Verb forms and conjugation

How many different forms do verbs take?
I'm aware of the -m, -sz conjugation
mam, masz, ma, mamy, macie, mają

and I'v come across jestem, jesteś, jest, jestemy, jestecie, są
Would this be -em, -eś, conjugation?

I have found this, hope it might be of some help, to you.

URL

It is useful but I already know the 'class 1' conjugation (-m, -sz)
I'm more interested in learning the other major verb patterns/forms.

As yet I only need the first 6 (ja, ty, on/ona/ono, my, wy, one/oni)
Trying to learn more, at this point, would be an unnecessary complication.

It seems no-one has got round to dealing with any other classes for conjugating verbs on Wiktionary yet. It looks quite useful, the one that is there and was so helpfully linked by Vincent. The other Polish appendices look quite good too.

Maybe, Osiol, you could list some of these 'other classes'?

One of my text books says there are 11 patterns if you want to get technical about it, but effectively 4 with the odd variation. Not at home right now so can't quote which book it was. Off the top of my head though:

The "a" pattern:
Czytać - czytam, czytasz, czyta

The "i" pattern:
myśleć - myślę, myślisz, myśli

The "e" pattern:
Iść - idę, idziesz, idzie

The "y" pattern:
Słyszeć, słyszę, słyszysz, słyszy

According to '301 Polish Verbs': 'siedzIEć','czytAć', 'myślEć', 'iŚć', 'byWać', 'usiĄć',
'znaleZC', 'przedstaWIć' and 'żYć' as template conjugation patterns. That makes,
according to the authors, nine different forms!-:) LOL

I consider myself fortunate if I've "mastered" (władzałem) only several of them, much less the entire lot. A Herculean, indeed almost Sisyphusean, labour, so it would appear.

should be "opanowałem" (opanuję in future tense)
władałem - I was ruling, reigning
władam - same (ruling, reigning), but also the meaning close to what you've referred to, for example "władam trzema językami obcymi" (so you can "władać" a foreing language, but not its specific words or grammatical constructions)

wut?

usiąść



znaleźć



in this conetxt it would be opanowałem
to master - opanować

There, you see. I haven't 'opanowałem' or even 'władałem' less than half of them-:)-:)!!!! LOL

i have mastered them all a looong time ago :-D

Where in '301' does it say this?

Actually, it doesn't state it directly, I merely surmised from studying the various patterns that I counted somewhere in the neighborhood of nine-:) LOL

Perhaps there are even more.

I found the pages where the first three (most used) patterns are discussed. Very useful info. In fact, I'd go so far as to state that '301' is just as necessary to beginner students of Polish as a decent dictionary.
I'm only at the stage of needing present tense so it's goimg to be fun learning all these verbs again for past, future expressions.
It's a challenge I enjoy but, damn, I'd be intermediate if I'd opted for Spanish or Italian!
They'll seen easy after I'v mastered a language as complex as Polish.

Spanish and Italian have their extreme challenges too, believe me!
I studied Spanish long before travelling to Spain on business and even after two months in Madrid, Barcelona and half a dozen other cities, I found my Spanish had improved only negligibly. There are all those irregular verb tenses, the two forms of 'to be' (ser/estar), the confounding idioms as well as the phonetic confusion between 'v' vs.'b' in pronunciation.

No picknick, I can assure you.

Incidentally, as a German speaker, I feel I am a relative intermediate in Polish. Were the tables turned, however, I hardly think I could've mastered English as a foreigner quite so easily.

Even though we (English and German) share a common parent language and have much in common?

During my short stays in Spain I have found it easy to learn basic phrases and gather an understanding of how to ask simple questions and understand the answers. I cannot say the same for my first few months attempting to learn Polish. In fact I am only just starting to feel any optimism about actually being able to succeed at this language and If I had known just how difficult it would be I doubt I would have even started trying to learn.
...I'm glad I did though.

What level is your Polish?

Still a beginner.
I'v got my head around masc/fem/neut in Nominative and Instrumental....then accusative comes out of nowhere!

I'm reviewing everything, at the moment, by taking a look at my completed assignments and starting using HURRA books 1.

Hi ArcticPaul,

It sounds as if we're pretty much at the same level. I'm relying on Bielec's helpful 'Basic Polish' and I agree that '301' really is a lifesaver....

It's pretty much "2 steps forward; 1.9999 steps back" for me at the moment - it feels more like a code than a language at this stage, but I'm really enjoying it! I hope it's going well for you too.

2 steps forward, 1.9999 steps back'
haha I know exactly what you mean.

I have to learn the same things half a dozen times before they come close to sticking.

Well, if I may be so bold, learning verb conjugations might be interesting but it probably isn't the best way to improve your ability to communicate in Polish. Firstly, you won't use all the verb forms to the same degree - you'll probably use the first person singular far more often than the third person plural and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of verbs exist more frequently in the passive (like in English). Secondly, Poles themselves often don't pronounce them properly (e instead of ę for example).

Work more on natural communicaive situations and get someone to correct your grammar as you go. You'll see much faster results. Save the heavy grammar work for later.

Then again, if you like studying grammar then go ahead - sorry for spouting off ;)

McBubbles is right, of course. In theory, sitting (standing-:) LOL) learning how to conjugate verb patterns can be a bloody waste of time at the very outset. Surely it's important, but only after the basic communicative intercourse is more or less in place. Being able to rattle off 'ciąć - tnę, tniesz, tne etc. ad infintium' hardly presupposes that you can just as blithely walk into some random eatery smack in the middle of Poland and comfortably order a meal without both the wait staff and you lookin' at one another as though you both have two heads!!!

Best at first to focus on speaking (as organic a method as possible, considering that learning a seocnd language is supposed to mirror learning one's mother tongue, no?), allowing for correction from a decent native speaker followed by more of the same. Later, easy reading on the level of a Polish child, i.e. simple stories etc. Later still, writing, much as in the learner's first language.

Worst thing one can do when acquiring a language in adulthood, is to put the cart before the horse and get so hoeplessly confused that the mistakes become near impossible to unlearn. Take it from me!

Życzę wam powodzenia,

Well, I'd dispute the need for reading simple stories, that would really be the kind of thing that children do in the classroom. The PSL (?) learner can / will read all sorts of written text as he develops - bus tickets, ingredients lists, advertising slogans and many more. Similarly, writing simple texts such as dialogues has been found to be an important way to build accuracy right from day 1.