kazać — to order, tell to | Polish Grammar

Kazać is the verb of authority: it means "to order, to tell (someone) to do something." It sits at the forceful end of a spectrum that runs from prosić ("request, politely ask") through kazać ("tell, order") to the military rozkazać ("command"). But beyond its meaning, kazać carries two grammatical surprises that trip up even advanced learners. First, it governs a dative person plus a bare infinitive — Kazał mi czekać "he told me to wait" — where English uses a direct object ("told me"). Second, it is biaspectual: one and the same form serves as both imperfective and perfective, a genuinely rare feature in the Polish verb system. This page lays out the conjugation, the government, and the contrast with the żeby-clause.

The government: dative person + infinitive

This is the structural heart of the verb. Kazać does not take a direct object for the person ordered. The person goes in the dative (the case of the recipient — the one to whom the order is directed), and the action ordered is a bare infinitive:

kazać + [person — DATIVE] + [action — INFINITIVE]

So "I told him to leave" is Kazałem mu wyjść: mu (dative "to him") + wyjść (infinitive "to leave"). English hides the dative — "told him" looks like a direct object — but Polish exposes the underlying logic: an order is given to someone, so the recipient is dative, exactly as with dawać komuś "give to someone" or mówić komuś "say to someone."

Person ordered	Dative form	Example
me	mi	Kazał mi czekać.
you (informal)	ci	Każę ci to zrobić.
him	mu	Kazałem mu wyjść.
her	jej	Kazała jej wrócić.
us	nam	Kazano nam zostać.
them	im	Każ im się uspokoić.

Lekarz kazał mi leżeć w łóżku przez tydzień.

The doctor told me to stay in bed for a week. (mi = dative person, leżeć = infinitive)

Kto ci kazał to robić?

Who told you to do that? (ci = dative)

Szef kazał nam zostać po godzinach.

The boss told us to stay after hours.

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The dative is the giveaway that distinguishes kazać from the request verb prosić. You order someone in the dative (kazać komuś), but you ask someone in the accusative (prosić kogoś). So Kazałem mu "I ordered him" (dative mu) versus Prosiłem go "I asked him" (accusative go). The case literally encodes the difference between commanding and requesting.

Present / future — każę, każesz, każą (with z → ż)

Because kazać is biaspectual (see below), this single set of present-tense forms does double duty: it reads as a present ("orders, is ordering") in imperfective contexts and as a simple future ("will order") in perfective ones. The stem alternates z → ż before the -ę / -esz endings, so the infinitive kazać yields każę, każesz…:

Person	Form	English
ja	każę	I order / I'll order
ty	każesz	you order
on / ona / ono	każe	he / she / it orders
my	każemy	we order
wy	każecie	you (pl.) order
oni / one	każą	they order

The mutation z → ż runs through the whole present (każę, każesz, każe, każemy, każecie, każą) — the spelling never reverts to z here. Watch the dot over the ż: it is każę, not kaze and not kazę.

Jak każesz, tak zrobię.

As you order, so I'll do. (każesz — 2sg)

Rodzice każą dzieciom myć ręce przed jedzeniem.

Parents make their children wash their hands before eating. (każą + dative dzieciom + infinitive)

Każę mu natychmiast oddać klucze.

I'll make him give back the keys at once. (here a single act → reads as future)

Past tense — kazałem, kazała

The past is built on the stem kaza- with the -ł- marker and the gendered endings (no z → ż mutation in the past — it stays kazał-). The virile plural is kazali (men or a mixed group), non-virile kazały:

Subject	Past form	English
ja (m. / f.)	kazałem / kazałam	I ordered
ty (m. / f.)	kazałeś / kazałaś	you ordered
on / ona / ono	kazał / kazała / kazało	he / she / it ordered
my (vir. / non-vir.)	kazaliśmy / kazałyśmy	we ordered
wy (vir. / non-vir.)	kazaliście / kazałyście	you (pl.) ordered
oni / one	kazali / kazały	they ordered

Kazałem mu się wynieść i więcej nie wracać.

I told him to get out and never come back. (man speaking → kazałem)

Nauczycielka kazała nam przepisać cały tekst.

The teacher made us copy out the whole text. (kazała + dative nam + infinitive)

Imperative and impersonal — każ! / kazano

The imperative comes from the present stem: każ! (2sg), każmy! (1pl), każcie! (2pl), with the ż kept throughout.

Form	kazać	English
imperative 2sg	każ!	order! / make (sb)…
imperative 1pl	każmy!	let's order!
imperative 2pl	każcie!	order! (pl.)
imperative 3rd	niech każe	let him order
impersonal past	kazano	one was told / they were ordered
adverbial participle	każąc	ordering (while ordering)

The impersonal kazano ("[someone] was ordered," with no named giver of the order) is very common in formal and narrative registers: Kazano nam czekać "We were told to wait."

Każ mu przestać, bo to już przesada.

Tell him to stop, this is too much now. (imperative każ + dative mu)

Kazano nam czekać na korytarzu.

We were told to wait in the corridor. (impersonal — formal/narrative)

Biaspectual — one form, both aspects

Most Polish verbs come in pairs (imperfective + perfective), but kazać is biaspectual: the very same forms express both aspects, and context alone tells you which is meant. So kazał mu czekać can mean "he was telling him to wait" (imperfective, ongoing) or "he told him to wait" (perfective, a single completed order) — Polish does not force you to choose a different form, the way it does with, say, prosić / poprosić.

This is rare; only a handful of verbs behave this way (mostly older or borrowed verbs like aresztować, mianować, kazać). When you genuinely need to stress the perfective "issued a single command," you can reach for the prefixed near-synonym rozkazać ("to command," more military/formal), which is unambiguously perfective and pairs with imperfective rozkazywać. See biaspectual and defective verbs for the full set.

Codziennie kazał nam sprzątać salę — to było upokarzające.

Every day he made us clean the room — it was humiliating. (repeated → imperfective reading)

Wczoraj kazał nam posprzątać salę i wyszedł.

Yesterday he told us to clean up the room and left. (single completed order → perfective reading)

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Because kazać is biaspectual, you cannot signal aspect by switching verb forms — so Polish lets the infinitive's aspect carry the nuance. Kazał mi sprzątać (imperfective infinitive) leans toward "he made me clean / keep cleaning"; Kazał mi posprzątać (perfective infinitive) means "he told me to clean up (and finish)." The aspectual work moves down to the infinitive.

kazać + infinitive vs chcieć, żeby + clause

Here is the construction English speakers reach for incorrectly. Kazać takes a bare infinitive with the same understood doer (Kazał mi wyjść "he told me to leave"). When the verb of wishing has a different subject in the subordinate clause, Polish switches to a żeby-clause with a past-tense verb: Chcę, żebyś wyszedł "I want you to leave." You cannot say chcę cię wyjść; with chcieć directed at someone else, the żeby clause is obligatory.

So the split is:

kazać (order) → dative + infinitive: Kazał mi wyjść.
chcieć (want) directed at another → żeby + past-tense clause: Chciał, żebym wyszedł.

Both translate as "he wanted/told me to leave," but the grammar is entirely different — kazać commands and compresses to an infinitive; chcieć żeby wishes and expands to a full clause.

Kazał mi to przepisać na czysto.

He told me to copy it out neatly. (kazać → dative + infinitive)

Chciał, żebym to przepisał na czysto.

He wanted me to copy it out neatly. (chcieć → żeby + past-form clause)

Mama każe ci posprzątać pokój.

Mum's telling you to tidy your room. (kazać + dative ci + infinitive)

Common Mistakes

❌ Kazałem go czekać.

Incorrect — kazać takes the DATIVE person (mu), not the accusative (go).

✅ Kazałem mu czekać.

I told him to wait.

❌ Kazałem mu, żeby czekał.

Unidiomatic — kazać takes a bare infinitive, not a żeby-clause.

✅ Kazałem mu czekać.

I told him to wait.

❌ Chcę cię zostać.

Incorrect — with chcieć aimed at another person you need żeby + a clause.

✅ Chcę, żebyś został.

I want you to stay.

❌ Kazę ci to zrobić.

Incorrect spelling — the present has z→ż: każę (with ż and the nasal ę).

✅ Każę ci to zrobić.

I'll make you do it.

❌ Będę ci kazał czekać.

Incorrect future formation — kazać is biaspectual, so the simple form każę already serves as the future; the compound będę kazał is redundant/awkward here.

✅ Każę ci czekać.

I'll make you wait.

Key Takeaways

Government: dative person + infinitive — Kazał mi czekać, Kazałem mu wyjść. The person ordered is dative (mi, ci, mu, jej, nam, im), never accusative.
Present/future: każę, każesz, każe, każemy, każecie, każą — with z → ż throughout (note the dot on ż and the nasal ę / ą).
Past: kazał / kazała / kazało, virile kazali vs non-virile kazały; imperative każ! / każmy! / każcie!; impersonal kazano.
Biaspectual: one set of forms covers both aspects; the aspectual nuance shifts onto the infinitive (kazać sprzątać vs kazać posprzątać). The unambiguous perfective is rozkazać.
kazać (order, dative + infinitive) is stronger than prosić (request, accusative + o); contrast also with chcieć, żeby + clause for wishes directed at someone else.

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