The Imperative Mood in Polish – How Does It Work? 📚

I heard many people who attended different Polish language courses saying that the Imperative in Polish was difficult and they were afraid to use it. I’m gonna prove you it’s actually very simple – below you’ll find the Polish Imperative mood explained in an easy way!

Let’s break it down step by step so you can start commanding in Polish like a pro!

👞 Step 1

Look at the 1st person singular form (ja). In Polish, this form will end in either -ę (like in myję, chodzę, gotuję) or in -m (like in kocham, szukam, słucham).

 

👞 Step 2 if the form ends in -m: Replace -m with -j. Easy peasy, right? Let’s see it in action:

ja szukam → szukaj! 

Szukaj patyka! (Look for the stick!)

ja słucham → słuchaj! 

Słuchaj, chcę ci coś powiedzieć! (Listen*, I want to tell you something!)

*in Polish this is used to draw attention, like English “look”

 

👞 Step 2 if the form ends in -ę: Take the 3rd person singular form (on) and cut off the last letter. Simple as that!

ja myję → on myje → myj! 

Często myj ręce! (Clean your hands often!)

ja gotuję → on gotuje → gotuj! 

Gotuj makaron 7 minut. (Boil the pasta for 7 minutes.)

 

Possible difficulties are

🙈 Accents Appearing 

If the 3rd person singular ends with -i or -ie, an accent often shows up on the last letter. Let’s see a couple of examples:

chodzi → chodź! – come! 

zadzwoni → zadzwoń! – call!

Remember: Like elsewhere in Polish, if an o gets stuck inside a syllable, it usually turns into ó:

robi → rób! – do! 

położy → połóż! – put!

 

❣️ Important Exceptions

Some words just love to be different. Here are a few you need to memorize when it comes to imperative:

jedz! – eat! 

powiedz! – tell/say! 

bądź! – be! 

weź! – take!

Got all that? Awesome! Now it’s your turn. Give it a go and make the imperative forms of the following verbs. Correct answers you’ll find below.

• dać – _______
• parkować – _______
• słuchać – _______
• mówić – _______
• wybierać – _______
• szukać – _______
• nosić – _______

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Happy commanding! 😃

answers: dać – daj parkować – parkuj słuchać – słuchaj mówić – mów wybierać – wybieraj szukać – szukaj nosić – noś