dawać / dać — to give | Polish Grammar

Dać ("to give") is the everyday perfective for handing something over, and its imperfective partner is dawać ("give / be giving / give habitually"). Three things make this pair essential far beyond literal giving. First, dać has the irregular simple-future dadzą in the 3pl — the same -dzą surprise as jedzą and wiedzą. Second, its imperative daj! ("give! / let me / pass me") is one of the most-used words in spoken Polish. Third, it heads a cluster of idioms — dać radę ("manage, cope") and da się ("it can be done") — that are conversational staples with nothing literally "given" about them.

Aspect partner

dawać — imperfective: giving as a process or habit ("be giving," "give regularly," "give out").
dać — perfective: a single, completed act of giving ("give, hand over").

So Daję mu kieszonkowe co tydzień ("I give him pocket money every week," a habit → dawać), but Dałem mu klucze ("I gave him the keys," one act → dać).

Imperfective dawać — present

Person	Form	English
ja	daję	I give / am giving
ty	dajesz	you give
on / ona / ono	daje	he / she / it gives
my	dajemy	we give
wy	dajecie	you (pl.) give
oni / one	dają	they give

Dawać is regular for the -ję / -jesz type: stem daj-, with the -aw- of the infinitive dropping out in the present (dawać → daję, never dawaję). Past: dawałem / dawałam, dawał / dawała, dawali / dawały. Imperative: dawaj! ("keep giving / hand it over," more insistent than daj!).

Dlaczego ciągle dajesz mu pieniądze? Nigdy ich nie oddaje.

Why do you keep giving him money? He never pays it back.

Nauczyciele dają nam za dużo zadań domowych.

The teachers give us too much homework.

Perfective dać — simple future (the irregular dadzą)

Dać is perfective, so its present-shaped conjugation is future in meaning. The 3pl dadzą is the irregular form — once again the -dzą of jedzą / wiedzą.

Person	dać (simple future)	English
ja	dam	I'll give
ty	dasz	you'll give
on / ona / ono	da	he / she / it will give
my	damy	we'll give
wy	dacie	you (pl.) will give
oni / one	dadzą	they'll give

Notice dam / damy / dacie echo the conjugation of wiem / wiemy / wiecie and jem / jemy / jecie — the whole little class shares this -m / -sz / — / -my / -cie / -dzą template. The trap is the 3pl: by analogy with the singular da you might expect dają, but dają is the imperfective present (dawać); the perfective future is dadzą.

Dam ci znać, jak tylko coś ustalę.

I'll let you know as soon as I figure something out.

Rodzice dadzą nam mieszkanie na rok.

My parents will give us the flat for a year. (3pl → dadzą)

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Keep dadzą (perfective future, "they will give") apart from dają (imperfective present, "they give / are giving"). Co roku dają nagrody = "every year they give out awards" (habit). W tym roku dadzą nagrodę Marii = "this year they'll give the award to Maria" (one future act). Same difference as jedzą vs nothing — dadzą is simply the -dzą perfective twin.

Past tense (dać)

Subject	Past form	English
ja (m. / f.)	dałem / dałam	I gave
ty (m. / f.)	dałeś / dałaś	you gave
on / ona / ono	dał / dała / dało	he / she / it gave
my (vir. / non-vir.)	daliśmy / dałyśmy	we gave
wy (vir. / non-vir.)	daliście / dałyście	you (pl.) gave
oni / one	dali / dały	they gave

The past is regular and easy: stem da-, virile dali vs non-virile dały. Note the ł in dał, dała — it is the soft "w"-sound, not an "l."

Babcia dała mi na drogę całą torbę kanapek.

Grandma gave me a whole bag of sandwiches for the road. (ona → dała)

Imperative — daj!, the spoken workhorse

Person	Form	English
ty	daj!	give! / pass me! / let me
my	dajmy!	let's give!
wy	dajcie!	give! (pl.)
on/ona (formal)	niech da / niech pan(i) da	let him/her give / please give, sir/madam

Daj does far more than "give." It softens into "pass me," "let me," and "come on" depending on what follows — daj mi spokój ("leave me alone"), daj spróbować ("let me try"), daj znać ("let me know").

Daj mi tę książkę z górnej półki.

Pass me that book from the top shelf.

Daj spokój, przecież żartowałem.

Come on / leave it, I was only joking.

Government: dative recipient + accusative thing

Dać is the model ditransitive verb: it takes a dative indirect object (the recipient — to whom) and an accusative direct object (the thing given — what). The frame is dać [komuś: dative] [coś: accusative].

Daję bratu książkę na urodziny.

I'm giving my brother a book for his birthday. (bratu = dative, książkę = accusative)

Daj mi to, bo upuścisz.

Give me that, you'll drop it. (mi = dative, to = accusative)

The pronoun mi ("to me") in daj mi to is the everyday model of the dative recipient. For the full system, see the dative indirect object.

The must-know idioms

These three are conversational staples and have little to do with literal "giving":

1. dać radę — manage, cope, be up to it (rada in the accusative; takes an infinitive or stands alone):

Spokojnie, dam radę sam to przenieść.

Relax, I can manage to carry it on my own.

To była ciężka wspinaczka, ale daliśmy radę.

It was a hard climb, but we managed.

2. da się — it's doable / it can be done (impersonal się, no subject — the equivalent of an English passive or "one can"):

Da się to naprawić, czy trzeba kupić nowy?

Can it be fixed, or do we need to buy a new one?

Nie da się żyć bez kawy.

There's no living without coffee. (impersonal → nie da się)

3. dać znać — let (someone) know:

Daj znać, kiedy dojedziesz na miejsce.

Let me know when you get there.

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Dam radę ("I'll manage / I've got this") and da się ("it's doable") are everywhere in spoken Polish and almost never translate word-for-word. Treat them as fixed units. The impersonal da się / nie da się is the natural way to say "it can / can't be done" with no named doer — see impersonal się. For the broader idiom family, see dać and brać idioms.

Common Mistakes

❌ Oni dają mi jutro odpowiedź.

Incorrect — one future act needs the perfective future dadzą; dają is the imperfective present (a habit).

✅ Oni dadzą mi jutro odpowiedź.

They'll give me the answer tomorrow.

❌ Daję bratu książka.

Incorrect — the thing given is accusative (książkę), and the recipient is dative (bratu).

✅ Daję bratu książkę.

I'm giving my brother a book.

❌ Daj mnie tę książkę.

Incorrect — the dative recipient pronoun is the short mi, not the accusative mnie, after daj.

✅ Daj mi tę książkę.

Give me that book.

❌ Ja damy radę.

Incorrect — 1sg is dam, 1pl is damy; subject and verb must agree.

✅ Dam radę.

I'll manage.

❌ To się nie da naprawić.

Incorrect — the impersonal idiom is fixed as nie da się (the się follows da), not 'się nie da'… though word order varies, the natural form is nie da się.

✅ Tego nie da się naprawić.

It can't be fixed.

Key Takeaways

dawać (impf, daję, dajesz…) for giving as a habit/process; dać (pf) for one completed act.
dać simple future: dam, dasz, da, damy, dacie, dadzą — the 3pl dadzą is the irregular -dzą form; don't confuse it with the imperfective present dają.
Past dał / dała, virile dali vs non-virile dały; imperative daj! ("give / pass me / let me").
Government: dative recipient + accusative thing — daj mi to is the model.
Idioms: dać radę ("manage"), da się / nie da się ("it can / can't be done"), dać znać ("let know").

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