Using of tenses and aspects

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  1. The category of aspect
  2. The category of tense

The category of aspect

The category of the aspect is a characteristic feature of Slavic languages and it is difficult for non-Slavs. It is worth knowing that the category of the aspect also exists e.g. in English although Polish aspects are completely different than those in English.

Like in other Slavic languages, there exist imperfective (pisał, pisze, będzie pisał) and perfective (napisał, napisze) aspects in Polish. In the same time, 4 aspects occur in English: neutral (he writes), perfect (he has written), continuous (he is writing) and perfect continuous (he has been writing). The English perfect does not correspond to Polish perfective despite their similar names.

Here are the list of verbal forms which have both aspects:

The following forms have the imperfective aspect only:

The following forms have the perfective aspect only:

The above list is not complete as it does not contain impersonal forms with się (pisało się, napisało się, będzie się pisało = będzie się pisać, napisze się, pisałoby się, napisałoby się, byłoby się pisało, byłoby się napisało; pisze się), the medial and the passive voices.

Imperfective verbs mean:

Perfective verbs mean:

As can be seen from the above, states and activities lasting for some time can be expressed by means of both imperfective and perfective verbs, without more difference: cały dzień leżał w łóżku ‘he was in bed all day long’ means nearly the same as cały dzień przeleżał w łóżku.

As a rule, every single verb is either imperfective or perfective. However there exist:

Remark: since the category of the aspect is tied with the category of the time, the following comparison of Polish and English tenses may be big help for students of Polish in mastering of the category of the aspect.

The category of tense

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Continuation


Main pagePolish grammar

2008-02-21