Chodzić is the indeterminate twin of iść. Where iść describes one trip in one direction happening now, chodzić describes habitual, repeated, or multidirectional walking: going somewhere regularly, walking around, the ability to walk at all. Chodzę do szkoły is "I go to school" as a routine, not "I'm on my way to school this minute." On top of the literal motion sense, chodzić carries one of the most frequent idioms in spoken Polish — chodzi o ("it's about / the point is") — which has nothing to do with walking. Unlike iść, chodzić is fully regular.
Present tense
Chodzić belongs to the -ę / -isz class. The stem chodz- stays put throughout — there is no consonant alternation — so the 1st person singular is simply chodzę (note the nasal ę), and everything else is straightforward.
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ja | chodzę | I go / walk (regularly) |
| ty | chodzisz | you go / walk |
| on / ona / ono | chodzi | he / she / it goes / walks |
| my | chodzimy | we go / walk |
| wy | chodzicie | you go / walk (pl) |
| oni / one | chodzą | they go / walk |
The nasals chodzę (1sg) and chodzą (3pl) frame the paradigm — different vowels, different person.
Chodzę na siłownię trzy razy w tygodniu.
I go to the gym three times a week.
Czy twoje dzieci chodzą już do szkoły?
Do your children go to school already?
Past tense — fully regular
The past is the regular -ił / -iła pattern, with the predictable masculine-personal plural chodzili and non-masculine chodziły. No suppletion here — this is the easy half of the iść / chodzić pair.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ja | chodziłem | chodziłam | — |
| ty | chodziłeś | chodziłaś | — |
| on / ona / ono | chodził | chodziła | chodziło |
| plural | |||
| my | chodziliśmy (masc-pers.) | chodziłyśmy (other) | |
| wy | chodziliście (masc-pers.) | chodziłyście (other) | |
| oni / one | chodzili (masc-pers.) | chodziły (other) | |
Jako dziecko chodziłam codziennie do babci.
As a child I went to my grandma's every day.
W liceum chodziliśmy razem na ten sam kurs.
In high school we went to the same course together.
Future tense
Chodzić is imperfective, so the future is compound: być in the future plus the infinitive or the -ł participle. It describes a future habit — "I'll be going."
| Person | With infinitive | With participle (masc / fem) |
|---|---|---|
| ja | będę chodzić | będę chodził / chodziła |
| ty | będziesz chodzić | będziesz chodził / chodziła |
| on / ona / ono | będzie chodzić | będzie chodził / chodziła / chodziło |
| my | będziemy chodzić | będziemy chodzili / chodziły |
| wy | będziecie chodzić | będziecie chodzili / chodziły |
| oni / one | będą chodzić | będą chodzili / chodziły |
Od września będę chodzić na lekcje hiszpańskiego.
From September I'll be going to Spanish lessons.
Imperative — the everyday "come!"
The imperative of chodzić is one of the most-heard words in spoken Polish: chodź! means "come (here)!" and chodźmy! means "let's go!" — used far more for inviting someone along than for literal habitual walking.
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ty | chodź | come! / come here! |
| my | chodźmy | let's go |
| wy | chodźcie | come! (pl) |
| 3rd | niech chodzi / niech chodzą | let him/them walk |
Chodź tu na chwilę, muszę ci coś pokazać.
Come here for a second, I need to show you something.
Chodźmy już, robi się późno.
Let's go now, it's getting late.
The big idiom: chodzi o ("it's about")
Independent of motion, chodzić in the 3rd person carries a core conversational idiom: chodzi o + accusative = "it's about / the point is / the issue is." It is everywhere in spoken Polish, especially in clarifying questions like O co chodzi? ("What's the matter? / What's it about?") and O co ci chodzi? ("What do you mean? / What do you want?").
Nie chodzi o pieniądze, chodzi o zasady.
It's not about the money, it's about principles.
Poczekaj, o co właściwie ci chodzi?
Hold on, what exactly do you mean?
Chodzi o to, żebyś przyszedł na czas.
The point is for you to come on time.
Other senses
Besides habitual motion and the chodzi o idiom, chodzić covers the ability to walk (Dziecko już chodzi — "The baby walks already"), attending something regularly (chodzić na zajęcia / do pracy / do kościoła), walking around a place with po + locative (chodzić po parku), and even dating colloquially (Oni ze sobą chodzą — "They're going out").
Babcia po operacji znowu chodzi bez laski.
After the surgery, Grandma walks again without a cane.
Lubię chodzić po starym mieście wieczorem.
I like to walk around the old town in the evening.
The contemporary adverbial participle is chodząc ("while walking"). The prefixed perfectives of this motion family are built on the iść-stem, not on chodzić: "to come/arrive on foot" is przyjść (perfective of przychodzić), "to go out" is wyjść / wychodzić, and so on — see the prefixed motion page.
Common mistakes
❌ Idę do szkoły codziennie.
Incorrect — a daily habit takes the indeterminate chodzić, not iść.
✅ Chodzę do szkoły codziennie.
I go to school every day.
❌ Chodzę teraz do sklepu, zaraz wracam.
Incorrect — a single trip happening right now takes iść.
✅ Idę teraz do sklepu, zaraz wracam.
I'm going to the shop now, I'll be right back.
❌ Co chodzi?
Incorrect — the idiom needs the preposition o: O co chodzi?
✅ O co chodzi?
What's the matter? / What's it about?
❌ Chodź my!
Incorrect — 'let's go' is one word: chodźmy.
✅ Chodźmy!
Let's go!
❌ Oni chodziły do parku.
Incorrect — a group with a man takes masc-personal chodzili.
✅ Oni chodzili do parku.
They went to the park.
Key takeaways
- Chodzić = habitual / repeated / multidirectional walking; iść = one trip now.
- Present: chodzę, chodzisz, chodzi, chodzimy, chodzicie, chodzą; past is regular (chodził / chodziła / chodzili / chodziły).
- Future is compound (będę chodzić / chodził).
- chodź! / chodźmy! are the everyday "come! / let's go!" commands.
- chodzi o… ("it's about") is a top-frequency idiom unrelated to walking — learn it as a fixed frame.
- Prefixed perfectives use the iść-stem (przyjść, wyjść), not the chodzić-stem.
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Start learning Polish→Related Topics
- iść versus chodzić (Going on Foot)B1 — The most important motion pair: determinate iść (one trip on foot, now) versus indeterminate chodzić (habitual going, walking around, the ability to walk, and 'attend').
- iść / pójść — to go (on foot)A1 — Full conjugation reference for the determinate motion verb iść and its perfective partner pójść — present, the famously suppletive past (szedł vs szła), future, imperative — plus when to choose iść over chodzić and jechać.
- iść vs chodzić vs jechać vs jeździć: Which 'Go'?B1 — Polish splits 'go' into a 2×2 grid — foot vs vehicle and single-trip-now vs habitual — and these four verbs fill the cells. Here's how to choose.
- Verbal Aspect: The Big PictureA2 — Aspect is the central, pervasive feature of the Polish verb — almost every verb is one of an imperfective/perfective pair, and you choose between process and completed whole before you even pick a tense.
- Expressions with iść and Motion VerbsB1 — The figurative range of iść/chodzić beyond literal walking — Jak ci idzie?, coś mi nie idzie, idzie mu dobrze, chodzi o…, idzie zima — built on the dative experiencer and 'aboutness'.