This page covers the aspect pair odbierać (imperfective) / odebrać (perfective), the all-purpose Polish verb for "picking up" and "collecting" — a phone call, a parcel, a child from school, luggage from a carousel, a prescription from the pharmacy. It is built on the verb brać ("to take"), and it inherits brać's notorious shifting stem: odbieram in the present but odbiorę in the future. That ie / io alternation is the heart of the difficulty, and this page drills it.
What odbierać/odebrać actually means
The prefix od- ("away, off, back") plus brać ("take") literally gives "to take away/off/back" — and from that core, Polish builds a cluster of everyday "collect/pick up" meanings:
- odebrać telefon — to answer the phone (lit. "take up the call")
- odebrać paczkę — to collect a parcel
- odebrać dziecko ze szkoły — to pick up a child from school
- odebrać bagaż — to collect one's luggage
- odebrać receptę / lek — to collect a prescription / medicine
The pairing with dzwonić / zadzwonić ("to call, ring") is what makes this verb so useful in daily life: one person dzwoni (calls), the other odbiera (picks up / answers). They are the two halves of a phone conversation.
Dzwoniłem do ciebie trzy razy, ale nie odbierałeś.
I called you three times, but you didn't pick up.
Zadzwonię wieczorem, odbierz, proszę.
I'll call in the evening — please answer.
odbierać (imperfective) — full conjugation
odbierać is the imperfective: a repeated, habitual, or ongoing collecting/answering. Use it for things you do regularly ("I pick the kids up every day"), for actions in progress, and after phase and modal verbs.
Present tense — the -ie- stem
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ja | odbieram |
| ty | odbierasz |
| on / ona / ono | odbiera |
| my | odbieramy |
| wy | odbieracie |
| oni / one | odbierają |
The present is a perfectly regular -am / -asz verb on the stem odbier-. The whole present has -ie-.
Codziennie odbieram córkę z przedszkola o piętnastej.
Every day I pick my daughter up from kindergarten at three.
Dlaczego nigdy nie odbierasz telefonu od mamy?
Why do you never answer the phone when Mum calls?
Past tense (gendered)
Regular on the -bierać stem.
| Subject | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | odbierałem / odbierałeś / odbierał | odbieraliśmy / odbieraliście / odbierali |
| feminine | odbierałam / odbierałaś / odbierała | odbierałyśmy / odbierałyście / odbierały |
| neuter | — / — / odbierało | — |
The masculine-personal plural is odbierali (group including a man); non-masculine-personal is odbierały.
Rodzice na zmianę odbierali dzieci ze szkoły.
The parents took turns picking the kids up from school.
Imperative
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ty | odbieraj! |
| my | odbierajmy! |
| wy | odbierajcie! |
Participles
- Contemporary adverbial participle: odbierając ("while picking up").
- Active adjectival participle: odbierający / odbierająca / odbierające.
- Passive participle: odbierany / odbierana / odbierane ("being collected").
Odbierając paczkę, musisz okazać dowód osobisty.
When collecting the parcel, you have to show your ID.
odebrać (perfective) — full conjugation
odebrać is the perfective: a single completed act of picking up/collecting. As a perfective, its present-tense forms work as the simple future, and this is where the -io-/-ie- stem of brać surfaces.
Simple future (perfective) — the io/ie stem
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ja | odbiorę |
| ty | odbierzesz |
| on / ona / ono | odbierze |
| my | odbierzemy |
| wy | odbierzecie |
| oni / one | odbiorą |
Odbiorę paczkę jutro w drodze do pracy.
I'll collect the parcel tomorrow on my way to work.
Nie martw się, odbierzemy cię z lotniska.
Don't worry, we'll pick you up from the airport.
Past tense (gendered)
Regular on the -bra- stem (no fleeting-vowel surprises in the past).
| Subject | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | odebrałem / odebrałeś / odebrał | odebraliśmy / odebraliście / odebrali |
| feminine | odebrałam / odebrałaś / odebrała | odebrałyśmy / odebrałyście / odebrały |
| neuter | — / — / odebrało | — |
Odebrałem telefon dopiero po piątym sygnale.
I picked up the phone only after the fifth ring.
Odebrała dyplom z rąk rektora.
She received the diploma from the rector's hands.
Imperative — odbierz!
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ty | odbierz! |
| my | odbierzmy! |
| wy | odbierzcie! |
Odbierz w końcu ten telefon, dzwoni już piąty raz!
Answer that phone already — it's the fifth time it's ringing!
Passive participle
odebrany / odebrana / odebrane ("collected, picked up, received").
Paczka została odebrana wczoraj po południu.
The parcel was collected yesterday afternoon.
Government: what cases and prepositions go with it
- A direct object goes in the accusative: odebrać paczkę / telefon / dziecko.
- The source of collection takes a preposition: z
- genitive ("from"): odebrać dziecko ze szkoły ("from school"), odebrać bagaż z taśmy ("from the carousel").
- The phone you answer is telefon in the accusative; the person calling is reached with the dzwonić construction do
- genitive: dzwonić *do kogoś*.
Możesz odebrać Adama z dworca o szóstej?
Can you pick Adam up from the station at six?
Odbierz receptę z apteki, zanim zamkną.
Collect the prescription from the pharmacy before they close.
A figurative sense worth knowing
odebrać also means "to take away / deprive" (the od- "away" sense, fully literal here): odebrać komuś prawo jazdy "to take away someone's driving licence". And odebrać sobie życie is a formal euphemism for "to take one's own life". These keep the "take away" core even when the everyday meaning is "collect".
Za jazdę po alkoholu odebrano mu prawo jazdy.
He had his licence taken away for drink-driving.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jutro odbieram paczkę z poczty (jako jednorazowa czynność).
Incorrect — a single completed future collection needs the perfective.
✅ Jutro odbiorę paczkę z poczty.
Tomorrow I'll collect the parcel from the post office.
❌ Ja odbierę telefon.
Incorrect — the 'ja' future of odebrać is odbiorę, not odbierę.
✅ Ja odbiorę telefon.
I'll answer the phone.
❌ Codziennie odbiorę córkę ze szkoły.
Incorrect — a daily habit needs the imperfective present.
✅ Codziennie odbieram córkę ze szkoły.
Every day I pick my daughter up from school.
❌ Podnieś telefon, ktoś dzwoni.
Incorrect — you 'odbierasz' a call, you don't 'podnosisz' it.
✅ Odbierz telefon, ktoś dzwoni.
Answer the phone, someone's calling.
❌ Będę odebrać paczkę jutro.
Incorrect — no compound future from a perfective verb.
✅ Odbiorę paczkę jutro.
I'll collect the parcel tomorrow.
Key Takeaways
- odbierać / odebrać is the everyday verb for "pick up / collect / answer": a call, a parcel, a child, luggage, a prescription.
- The defining difficulty is the stem split: imperfective present odbieram (-ie- throughout) vs perfective future odbiorę / odbierzesz / odbiorą (-io- in ja and oni/one, -ierz- in between), inherited from brać (biorę / bierzesz).
- It pairs naturally with dzwonić / zadzwonić: one person calls, the other answers.
- Government: accusative object, z
- genitive for the source, do
- genitive for whom you call.
- genitive for the source, do
- Don't confuse it with podnieść ("lift a physical object"); the figurative "take away" sense (odebrać prawo jazdy) keeps the od- "away" logic.
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