The verb prać means to wash laundry — and only laundry. Its infinitive looks tame, but the present tense is a small shock: prać → piorę (I'm washing/doing the laundry). That jump from pr- to pior-/pierz- is the same e/io stem alternation you already met in brać → biorę (to take), which is why this page pairs them. Master one pattern and you have unlocked both, plus the wider truth that Polish does not have a single word for English wash.
The io/ie stem alternation, shared with brać
Both prać and brać belong to the -ę/-esz conjugation (the e-esz class), and both have a stem that is invisible in the infinitive. The endingless infinitive pr-ać hides a present-tense stem that surfaces in two shapes: pior- before the back vowels -ę and -ą (the 1sg and 3pl), and pierz- before the front vowel -e (everywhere else). The same split governs brać: bior- vs bierz-.
| Person | prać (wash laundry) | brać (take) |
|---|---|---|
| ja | piorę | biorę |
| ty | pierzesz | bierzesz |
| on / ona / ono | pierze | bierze |
| my | pierzemy | bierzemy |
| wy | pierzecie | bierzecie |
| oni / one | piorą | biorą |
Notice the rhythm: the o-vowel (pior-, bior-) appears only in the two "outer" forms — ja and oni/one — and the e-vowel (pierz-, bierz-) fills the middle four. The consonant also shifts: r hardens to r in the pior- forms but softens to rz in the pierz- forms. This is the historical reflex of palatalization before a front vowel.
Piorę ubrania co tydzień, zwykle w sobotę rano.
I do the laundry every week, usually on Saturday morning.
Ta pralka źle pierze — koszule wychodzą poszarzałe.
This washing machine washes badly — the shirts come out greyish.
Sąsiedzi piorą o szóstej rano i słychać to przez ścianę.
The neighbours do laundry at six in the morning and you can hear it through the wall.
The aspect partner: wyprać (perfective)
The everyday perfective of prać is wyprać (to wash [and get clean], to launder fully). The prefix wy- adds the sense of a completed, thorough result — the clothes end up clean. There is also uprać (regional / less common) and doprać (to wash out the last of a stain), but wyprać is the default pair.
A perfective verb has no present tense; its present-shaped forms are the simple future (perfective future). So wypiorę means I will wash (and get clean), not I am washing.
| Person | wyprać — future (perfective) |
|---|---|
| ja | wypiorę |
| ty | wypierzesz |
| on / ona / ono | wypierze |
| my | wypierzemy |
| wy | wypierzecie |
| oni / one | wypiorą |
For the imperfective future, you use będę + the infinitive prać (or, more naturally for a repeated/ongoing process, będę prać): Będę prać całe popołudnie — I'll be doing laundry all afternoon.
Wypiorę ci tę bluzkę, zanim wyjdziesz — zdąży wyschnąć.
I'll wash that blouse for you before you leave — it'll have time to dry.
Jak wypierzesz ręcznik w gorącej wodzie, zrobi się sztywny.
If you wash the towel in hot water, it'll get stiff.
Past tense (gendered)
The past stem is prał- / wyprał-, fully regular for the -ać type. What changes is the gender ending and, in the plural, the masculine-personal split (gendered past).
| masculine | feminine | neuter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ja (sg) | prałem | prałam | — |
| ty (sg) | prałeś | prałaś | — |
| on / ona / ono | prał | prała | prało |
| my | praliśmy (masc-pers) / prałyśmy (other) | ||
| wy | praliście (masc-pers) / prałyście (other) | ||
| oni / one | prali (masc-pers) | prały (one — all non-masc-personal) | |
The perfective past is identical in shape with the prefix: wyprałem, wyprałam, wyprał, wyprała, wyprali, wyprały. The split between prali (a group including at least one man) and prały (women, children, objects, animals) is the masculine-personal plural at work — it is purely grammatical gender, not about who actually did the washing.
Wczoraj wyprałam wszystkie pościele i powiesiłam je na balkonie.
Yesterday I washed all the bedding and hung it out on the balcony.
Dawniej kobiety prały w rzece, klęcząc na kamieniach.
In the old days women used to do the washing in the river, kneeling on the stones.
Imperative
Built on the soft pierz- stem: pierz! (wash!, informal sg), pierzmy! (let's wash), pierzcie! (wash!, pl). The perfective gives the more usual one-off command: wypierz!, wypierzmy!, wypierzcie!. For a polite request use proszę + infinitive or the third-person niech: Niech pani wypierze to ręcznie — Please wash this by hand (to a woman).
Wypierz to ręcznie, bo materiał jest delikatny.
Wash this by hand, because the fabric is delicate.
Conditional (gendered)
The conditional adds the floating -by plus the past-tense endings, so it carries gender too (conditional formation).
| masculine | feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| ja | prałbym | prałabym |
| ty | prałbyś | prałabyś |
| on / ona | prałby | prałaby |
| my | pralibyśmy | prałybyśmy |
| oni / one | praliby | prałyby |
Wyprałabym to dzisiaj, ale prognoza zapowiada deszcz.
I'd wash it today, but the forecast is calling for rain.
Participles and verbal adverb
- Contemporary adverbial participle (imperfective only): piorąc — while washing. Piorąc swetry, zawsze sprawdzam metki — When washing sweaters, I always check the labels.
- Passive participle: prany (impf, being washed) / wyprany (pf, washed, laundered). Wyprana koszula — a washed shirt; świeżo wyprane prześcieradło — freshly laundered sheet.
- Active adjectival participle: not normally formed from prać (no *piorący in everyday use beyond technical compounds like proszek piorący — washing powder, which is lexicalised).
Świeżo wyprana pościel pachnie najlepiej zimą, suszona na mrozie.
Freshly laundered bedding smells best in winter, dried in the frost.
Government and the three-way split of "wash"
This is the point English speakers most need. English wash covers laundry, the body, the dishes, and the car. Polish splits it:
- prać / wyprać — wash laundry, fabrics (clothes, towels, curtains). Takes a direct object in the accusative: prać ubrania, koszulę, firanki.
- myć / umyć — wash a surface or solid object: the body, hands, the car, dishes, fruit, the floor, windows. myć ręce, samochód, okna, naczynia. See myć się.
- zmywać / zmyć — specifically do the washing-up (dishes after a meal): zmywać naczynia, or just zmywać (to do the dishes).
So I'm washing the dishes is zmywam naczynia (or myję naczynia), never *piorę naczynia; and I'm doing the laundry is piorę (ubrania), never *myję ubrania. The choice is about what is being cleaned, not how dirty it is.
Common collocations:
- prać ręcznie / w pralce — wash by hand / in the machine
- prać w niskiej temperaturze — wash at a low temperature
- prać proszkiem / w płynie — wash with powder / liquid detergent
- oddać coś do prania — send something out to be laundered
- prać brudy publicznie (idiom) — to air one's dirty laundry in public
Tego swetra nie pierze się w pralce — tylko ręcznie, w letniej wodzie.
You don't machine-wash this sweater — only by hand, in lukewarm water.
Nie mieszaj prania: białe pierz osobno, kolory osobno.
Don't mix the wash: wash whites separately, colours separately.
Common Mistakes
❌ Codziennie pram talerze po obiedzie.
Incorrect — wrong verb and wrong stem; dishes are not 'prać'.
✅ Codziennie zmywam talerze po obiedzie.
Every day I do the dishes after lunch.
❌ Muszę dziś umyć wszystkie ubrania.
Incorrect — 'myć' is for body/objects, not laundry.
✅ Muszę dziś wyprać wszystkie ubrania.
I have to do all the laundry today.
❌ Ja prę koszulę.
Incorrect — wrong present stem (the infinitive misleads you).
✅ Ja piorę koszulę.
I'm washing the shirt.
❌ Oni pierzą w niedzielę.
Incorrect — the 3pl takes the o-stem, not the soft stem.
✅ Oni piorą w niedzielę.
They do the laundry on Sunday.
❌ Wczoraj prałem dwie godziny, ale nie skończyłem prać.
Acceptable, but to stress completion use the perfective for the result.
✅ Prałem dwie godziny i w końcu wszystko wyprałem.
I did laundry for two hours and finally got it all washed.
Key Takeaways
- prać conjugates like brać: outer forms piorę / piorą (o-stem), inner forms pierzesz, pierze, pierzemy, pierzecie (soft -rz- stem).
- Perfective wyprać → future wypiorę, wypierzesz…; imperfective future is będę prać.
- Polish splits wash three ways: prać (laundry, + accusative), myć (body, dishes, car, surfaces), zmywać (the dishes specifically).
- The past is regular prał-, but watch the masculine-personal plural prali vs prały.
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Start learning Polish →Related Topics
- brać / wziąć — to takeB1 — Full reference for the suppletive pair brać (impf) / wziąć (pf), 'to take': present biorę/bierzesz…, future wezmę/weźmiesz…, past wziął/wzięła with the ą/ę nasal swap, imperatives bierz / weź — the canonical triple-stem verb.
- myć się / umyć się — to wash (oneself)A2 — Full conjugation and usage reference for myć się (imperfective) / umyć się (perfective), 'to wash oneself', and the transitive myć, 'to wash something'.
- Present Tense: -ę/-esz Verbs (Class I)A2 — The -ę/-esz present class — the one with the heaviest stem changes (pisać → piszę, brać → biorę, jechać → jadę), where the infinitive often hides the present stem entirely.
- Consonant Mutation Reference TableB1 — The master table of Polish consonant alternations (alternacje) — every hard-to-soft mutation, its trigger, and where it surfaces in cases, verbs, comparatives and word formation.
- Forming Aspect Pairs: Perfectivizing PrefixesB1 — The commonest way a perfective partner is built is by adding a prefix to an imperfective base — but which prefix is unpredictable, and many prefixes also change meaning, so each pair must be learned.