chodzić figurative — chodzi o | Polish Grammar

You learn chodzić and iść as "go on foot." But two of the most frequent expressions in spoken Polish — chodzi o ("it's about / the point is") and jak idzie? ("how's it going?") — are built on these verbs and have nothing to do with walking. Chodzić also quietly means "attend" (chodzić do szkoły) and, with a person, "be dating someone" (chodzić z kimś). This page conjugates chodzić (impf) and its perfective pójść in full, then maps the figurative senses an English speaker would never predict from "to go."

Aspect partner

chodzić — imperfective, indeterminate motion: go around / habitually, walk, attend. This is the member that carries almost all the idioms.
pójść — perfective: a single completed or future trip ("go and do," "set off"). Its imperfective-determinate counterpart is iść.

The figurative uses below are overwhelmingly chodzić (and the impersonal chodzi); pójść mostly stays literal, with a few set turns like pójść na kompromis ("reach a compromise").

Imperfective chodzić — present

Chodzić is a regular -ę / -isz verb. The stem chodz- does not alternate, so the 1sg is simply chodzę (nasal ę).

Person	chodzić (present)	English
ja	chodzę	I go (around / habitually), walk
ty	chodzisz	you go
on / ona / ono	chodzi	he / she / it goes
my	chodzimy	we go
wy	chodzicie	you (pl.) go
oni / one	chodzą	they go

Past: chodziłem / chodziłam, chodził / chodziła / chodziło, chodziliśmy / chodziłyśmy, chodzili / chodziły. Imperative: chodź! ("come!" — note the dź; chodź tu "come here" is the everyday form). Contemporary adverbial participle: chodząc ("while walking"). Active adjectival participle: chodzący ("walking, ambulant").

Chodzę na siłownię trzy razy w tygodniu.

I go to the gym three times a week. (habit → chodzić)

Chodź, spóźnimy się na pociąg!

Come on, we'll miss the train! (imperative chodź)

Perfective pójść — simple future and the suppletive past

Pójść is the prefixed perfective of iść. Its future stem is pójd- (note the ó); its past is suppletive — it switches stems by gender, exactly mirroring the famous szedł / szła of iść.

Person	pójść (simple future)	English
ja	pójdę	I'll go / set off
ty	pójdziesz	you'll go
on / ona / ono	pójdzie	he / she / it will go
my	pójdziemy	we'll go
wy	pójdziecie	you (pl.) will go
oni / one	pójdą	they'll go

Subject	pójść (past)	English
ja (m. / f.)	poszedłem / poszłam	I went
ty (m. / f.)	poszedłeś / poszłaś	you went
on / ona / ono	poszedł / poszła / poszło	he / she / it went
my (vir. / non-vir.)	poszliśmy / poszłyśmy	we went
wy (vir. / non-vir.)	poszliście / poszłyście	you (pl.) went
oni / one	poszli / poszły	they went

The masculine poszedł has the fleeting e (poszedłem), which vanishes in the feminine poszła — the same alternation as szedł / szła. Imperative: pójdź! exists but is bookish; in speech the imperative of iść, idź!, does the job. Passive participles are not formed (intransitive motion verb).

Poszłam już spać, a on dalej pracował.

I'd already gone to bed, and he was still working. (ona → poszłam)

Pójdziemy jutro na ten film, dobrze?

Let's go to that film tomorrow, okay?

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Keep the two pasts straight: iść → szedł / szła ("was going / went, one trip in progress"); pójść → poszedł / poszła ("went, completed, set off"). The figurative idioms below almost never use pójść — they live on chodzić and the frozen 3sg chodzi.

chodzi o — "it's about / the point is" (the big one)

The single most useful figurative form is the impersonal 3sg chodzi ("it is at issue, it's a matter of"). It pairs with o + accusative to say what something is about, or stands alone to ask what is going on.

O co ci chodzi?

What do you mean? / What's your problem? (chodzić detached from motion entirely)

Nie chodzi o pieniądze, chodzi o zasadę.

It's not about the money, it's about the principle. (chodzi o + accusative)

Chodzi o to, że nikt mnie nie uprzedził.

The thing is, nobody warned me. (chodzi o to, że… = 'the point is that…')

Note the construction chodzi o to, że… ("the point is that…") — a sentence-launcher you will hear hundreds of times. And O co chodzi? on its own means "What's the matter? / What's going on?", with O co ci chodzi? ("what do you want / mean?") adding a dative ci.

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chodzi o is the natural Polish equivalent of English "it's about / the point is / what matters is." English speakers default to to jest o… (a calque of "it's about"), which is wrong. Use chodzi o + accusative: Chodzi o bezpieczeństwo ("It's about safety"), never To jest o bezpieczeństwie.

chodzić z kimś — be dating someone

With a person in the instrumental (z + instrumental), chodzić means "go out with / be dating." This is the standard informal way to describe a romantic relationship between teenagers and young adults.

Chodzą ze sobą już prawie rok.

They've been going out for almost a year now. (chodzić ze sobą = be a couple)

Słyszałaś, że Kasia chodzi z Tomkiem?

Did you hear that Kasia is dating Tomek?

chodzić do / na — attend, go regularly

In its "habitual destination" sense, chodzić do + genitive / chodzić na + accusative means "attend, go to regularly": chodzić do szkoły ("go to school"), chodzić do pracy ("go to work"), chodzić na zajęcia ("attend classes"), chodzić do kościoła ("go to church").

Moja córka chodzi do pierwszej klasy.

My daughter is in first grade. (lit. 'goes to first class' → chodzić do)

Chodzisz na jogę? Polecasz?

Do you go to yoga? Would you recommend it?

jak idzie? — how's it going? (the iść idiom)

The motion verbs share their figurative life: from iść comes the impersonal "going = progressing." Jak idzie? / Jak ci idzie? = "How's it going? / How are you getting on?"; idzie mi dobrze = "it's going well for me." And weather/seasons "come" with iść: idzie zima / idą święta ("winter is coming / the holidays are coming").

Jak ci idzie nauka polskiego? — Powoli, ale idzie!

How's your Polish learning going? — Slowly, but it's going!

Idzie zima, trzeba kupić opał.

Winter is coming, we need to buy fuel. (idzie = 'is coming/approaching')

Common Mistakes

❌ O czym chodzi?

Incorrect — the idiom takes o + accusative (co), not o + locative (czym): O co chodzi?

✅ O co chodzi?

What's the matter? / What's going on?

❌ To jest o twoim zachowaniu.

Incorrect — a calque of English 'it's about'; Polish uses chodzi o + accusative.

✅ Chodzi o twoje zachowanie.

It's about your behaviour.

❌ Ona chodzi do niego.

Incorrect (for 'dating') — 'go out with someone' is chodzić z + instrumental; chodzić do + genitive means visit/attend a place, so 'chodzi do niego' = 'she goes (over) to his place'.

✅ Ona z nim chodzi.

She's dating him.

❌ Jak idziesz?

Incorrect — 'how's it going?' uses the impersonal 3sg idzie (Jak ci idzie?), not the 2sg idziesz, which literally asks how you are walking.

✅ Jak ci idzie?

How's it going (for you)?

❌ Wczoraj poszłem do kina.

Incorrect — the masculine past of pójść is poszedłem (with the fleeting -ed-), not 'poszłem' (a very common colloquial slip).

✅ Wczoraj poszedłem do kina.

Yesterday I went to the cinema.

Key Takeaways

chodzić (impf: chodzę, chodzisz, … chodzą; imperative chodź!) carries the idioms; pójść (pf future pójdę, … pójdą; past poszedł / poszła) stays mostly literal.
chodzi o + accusative = "it's about / the point is"; O co (ci) chodzi? = "what's the matter / what do you mean?"; chodzi o to, że… = "the thing is that…".
chodzić z + instrumental = "be dating"; chodzić do / na = "attend, go regularly."
From iść: Jak (ci) idzie? = "how's it going?"; idzie zima = "winter is coming."
Watch the standard past poszedłem (not colloquial poszłem) and the case after the idiom: o co, not o czym.

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