The Infinitive (-ć / -c)

The infinitive (bezokolicznik) is the form you meet first, because it's the form dictionaries list: robić ("to do/make"), czytać ("to read"), mówić ("to speak"), być ("to be"). It is the verb's "name", before any person, tense, or gender is applied. This page covers how to recognise it, where you use it, and two facts that English speakers consistently get wrong: the infinitive contains no "to", and — unlike the English infinitive — it carries aspect.

Recognising it: -ć for almost everything

The overwhelming majority of Polish infinitives end in -ć. That final letter is c with an acute accent — a soft "ch"-like sound — and it is not optional; robić without the kreska would be a different, non-existent string.

A small, closed set of infinitives instead ends in -c (plain c, no accent). These are verbs whose stem ends in the velar consonants k or g, and the cluster historically fused into -c:

The everyday ones you'll actually need are móc ("can"), pomóc ("to help"), piec ("to bake"), and biec ("to run"). Everything else is -ć.

No "to" — the infinitive is one word

English splits its infinitive into two words: to go, to read. Polish does not. iść is "to go", all by itself; there is no separate particle. So after a modal you simply put the two verbs next to each other with nothing between them.

There is no Polish word inserted where English puts "to". The single biggest beginner error here is hunting for that missing word and trying to slot in do or że — neither belongs.

Where the infinitive is used

After modal verbs — chcieć (want), móc (can), musieć (must), umieć (know how to), woleć (prefer):

After phase verbs — verbs marking the start, continuation, or end of an action: zaczynać (begin), kończyć (finish), przestawać (stop):

After impersonal predicates — fixed words that take an infinitive instead of a personal subject: trzeba ("one must / it's necessary"), można ("one may / it's possible"), warto ("it's worth"), wolno ("it's allowed"), and adjective-based ones like trudno ("it's hard"), miło ("it's nice"):

These impersonal constructions are everywhere in Polish and are covered in detail on the trzeba / można page. Notice they have no subject at all — trzeba iść literally is "necessary to-go", with the doer left general.

Stacking infinitives

Because there's no "to" to repeat, Polish stacks bare infinitives freely. A modal can govern another modal, which governs a main verb.

In muszę móc to zrobić, three verbs line up — musieć (conjugated) then móc then zrobić, both infinitives — with no connecting words. English needs "to be able to do"; Polish needs only the bare forms.

The infinitive carries aspect

This is the fact that has no English parallel. Because every Polish verb is imperfective or perfective, so is every infinitive — and you must pick the right one for your meaning even in the infinitive. czytać is the imperfective infinitive ("to read, as an activity"); przeczytać is the perfective ("to read through, finish reading").

The first sentence is about the habit/activity of reading, so the imperfective czytać. The second is about reaching the end of one specific book — a result — so the perfective przeczytać. English "to read" hides this distinction; Polish forces you to choose. The same split runs through every infinitive: robić / zrobić, pisać / napisać, uczyć się / nauczyć się.

Common Mistakes

There is no separate "to" word; pić already means "to drink".

When the subject is the same, use the bare infinitive, not że with a full clause. (że + clause is for "I want that he go", a different subject.)

Biec ("to run") is one of the -c infinitives; its stem appears as biegn- in the present (biegnę), but the dictionary form is biec.

Pomóc takes plain -c (velar-stem group). The ó is correct, but there is no acute accent on the final c.

For finishing one specific book by a deadline, the perfective przeczytać is needed; imperfective czytać would mean the ongoing activity with no endpoint.

Key Takeaways

• The infinitive is the dictionary form, ending in -ć for the vast majority and in plain -c for a tiny set: móc, pomóc, piec, biec, strzec.
• It contains no "to" — pić = "to drink" — so after modals you place bare infinitives side by side, even stacking several (muszę móc to zrobić).
• It appears after modal verbs, phase verbs, and impersonal predicates (trzeba, można, warto, wolno), the last of which have no subject at all.
• The infinitive carries aspect: imperfective (czytać) for an activity, perfective (przeczytać) for one thing brought to completion — a choice English never asks you to make.