Polish Imperative

  • -am/-asz and -em/-esz
  • -ę/-isz and -ę/-ysz
  • -ę/-esz
  • Irregular

Both imperfective and perfective verbs are used in the imperative.

This mood is used to express orders, wishes, requests, and different emotional states.

There are only 3 forms of it: 2nd person singular, 1st person plural, and 2nd person plural.

Być

 

Imperative Conjugation

-am/-asz, -em/-esz

Imperatives with verbs under this category are formed by cutting off the ending -ą of the present tense 3rd person plural form of the verb, and adding an imperative ending (nothing, -my, or -cie) to the new stem.
czytać and umieć

 

-ę/-isz, -ę/-ysz, -ę/-esz

These are formed by cutting of the last letter of the present tense 3rd personal singular form of the verb and adding an imperative ending. Sometimes there is a o to ó vowel change.

Examples:
nosić, robić, chodzić, martwić

For verbs in these two categories with

  1. a stem that ends in a nasal consonant preceded by another consonant (as in zapomnieć -> zapomni 3rd pers OR bic -> biegnie 3rd pers OR ciągnąć -> ciągnie 3rd pers)
  2. does not contain any vowel (as in drzeć -> drze 3rd pers)

These verbs extend that stem by -(i)j / -yj

drzeć, zapomnieć, ciągnąć

 

Irregular

chcieć, mieć, dać, wziąć, jeść, wiedzieć