Perfective And Imperfective

Many Polish verbs have two forms: perfective and imperfective. 

It means that you need to learn every verb kind of ..... twice!

For example: two forms of the verb 'cook' are 'gotować' and 'ugotować'.

The imperfective- you can use when you speak about the present, the past and the future.

The perfective- you use when you speak about the past or the future.

So, when you speak about the present, you dont have to decide which form to use (always imperfective), but when you speak about the past or the future you should think if you need the imperfective or perfective form.

The imprefective form is used when speaking about continuous, repeated or lasting actions.

The perfective form is used when speaking about single, complete actions.

The imperfective form is more like: I was cooking the lunch for 2 hours (lasting) or: When I was ill, I was cooking lunch everyday. (repeated). I compare it with Past Continuous in English.

The perfective form is more like: I cooked lunch yesterday. (one single action). I compare it with Past Simple in English. 

The imperfective form is the basic one and you can find it in each dictionary. Unfortunaetly there are no rules how to make the perfective one. However, we usually add prefixes at the beginning:

to call: dzwonić (imperfective)- zadzwonić (perfective) 

to write: pisać- napisać

to do: robić- zrobić

to wait: czekać- poczekać

As you see, prefixes are really diffrent, so you just need to learn it by heart.

In some verbs, the change is in the infinitive ending, or within the stem itself:

to borrow/ to lend: pożyczać/ pożyczyć

to order: zamawiać- zamówić

to speak- mówić- powiedzieć

THE LIST OF A FEW MORE 

IMPERFECTIVE AND PERFECTIVE FORMS:

to eat: jeść- zjeść

to drink: pić- wypić

to pay: płacić- zapłacić

to watch: oglądać- obejrzeć

to meet: spotykać się- spotkać się

to call: dzwonić- zadzwonić

to go: iść- pójść

That is enough for today, we will continue this topic soon :) I will prepare some exercises to practise as well!