Every Polish verb in the present tense (and every perfective verb in the simple future, since they share the same endings) belongs to one of four conjugation patterns, sorted by the vowel and consonant in its personal endings. Learning these four templates is the single highest-leverage thing you can do for Polish verbs: master the four sets of endings and you can conjugate thousands of verbs. This page gives you the framework; the dedicated present-tense pages drill each class in turn.
Why English speakers find this strange
English verbs barely conjugate at all. "I read, you read, we read, they read" — only the third-person singular changes ("she reads"). Polish marks all six person/number combinations with distinct endings, and which set of endings a verb takes is a property you partly have to learn per verb. There is no English equivalent of "this verb is a Class II verb." The closest analogy is the Romance languages, where verbs split into -ar/-er/-ir groups — but Polish classes are defined by their endings, not by the infinitive's final letters, which is the crucial difference.
Class I: -ę / -esz
The 1sg ends in -ę (a nasal vowel) and the 2sg ends in -esz. This is the largest and least predictable class, and the one where the stem often mutates so heavily that the present looks nothing like the infinitive. Model verb: pisać ("to write").
| Person | pisać (write) | brać (take) |
|---|---|---|
| ja | piszę | biorę |
| ty | piszesz | bierzesz |
| on / ona / ono | pisze | bierze |
| my | piszemy | bierzemy |
| wy | piszecie | bierzecie |
| oni / one | piszą | biorą |
Notice the mutations. In pisać → piszę, the s of the stem turns into sz throughout the present. In brać → biorę, the vowel changes (a → io / ie) and the r alternates with rz. There is no reliable way to predict this from the infinitive — you have to learn it.
Piszę teraz e-mail do szefa, więc nie przeszkadzaj mi.
I'm writing an email to the boss right now, so don't bother me.
Bierzesz parasol? Podobno będzie padać.
Are you taking an umbrella? Apparently it's going to rain.
Class II: -ę / -isz (or -ysz)
The 1sg ends in -ę like Class I, but the 2sg ends in -isz (or -ysz after a hard consonant). Model verb: robić ("to do, to make").
| Person | robić (do/make) | mówić (speak) | uczyć (teach) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ja | robię | mówię | uczę |
| ty | robisz | mówisz | uczysz |
| on / ona / ono | robi | mówi | uczy |
| my | robimy | mówimy | uczymy |
| wy | robicie | mówicie | uczycie |
| oni / one | robią | mówią | uczą |
Class II hides a smaller, more localized trap: the 1sg and 3pl can show a consonant change that the other persons don't. Prosić ("to ask, request") gives proszę (1sg) and proszą (3pl) with ś → sz, but prosisz, prosi, prosimy, prosicie keep the soft ś. Watch for this pattern; it is regular within the class.
Co robisz w weekend? Może wpadniesz do nas na obiad?
What are you doing at the weekend? Maybe you'll drop by for lunch?
Mówią, że nowy szef jest w porządku, ale jeszcze go nie poznałam.
They say the new boss is alright, but I haven't met him yet.
Class III: -am / -asz
The friendliest class by far. The 1sg ends in -am and the 2sg in -asz, and — this is the gift — there is no stem mutation at all. The stem you see in the infinitive is the stem you use throughout. Model verb: czytać ("to read").
| Person | czytać (read) | mieć (have) |
|---|---|---|
| ja | czytam | mam |
| ty | czytasz | masz |
| on / ona / ono | czyta | ma |
| my | czytamy | mamy |
| wy | czytacie | macie |
| oni / one | czytają | mają |
The 3pl ending -ają is the one diacritic to watch: that ą is a nasal vowel, not a plain a. Mieć ("to have") is a near-member — it has lost the -ie- of the infinitive but otherwise conjugates exactly like a Class III verb (mam, masz, ma, mamy, macie, mają). Because the pattern is so clean, beginners should anchor on this class and treat it as the default until the verb tells them otherwise.
Mieszkam w Krakowie od trzech lat i wciąż się nie nudzę.
I've lived in Kraków for three years and I'm still not bored.
Macie chwilę? Chciałbym wam coś pokazać.
Do you have a moment? I'd like to show you something.
Class IV: -em / -esz
The smallest class, with only a handful of members, but those members are extremely common. The 1sg ends in -em and the 2sg in -esz. The flagship verbs are wiedzieć ("to know a fact") and jeść ("to eat").
| Person | wiedzieć (know) | jeść (eat) |
|---|---|---|
| ja | wiem | jem |
| ty | wiesz | jesz |
| on / ona / ono | wie | je |
| my | wiemy | jemy |
| wy | wiecie | jecie |
| oni / one | wiedzą | jedzą |
The 3pl is the oddity: wiedzą, jedzą (with -dzą, not the -ą you might expect). The verb dać ("to give") and the irregular być also draw on this class for some of their forms. Treat Class IV as a small closed set to memorize rather than a productive pattern.
Nie wiem, gdzie są klucze — szukałem ich wszędzie.
I don't know where the keys are — I've looked everywhere for them.
Jemy o ósmej, więc spokojnie zdążysz.
We eat at eight, so you'll easily make it in time.
How predictable is the class?
Partly predictable, partly not. Some endings of the infinitive lean strongly toward one class — -ać verbs often go to Class III (czytać, czekać) but plenty go to Class I (pisać, brać), so -ać alone does not decide it. The infinitive -ić / -yć usually signals Class II (robić, mówić, uczyć). But there is genuinely no way to predict, from pisać versus czytać, that one mutates to piszę and the other stays as czytam. This is why the reliable strategy is to learn the 1sg and 2sg of every new verb — together they pin down both the class and any stem mutation in one shot. The full paradigms live in the verb reference tables, and the mutations themselves are catalogued in the consonant-mutation reference.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ja pisam list.
Incorrect — applying the easy -am ending to a Class I verb (pisać).
✅ Piszę list.
I'm writing a letter.
❌ Oni czytaą gazetę.
Incorrect — the 3pl of a -am/-asz verb is -ają, not -aą.
✅ Oni czytają gazetę.
They're reading the newspaper.
❌ Ja robisz kolację.
Incorrect — -isz is the 'you' ending; the 'I' form of robić is robię.
✅ Robię kolację.
I'm making dinner.
❌ Ja wiedzę, gdzie to jest.
Incorrect — wiedzieć is a Class IV verb; the 1sg is wiem, not *wiedzę.
✅ Wiem, gdzie to jest.
I know where that is.
❌ My braliśmy — nie, my biorę autobus.
Incorrect mix — the 1pl present of brać is bierzemy, not biorę.
✅ Bierzemy autobus.
We're taking the bus.
Key Takeaways
- Four classes, defined by their 1sg/2sg endings: -ę/-esz (Class I), -ę/-isz (Class II), -am/-asz (Class III), -em/-esz (Class IV).
- Class III (-am/-asz) never mutates — anchor on it as a beginner.
- Class I (-ę/-esz) hides the heaviest stem changes (pisać → piszę, brać → biorę), so its infinitive is the least trustworthy guide.
- The class is only partly predictable from the infinitive — always learn a new verb's 1sg and 2sg together.
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Start learning Polish→Related Topics
- Present Tense: -am/-asz Verbs (Class III)A1 — The easiest, most regular Polish present-tense class — czytam, mieszkam, mam — with no stem mutation, and the one present tense that covers both 'I read' and 'I am reading'.
- Present Tense: -ę/-isz Verbs (Class II)A1 — The -ę/-isz/-ysz present class (robię, mówię, lubię) — its nasal-vowel 1sg and 3pl, and the consonant softening that makes the 'I' form look different (prosić → proszę).
- Present Tense: -ę/-esz Verbs (Class I)A2 — The -ę/-esz present class — the one with the heaviest stem changes (pisać → piszę, brać → biorę, jechać → jadę), where the infinitive often hides the present stem entirely.
- Consonant Mutation Reference TableB1 — The master table of Polish consonant alternations (alternacje) — every hard-to-soft mutation, its trigger, and where it surfaces in cases, verbs, comparatives and word formation.
- Personal Endings and Dropping the PronounA1 — Polish verb endings already encode who the subject is, so the subject pronoun (ja, ty, on...) is normally dropped — and supplying it the English way sounds emphatic.