aspect to use and don't recognize typical "markers" of one aspect or the other in a sentence, imho it's strategically best to consider the imperfective as the default. Not only does this make sense morphologically (in most cases, perfective verbs are derived from imperfectives, not the other way around), but also in practice, when we're talking about some action or event - and what matters is just its very occurrence, not its success or completion status - using the imperfective is a safe option.

But relying on the imperfective is only a safety net for crisis situations.

When you are describing your own experiences, you usually have a fairly clear view of whether the action is complete or not, and whether/how many times it was repeated, and you can choose the form that best matches the situation:

• jadłam śniadanie, pisałam referat, zdawałam egzamin - if some of the meal was left or you were interrupted and before you finished it; the paper is still not done; and you took the test but the results are still pending, so you don't know yet if you passed it (or perhaps "zdawałam egzamin kilka razy" if you had to do it more than once)
  or:
• zjadłam śniadanie, napisałam referat, zdałam egzamin - if you finished the entire meal; the paper is ready; you wrote the exam and you know you passed

  As you see, it is the nature of the situation that determines whether the imperfective or perfective form is used. When you're describing events you didn't witness yourself, identifying the context and choosing the correct aspect may be a bit difficult at first (which is why this distinction isn't directly tested in the conjugation task in Poprawność gramatyczna section of the B1 exam), but there absolutely are rules governing the use of the imperfective and perfective aspects. They mainly come down to whether the action is ongoing/complete and repeated/singular, and to the expressions that signal those meanings (see 'keywords'):

  aspekt niedokonany imperfective	aspekt dokonany perfective
  action in progress or not complete Wczoraj czytałam gazetę. Jutro będę czytać ją dalej. Yesterday I read the newspaper [but didn't finish it]. Tomorrow I'll read it further [won't necessarily finish it].	completed action with an obvious effect Wczoraj przeczytałam gazetę. Jutro przeczytam inną. Yesterday I read the newspaper [to the end]. Tomorrow I'll read another one.
  repeated action W dzieciństwie odwiedzałam rodzinę w Łodzi. As a child, I used to visit my family in Łódź.	one-time action W dzieciństwie odwiedziłam rodzinę w Łodzi. As a child, I visited my family in Łódź [once].
  simultaneous events The event that is the background to another action is expressed in the imperfective aspect: Kiedy / Jak piłam kawę, zadzwonił telefon. While I was drinking coffee, the phone rang [once]. * Kiedy / Jak piłam kawę, dzwonił telefon. While I was drinking coffee, the phone kept ringing [and I didn't answer].	sequence of events Kiedy / Jak wypiłam kawę, zadzwonił telefon. [first] Once I had finished my coffee, [then] the phone rang.
  keywords
  dalej, nadal, wciąż, ciągle, cały czas (still) impf + coraz + adverb (increasingly + adverb) zaczynać/zacząć + impf (to start) przestawać/przestać + impf (to stop) kończyć/skończyć + impf (to finish) Jak często? How often? codziennie, co tydzień, co rok... (każdego dnia, każdego tygodnia, każdego roku) every day, every week, every year... zawsze, często, czasami, od czasu do czasu, rzadko, nigdy always, often, sometimes, from time to time, rarely, never zwykle usually Jak długo? How long? od 8:00 do 16:00, od wtorku do piątku, od rana do wieczora from 8:00 to 16:00, from Tuesday to Friday, from morning to evening długo, krótko long, short (przez) 10 minut, dwie godziny, kilka miesięcy (for) 10 minutes, two hours, a few months	nareszcie, wreszcie, w końcu (finally) not 100% always, but usually with perfective nagle, wtem (suddenly) w + time, e.g.: w 10 minut, w dwie godziny, w kilka miesięcy Unlike the preposition przez, this one indicates that we are talking about an action that was not only performed but actually completed in a given period of time.
  examples... Późnym wieczorem nadal myłem okna. Late in the evening, I was still washing the windows. W zeszłym tygodniu cały czas padał śnieg. It snowed continuously throughout last week. Odkąd się przeprowadziłem, czułem się coraz lepiej. Ever since I moved, I had been feeling better and better. Z radości zaczęłam tańczyć. I started dancing with joy. Może przestaniesz się wygłupiać? Maybe you'll stop fooling around? Skończyli rozmawiać i rozeszli się. They finished talking and went their separate ways. Co miesiąc wysyłał mi pudełko słodyczy. Every month, he sent me a box of sweets. Nawet jeśli rzadko będę cię odwiedzać, to często będę dzwonić. Even if I won't visit you often, I'll call frequently. Zwykle w niedziele odbywał się targ. There was usually a market on Sundays. Hala gastronomiczno-imprezowa będzie przyjmować gości od 15:00 do 2:00. The food and event venue will be welcoming guests from 3:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Długo korzystałam z tej apki i mogę ją polecić. I've been using this app for a long time, and I can recommend it. Dostał pracę w szkole, ale uczył bardzo krótko – zwolnił się po roku. He got a job at a school, but he taught there only briefly — he quit after a year. Przez godzinę męczył mnie opowieściami. He tormented me with his stories for an hour. Szłyśmy za nimi jakieś pięć minut. We followed them for about five minutes.	examples... Późnym wieczorem w końcu umyłem okna. Late in the evening, I finally washed the windows. Przez cały tydzień była ładna pogoda, aż wtem spadł śnieg. The weather was nice all week until it [unexpectedly] snowed. Kiedy się przeprowadziłem, nagle poczułem się lepiej. Once I moved, I suddenly felt better. W niedzielę odbył się targ. There was a market on Sunday. Hala gastronomiczno-imprezowa przyjmie ostatnich gości o 1:30. The food and event hall will accept the last batch of guests at 1:30. W godzinę zmęczył mnie opowieściami. It took him an hour to tire me out with stories. Dogoniłyśmy ich w pięć minut. We caught up with them in five minutes.

  
  
  

  Here's some practice in distinguishing the context of use of the imperfective and perfective aspect.
  Just in case you're not familiar with many aspectual pairs yet, a morphological reminder: it's easy to distinguish them by prefix - the imperfective has no prefix, while the perfective does. And if both variants have a prefix, the imperfective often has an alternation resulting in "a[consonant]a", "e[consonant]a" or "y[consonant]a" added to the stem (przedstawić - przedstawiać, wybrać - wybierać, pokazać - pokazywać).
  (If the answer options do not fit in the exercise window, turn on fullscreen - button in the upper right corner).

  
  
  
  

  The following exercise is available in two versions - for beginners and lower intermediates, I suggest the version with picking the correct form. Unfortunately, due to the limited number of possible answers, I had to split the exercise into two parts, but both parts form a single story (a shortened and slightly modified copypasta, Pasta o Cejrowskim i butach).

  To check the English translation of the text, click here for part one and part two.