Verbal Nouns

Content

• Usage
• Formation
  • With -any
  • With -ony
  • With -ty

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