In order to tell somebody about what happened at the particular moment in the past we must know how to formulate such sentences and what form of the verbs to use. There are a few differences between Polish and English in this respect.
First of all, in English we differentiate Simple Past, Simple Past Continuous, Past Perfect, Past Perfect Continuous, Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuos that we can choose from to talk about past events.
In Polish, in turn, we have one czas przeszły (Past Tense) which is the equivalent of English past tenses depending on what okre¶lenia czasu (Expressions of Time) it expresses: both czynno¶ć dokonana (Perfective Action) and czynno¶ć niedokonana (Imperfective Action).
Let me now present how it looks in practice.
To make the past form of the Polish verb we do not add any endings like "–ed" in English, but we add inflectional endings to past forms of the verbs. It is the rule for all verbs including być (be) and móc, potrafić (can) which are treated differently in English.
Liczba pojedyncza (Singular):
ja napisałam, robiłam, przeczytałam (I wrote, did, read)
ty napisałe¶, robiłe¶, przeczytałe¶ (you wrote, did, read)
on napisał, robił, przeczytał (he wrote, did, read)
ona napisała, robiła, przeczytała (she wrote, did, read)
ono napisało, robiło, przeczytało (it wrote, did, read)
Liczba mnoga (Plural):
my napisali¶my, robili¶my, przeczytali¶my – for men/boys/mixed (we wrote, did, read)
my napisały¶my, robiły¶my, przeczytały¶my – for women/girls (we wrote, did, read)
wy napisali¶cie, robili¶cie, przeczytali¶cie – for men/boys/mixed (you wrote, did, read)
wy napisały¶cie, robiły¶cie, przeczytały¶cie – for women/girls (you wrote, did, read)
oni napisali, robili, przeczytali – for men/boys/mixed (they wrote, did, read)
one napisały, robiły, przeczytały – for women/girls (they wrote, did, read)
Zdanie twierdz±ce or twierdzenie (Affirmative Sentence):
In English:
You sang his song yesterday.
She wrote a letter yesterday.
In Polish:
(Ty) za¶piewałe¶/za¶piewała¶/¶piewałe¶/¶piewała¶ t± piosenkę wczoraj.
(Ona) napisała/pisała list wczoraj.
Zdanie pytaj±ce or pytanie (Question Sentence):
For pytania ogólne (general questions) we use czy (did) in front of the question.
In English:
Did you sing this song yesterday?
Did she write a letter yesterday?
In Polish:
Czy (ty) za¶piewałe¶/za¶piewała¶/¶piewałe¶/¶piewała¶ t± piosenkę wczoraj?
Czy (ona) napisała/pisała list wczoraj?
As you can see, the verb in Polish questions is still in the past form.
To answer "Yes" shortly we say "Tak." (Yes, you did) or Nie. (No, you didn’t). We can also also answer using the words Tak, za¶piewałe¶/za¶piewała¶/¶piewałe¶/¶piewała¶. (Yes, you sang) or Nie, nie za¶piewałe¶/za¶piewała¶/¶piewałe¶/¶piewała¶. (No, you didn’t).
For pytania szczegółowe (Specific Questions) we use słowo pytaj±ce (Question Word).
In English:
Where did you sing this song yesterday?
Where did she write a letter yesterday?
In Polish:
Gdzie (ty) za¶piewałe¶/za¶piewała¶/¶piewałe¶/¶piewała¶ t± piosenkę wczoraj?
Gdzie (ona) napisała/pisała list wczoraj?
Zdanie przecz±ce or przeczenie (Negative Sentence):
In order to negate a sentence we add the word nie (not) before the verb.
In English:
You didn’t sing this song yesterday.
She didn’t write a letter yesterday.
In Polish:
(Ty) nie za¶piewałe¶/za¶piewała¶/¶piewałe¶/¶piewała¶ t± piosenkę wczoraj.
(Ona) nie napisała/pisała listu wczoraj.
Again, in the Polish language the question in the past form of the verb is preserved.
Okre¶lenia czasu (Expressions of Time):
- wczoraj (yesterday)
- w zeszłym tygodniu/miesi±cu/roku (last week/month/year)
- 2 dni/tygodnie/miesi±ce/lata temu (2 days/weeks/months/years ago)
- w 1989 (in 1989)
- nigdy (never)
- kiedykolwiek (ever)
- ostatnio (recently/lately)
- jeszcze (yet – in questions)
- już (yet – in affirmative sentences/already – in affirmative sentences and questions)
- wła¶nie, przed chwil± (just)
- do tej pory, dotychczas (so far)
- nareszcie (at last)
- podczas, gdy (while).
If you asked Polish learner of English what is tricky and tough in this particular language, he/she would undoubtedly answer – the tenses. No wonder – in the Polish language we only have three of them so it is sometimes a shock for somebody who is getting to know English. In my opinion, we often forget that even though it is easier to remember Polish tenses, it is not so easy to form them because of its numerous inflectional endings that are different for each person. The language is easy as long as it is one’s mother tongue. Otherwise, it can cause lots of problems and difficulties. :)
Ivonka
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