Hard news in Polish reads very differently from conversation, and the difference is structural, not just lexical. Journalism systematically pushes the doer out of sight: who organised the event, who detained the suspects, who announced the figures often goes unmentioned, because the news cares about what happened, not who did it. Polish has a purpose-built tool for this — the -no/-to impersonal past — alongside the zostać passive, a heavy reliance on nominalizations, and long genitive chains that stack one noun onto another. The article below is the kind of short local report you would find on a regional news site. Annotating it makes the agentless, nominal journalistic style legible.
The register is neutral-to-formal journalistic: no first person, no colloquialisms, controlled and compressed.
The article
Wczoraj w centrum Krakowa otwarto nowy most dla pieszych i rowerzystów.
Yesterday a new bridge for pedestrians and cyclists was opened in the centre of Kraków.
Uroczystość zorganizowano z okazji setnej rocznicy powstania miasta.
The ceremony was organised on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the city's founding.
W otwarciu wzięło udział kilka tysięcy mieszkańców.
Several thousand residents took part in the opening.
Most został zbudowany w ciągu dwóch lat przez lokalną firmę budowlaną.
The bridge was built over the course of two years by a local construction company.
Inwestycję sfinansowano ze środków unijnych oraz budżetu miasta.
The investment was financed from EU funds and the city budget.
Prezydent miasta poinformował, że to dopiero początek modernizacji infrastruktury.
The mayor announced that this is only the beginning of the modernisation of the infrastructure.
Dodał, że w przyszłym roku rozpocznie się budowa kolejnych tras rowerowych.
He added that next year the construction of further cycle routes will begin.
Mieszkańcy zostali poproszeni o ostrożność w pierwszych dniach użytkowania.
Residents were asked to take care during the first days of use.
Według organizatorów otwarcie nowego mostu znacznie skróci czas dojazdu do centrum.
According to the organisers, the opening of the new bridge will significantly shorten the commute to the centre.
Grammar in this text
The -no/-to impersonal past: otwarto, zorganizowano, sfinansowano
This is the signature of Polish news writing. From a perfective past stem you derive a fixed, unchanging form ending in -no or -to that means "[someone] did X" with the agent left completely unnamed: otwarto (a bridge was opened), zorganizowano (a ceremony was organised), sfinansowano (the investment was financed), poinformowano (it was announced). The verb does not agree with anything — it has no subject and no gender — and the object stays in the accusative, exactly as it would with a personal verb (otwarto nowy most, zorganizowano uroczystość). See the -no/-to impersonal past.
Crucially, the object case does not change. Otwarto nowy most keeps most in the accusative because the verb is still transitive — only the subject has vanished. This is what distinguishes the -no/-to construction from a true passive, where the patient would become the subject in the nominative.
The zostać passive: został zbudowany, zostali poproszeni
Where the report does want a grammatical subject, it reaches for the zostać passive for single completed events: most został zbudowany (the bridge was built), mieszkańcy zostali poproszeni (residents were asked). The pattern is zostać (conjugated for tense, gender and number) + the passive participle. The agent, if expressed at all, follows przez + accusative: został zbudowany przez lokalną firmę (built by a local company). Most often the agent is simply omitted, which is the point. See the być / zostać passive.
Reported speech without backshift: poinformował, że…
When the article quotes the mayor, watch the tense. Prezydent poinformował, że to dopiero początek — the reporting verb is past (poinformował), but the reported clause stays in the present (to … początek), because in his original words it was present. Polish does not backshift tenses the way English does ("he announced that this was only the beginning"). The reported clause keeps whatever tense the speaker actually used. Likewise Dodał, że … rozpocznie się budowa keeps the future rozpocznie się, not a conditional or "would." See reported speech.
Rzecznik powiedział, że prace potrwają jeszcze kilka tygodni.
The spokesperson said that the works will continue for a few more weeks.
The reporting verb powiedział is past, yet potrwają stays future — exactly the speaker's original tense, with no English-style backshift to "would continue."
Nominalizations and genitive chains
News compresses events into nouns. Otwarcie (the opening), powstanie miasta (the founding of the city), modernizacja infrastruktury (the modernisation of the infrastructure), budowa kolejnych tras rowerowych (the construction of further cycle routes) are all verbal nouns or event nouns standing in for full clauses. This nominal style is what makes the register feel dense and "official." See nominalization.
Each nominalization typically drags a genitive behind it: rocznicy powstania miasta stacks three genitives ("anniversary of the founding of the city"), and budowa tras rowerowych puts tras rowerowych in the genitive plural. Genitive chains like this are the connective tissue of formal Polish; learn to read them as nested "of" relationships.
Według ekspertów koszt budowy nowego mostu przekroczył dziesięć milionów złotych.
According to experts, the cost of building the new bridge exceeded ten million złoty.
This single sentence chains koszt budowy nowego mostu — "the cost of the building of the new bridge," three genitive links — exactly the compressed nominal style of the article. The dating and time-frame phrases (w ciągu dwóch lat, w przyszłym roku) follow the patterns in dates and time in the genitive, and the whole tone belongs to the official-administrative register.
Common Mistakes
❌ Otwarto nowy most został w centrum.
Incorrect — mixing the -no/-to impersonal with a passive auxiliary
✅ Otwarto nowy most w centrum.
A new bridge was opened in the centre.
The -no/-to form is already complete and impersonal; it takes no auxiliary and no subject. Don't graft a został onto it — choose one construction or the other.
❌ Zorganizowano uroczystości.
Incorrect — patient shifted out of the accusative
✅ Zorganizowano uroczystość.
A ceremony was organised.
Under the -no/-to construction the object stays in the accusative (uroczystość), because the verb is still transitive. Treating the patient as a nominative subject is the classic error — it is what an English passive would do, but Polish -no/-to does not.
❌ Prezydent poinformował, że to był dopiero początek.
Incorrect — backshifting a present statement to the past
✅ Prezydent poinformował, że to dopiero początek.
The mayor announced that this is only the beginning.
Polish has no tense backshift in reported speech. If the speaker said it in the present, the reported clause stays present, regardless of the past-tense reporting verb.
❌ Most jest zbudowany w ciągu dwóch lat.
Incorrect — być passive for a single completed event
✅ Most został zbudowany w ciągu dwóch lat.
The bridge was built over two years.
A single completed event needs the zostać passive. Jest zbudowany describes a resulting state ("is built / stands built"), not the bounded act of building it within a time span.
Key Takeaways
- The -no/-to impersonal past (otwarto, zorganizowano) is the hallmark of news Polish: agentless, unchanging, object stays accusative.
- The zostać passive supplies a subject for completed events; być passive marks states or processes.
- Reported speech keeps the speaker's original tense — no backshift.
- News compresses events into nominalizations trailing genitive chains (rocznica powstania miasta).
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Start learning Polish→Related Topics
- The -no/-to Impersonal PastC1 — Polish's distinctively subjectless past form — zbudowano, znaleziono, otwarto — a frozen verb with no subject and no agent that keeps its object in the accusative, and is the voice of news, history and reports.
- The Passive Voice: być and zostać + ParticipleB2 — Polish builds the passive with być (resulting state) or zostać (the event of becoming) plus a passive participle — a state-vs-event split English 'was' hides — with the agent in przez + accusative.
- Reported (Indirect) SpeechB1 — How Polish reports what people said — with że for statements, czy/wh for questions, żeby for commands — and crucially with NO tense backshift: the original tense is kept exactly as spoken.
- Official and Administrative PolishC1 — The urzędowy register of forms, contracts and notices — its impersonal, nominal, agentless grammar decoded for learners who only know conversational Polish.
- Nominalization and Verbal-Noun ConstructionsC1 — How official and academic Polish turns whole clauses into noun phrases with verbal nouns in -anie/-enie/-cie — a dense nominal style and the C1 skill of decoding it.
- Genitive for Dates and TimeB1 — How Polish uses the genitive — with no preposition — to express dates, years, ranges, and the 'half past' clock time.