Polish verbs are conjugated with a separate ending for all six persons: I, you, he, she, it, we, you and they. The verb in the present and now in the past is formed with no auxiliary. When the verb is in the future it is formed with auxiliary, which corresponds to the word: will.
In Polish the verb concentrates on the action, emphasising whether the action has been completed or whether it is unfinished. This differentiation is achieved by verb pairs; almost every verb has its twin. One is the imperfect form and the other is the perfect form. In the imperfect and unfinished activity is indicated, whether it is past, present or future, and finished activity is signified by the perfect verb twin. Poles complain that the English verb has far too many tenses, they prefer not to be reminded that it requires two Polish verbs albeit twins to do the work of one English verb.
There is no longer any Past Perfect in Polish (it disappeared in 1945), meaning that it is impossible just using a verb to say "I had eaten" or "I had lived". It should also be noted that in the Present there is no distinction between “I do something” and “I am doing something”. In
Polish language the past is the past, it is either "I was eating" or "I ate". Another deficiency is the absence of the Present Perfect and thus there is no concept of "I had eaten". A Polish verb cannot express the concept of now being in the state of having done something in the past. Even the state of being drunk has nothing to do with drinking in the past. The Polish verb does not have the means of linking the two states of affairs. To make these connections other grammatical devices must be employed. These apparent deficiencies are compensated by the advantage of being able to distinguish very clearly between what has been achieved, and what has not.
Polish verbs have a passive form but the passive is not used as frequently and generally as it is in English, while the reflexive form is frequently used when speaking about self or others.
Because the verb itself reveals, who is speaking, or being spoken of and whether they are male or female or indeed neuter, there is no need to use the personal pronouns. Personal pronouns are normally used for emphasis or in answer to questions without their verb.
The verbs fall into three conjugations, so there are three grammatical sets of rules to be learnt in order to decline verbs in their tenses. Are there no exceptions? I hear you ask. Yes, there are exceptions, but only, literally a handful of Polish verbs are irregular. It is really worth making the effort to learn these three conjugations thoroughly. In my personal experience this is even more important than the grammar of declining the noun, in order to express oneself. Then one should identify and learn the basic verbs, such as walk, ride, carry and a score or so other basic verbs. These verbs are varied by the incorporation of conjunctions at the front of the verb, thus from walk, walk to, from, around, through, over, under and several other derivative meanings are created. These derivatives follow a pattern, so this approach would reduce the time taken to acquire a really substantial number of verbs. Furthermore it is these verbs, which are continually used.
Achilles Węgorz
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