Participles

Content

• Active Participles
• Passive Participles
  • Stem ending with ać/eć
  • Stem ending with ść, źć, c
  • Stem ending with ić/yć and are in the -ę/-isz and -ę/-ysz conjugation
  • Stem ending with ąć, uć, or with ić/yć and are have the -ję/-jesz present tense conjugation
  • Stems of the -rzeć type

Participles are words that are formed from words and used as adjectives. In Polish, they can be either active or passive.

Active Participles

These indicate actions ongoing actions and are used only with imperfective verbs. These are often used to describe people.

Formed by adding a c and adjective endings to the 3rd person plural of the present tense.

Infinitive	3rd Person Plural Present Tense	Active Participle
kochać malować pisać nieść	kochają malują piszą niosą	kochając malując pisząc niosąc

Examples:

Ona jest bardzo kochająca.
(She is very loving).

Widzę tam dużo malujących.
(I see a lot of painters there).
In this usage, the active participle describes people who are painting.

Passive Participles

These indicate an ongoing or completed actions and states also in the passive voice. Both imperfective verbs and perfective verbs can be used here.

Formation

Stem ending with ać/eć

These verbs remove the “ć”, and add “n” plus adjective endings. Note the e to a change with verbs ending with eć.

Infinitive	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine Personal	Other Genders
Przezzytać Zrozumieć	przeczytany zrozumiany	przeczytana zrozumiana	przeczytane zrozumiane	przeczytani zrozumieni	przeczytane zrozuzmiane

 

Stem ending with ść, źć, c

These are formed from getting the 2nd person singular present tense form and taking off the esz, then adding “on” plus adjective endings. Note the o to e change in the masculine personal plural form.

Infinitive	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Mascule Personal	Other Genders
przynieść zawieźć upiec	przyniesiony zawieziony upieczony	przyniesiona zawieziona upieczona	przyniesione zawiezione upieczone	przyniesieni zawiezieni upieczeni	przyniesione zawiezione upieczone

 

Stem ending with ić/yć and are in the -ę/-isz and -ę/-ysz conjugation

These are formed from getting the 1st person singular present tense form and taking off the ę, then adding “on” plus adjective endings (These have the same endings as those above with stems ending with ść, źć, and c).

Examples:

Infinitive	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine Personal	Other Genders
zrobić nauczyć	zrobiony nauczony	zrobiona nauczona	zrobione nauczone	zrobieni nauczeni	zrobione nauczone

 

Stem ending with ąć, uć, or with ić/yć and are have the -ję/-jesz present tense conjugation

These are formed by removing the final ć and adding t plus adjective endings.

Note:

– the t to c change in the masculine personal form.

– that if ąć is preceded by an n, the n softens to ni.

– there is an ą to ę change in all forms

Infinitive	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine Personal	Other Genders
pociągnąć wziąć zepsuć umyć	pociągnięty wzięty zepsuty umyty	pociągnięta wzięta zepsuta umyta	pociągnięte wzięte zepsute umyte	pociągnięci wzięci zepsuci umyci	pociągnięte wzięte zepsute umyte

 

Stems of the -rzeć type

These are formed by getting the 3rd person masculine past tense form of the verb and replacing the last letter “ł” with “t”, then adding adjective endings. Note the t to c change in the masculine personal.

Infinitive	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine Personal	Other Genders
drzeć	darty	darta	darte	darci	darte