Prefixing builds perfectives. The opposite move — suffixing — builds imperfectives from perfectives. This is the second great pair-forming mechanism, and it is what lets Polish keep both aspects alive even for complex prefixed verbs. The suffixes -ywać / -iwać and -ać take a perfective and stretch it back out into a process: dać → dawać ("give"), pokazać → pokazywać ("show"), otworzyć → otwierać ("open"). This page explains how it works, why it produces so-called secondary imperfectives, the vowel changes the suffixes trigger, and the three-step chains that result.
The basic idea: a suffix stretches a whole back into a process
Where a prefix adds a boundary (perfectivizing), a suffix adds duration and repeatability (imperfectivizing). Take the perfective dać ("give, hand over — one completed act"). Add the suffix and you get dawać ("give — as a process, repeatedly, habitually"). Same meaning, opposite aspect.
Codziennie daję psu jeść o ósmej.
Every day I feed the dog at eight. (dawać — habitual, imperfective)
Daj psu jeść, proszę.
Give the dog some food, please. (dać — one completed act, perfective)
Note the present-tense form daję — only the imperfective dawać can produce a real present tense like this, because (as always) the perfective dać has no present. So the suffix isn't a cosmetic variant: it's what gives you a verb you can actually use in the present.
Here are the workhorse pairs built this way:
| Perfective | Imperfective (suffixed) | Suffix / change | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| dać | dawać | -awać | give |
| kupić | kupować | -ować | buy |
| pokazać | pokazywać | -ywać | show |
| rzucić | rzucać | -ać | throw |
| otworzyć | otwierać | -ać + o→ie | open |
| zamknąć | zamykać | -ać + ą→y | close |
| zacząć | zaczynać | -ać (+ -yn-) | begin |
| spotkać | spotykać | -ywać → -ykać | meet |
| zapomnieć | zapominać | -ać + stem change | forget |
Why this exists: re-imperfectivizing a prefixed perfective
Here is the elegant logic. Recall from the prefixes page that adding a prefix to a base often creates a new verb with extra meaning: pisać ("write") + prze- → przepisać ("copy out"). That new verb przepisać is perfective — but the language still needs an imperfective version of "copy out" (for "I was copying it out", "I copy out notes every week"). It can't just go back to pisać, because that means plain "write", not "copy out". So Polish re-imperfectivizes the prefixed perfective with a suffix: przepisać → przepisywać.
This produces a three-step chain:
| Step | Form | Aspect | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| pisać | imperfective | write |
| przepisać | perfective | copy out (new verb) |
| przepisywać | imperfective | be copying out |
The imperfective at step 3 is called a secondary imperfective — "secondary" because it's derived back from a perfective rather than being the original base. The aspect pair you actually use for "copy out" is przepisywać / przepisać (step 3 imperfective, step 2 perfective). The plain pisać at step 1 is a different lexeme entirely.
Co tydzień przepisuję notatki do zeszytu.
Every week I copy out my notes into a notebook. (przepisywać — habitual imperfective)
Wczoraj przepisałem wszystkie notatki na czysto.
Yesterday I copied out all my notes neatly. (przepisać — completed, perfective)
The same chain runs through dozens of common verbs: podpisać → podpisywać ("sign"), zapisać → zapisywać ("note down / save"), opisać → opisywać ("describe"), wypisać → wypisywać ("write out / fill in"). In every case, the -ywać form is the imperfective you use for the process or habit.
Lekarz właśnie wypisuje receptę.
The doctor is just now writing out a prescription. (wypisywać — in progress)
Zwykle podpisuję dokumenty rano.
I usually sign documents in the morning. (podpisywać — habitual)
The stem changes the suffixes trigger
Imperfectivizing suffixes frequently force a vowel or consonant change in the stem. These are not random; they follow old phonological patterns, but for the learner they're best memorised pair by pair. The most important ones:
- o → ie: otworzyć → otwierać ("open"), wytworzyć → wytwarzać ("produce")
- ą → y (or ę → in): zamknąć → zamykać ("close"), zacząć → zaczynać ("begin"), spiąć → spinać ("clip together")
- ó → a: wrócić → wracać ("return"), skrócić → skracać ("shorten")
- a → ywa: pokazać → pokazywać ("show"), przepisać → przepisywać ("copy out")
Każdego ranka otwieram okno, żeby przewietrzyć pokój.
Every morning I open the window to air the room. (otwierać, o→ie)
Sklep zamykają o dwudziestej.
They close the shop at eight p.m. (zamykać, ą→y)
Zwykle wracam do domu po szóstej.
I usually come back home after six. (wracać, ó→a)
The perfective partners — otworzyć, zamknąć, wrócić — show the un-suffixed stem with its original vowel:
Możesz otworzyć okno? Jest tu duszno.
Can you open the window? It's stuffy in here. (otworzyć — one act)
Wróciłem wczoraj późno w nocy.
I got back late last night. (wrócić — completed)
A subtlety: prefix + suffix can change meaning slightly
When the perfective already carried extra meaning from its prefix, the secondary imperfective inherits that meaning. Zapisać is "note down / save (a file)"; its imperfective zapisywać is "to be noting down / saving". So the suffix doesn't reset the meaning to the base — it just toggles the aspect of whatever verb you suffix. This is why three forms can share the root pis- yet mean three different things across two aspects: plain write (pisać/napisać), copy out (przepisywać/przepisać), note down (zapisywać/zapisać).
Zawsze zapisuję pomysły w notesie, żeby ich nie zapomnieć.
I always note down ideas in a notebook so I don't forget them. (zapisywać — habit)
Why English speakers find this hard
English has nothing like a productive imperfectivizing suffix. The closest intuition is that a complex word like przepisywać is "the -ing-able version" of przepisać — but English builds -ing the same way for every verb, whereas Polish reshapes the stem (o→ie, ą→y) and the result is a lexically distinct verb you must learn. The single most useful habit is to read -ywać/-iwać as a flag for "imperfective": when you meet a long prefixed verb in this shape, you instantly know it frames a process, and you can predict that its perfective partner is the same word minus the suffix.
Common Mistakes
❌ Codziennie pokażę prezentację.
Habit needs the imperfective pokazywać, not the perfective
✅ Codziennie pokazuję prezentację.
Every day I show the presentation.
A daily habit is imperfective: pokazywać → pokazuję. The perfective pokazać → pokażę is "I'll show (it once)".
❌ Teraz zamknę sklep, więc nie wchodź.
If the closing is happening now, you need the imperfective
✅ Teraz zamykam sklep, więc nie wchodź.
I'm closing the shop now, so don't come in.
For an action in progress, use the imperfective zamykać → zamykam. The perfective zamknę is future ("I'll close it").
❌ Muszę przepisać notatki co wieczór.
A nightly habit wants the secondary imperfective
✅ Muszę przepisywać notatki co wieczór.
I have to copy out my notes every evening.
Repetition (co wieczór) needs the imperfective przepisywać. The perfective przepisać views one completed copying.
❌ Lekarz codziennie wypisze dziesięć recept.
Habitual daily action needs the imperfective
✅ Lekarz codziennie wypisuje dziesięć recept.
The doctor writes out ten prescriptions every day.
Codziennie forces the imperfective wypisywać → wypisuje; wypisze is the perfective future.
❌ Zwykle otworzę okno rano.
A regular habit takes the imperfective otwierać
✅ Zwykle otwieram okno rano.
I usually open the window in the morning.
Habit = imperfective otwierać → otwieram (note o→ie). The perfective otworzę would be "I'll open it (once)".
Key Takeaways
- A suffix (-ywać/-iwać, -ać, -awać/-ować) turns a perfective into an imperfective: dać → dawać, pokazać → pokazywać.
- This produces secondary imperfectives, needed to give prefixed perfectives an imperfective partner.
- The result is a three-step chain: pisać → przepisać → przepisywać ("write" → "copy out" → "be copying out").
- For prefixed verbs the pair is suffix vs no suffix (podpisywać / podpisać) — keep the prefix; don't strip it.
- The suffixes trigger stem changes: o→ie (otwierać), ą→y (zamykać), ó→a (wracać).
- -ywać/-iwać is a reliable visual flag for "this verb is imperfective".
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Start learning Polish→Related Topics
- Forming Aspect Pairs: Perfectivizing PrefixesB1 — The commonest way a perfective partner is built is by adding a prefix to an imperfective base — but which prefix is unpredictable, and many prefixes also change meaning, so each pair must be learned.
- 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.
- Suppletive and Irregular Aspect PairsB1 — Some of the commonest Polish verbs form their aspect pair from a completely different root — 'take' is brać but wziąć, 'say' is mówić but powiedzieć — so the two halves must be memorised together as a unit.
- Reading Meaning into Prefixed VerbsC1 — How a verbal prefix simultaneously perfectivizes AND adds a spatial/aspectual sense — and how to decode an unfamiliar prefixed verb (przepisać, dopisać, wypisać) from base + prefix rather than memorizing each one.
- High-Frequency Aspect Pairs: A Reference ListA2 — A curated, cell-accurate list of the ~50 most common imperfective/perfective pairs every learner needs — grouped sensibly, with the suppletive and irregular ones flagged, made to be memorised as pairs from day one.