Verbal Nouns
Content
These are nouns derived from verbs that denote the activity of a verb. In English, these are formed by adding -ing to the end of verbs.
Verbal nouns take the neuter gender.
Usage
Examples:
Bieganie jest zdrowe.
(Running is healthy)
Moją ulubioną działalnością jest śpiewanie.
(My favorite activity is singing)
When a direct object is placed after a verbal noun, this direct object always takes genitive case declension.
Pisanie książek jest trudne.
(Writing books is hard / The writing of books is hard)
Bycie lekarzem jest ciężkie.
(Being a doctor is tough).
The noun lekarz (doctor) is in the instrumental because nouns following the verb być (be) are not considered direct objects and take instrumental declensions. So, such nouns do not take the genitive case.
Malowanie obrazów jest fajne.
(Painting pictures is cool / The painting of pictures is cool).
Formation
Passive Adjectival Participles Ending with -any
These verbal nouns are formed from verbs whose passive adjectival participles’ masculine singular ending end with any.
To get the nominative singular verbal noun form, replaced the -any from the participle with anie if the original verb stem ends with -ać, or with enie if the stem ends with -eć.
Infinitive | Passive Adjectival Participle Masculine Singular Form | Verbal Noun |
czytać
rozumieć |
czytany
rozumiany |
czytanie
rozumienie |
Passive Adjectival Participles Ending with -ony
Formed from verbs with passive adjectival participle masculine singular endings with ony.
Replace the ony with enie.
Infinitive | Passive Adjectival Participle Masculine Singular Form | Verbal Noun |
piec
nieść |
pieczony
niesiony |
pieczenie
niesienie |
Passive Adjectival Participles Ending with -ty
Formed from verbs with passive adjectival participle masculine singular endings with ty.
Replace the ty with cie.
Infinitive | Passive Adjectival Participle Masculine Singular Form | Verbal Noun |
umyć
zepsuć |
umyty
zepsuty |
umycie
zepsucie |