Forming the Imperative

The imperative (tryb rozkazujący) is how Polish gives direct commands, instructions, and invitations — Chodź! "Come!", Czytaj! "Read!", Zróbmy to "Let's do it." Two things surprise English speakers immediately. First, the bare command is built from the present-tense stem, not the infinitive, so you have to know how the verb conjugates before you can give an order with it. Second — and this is the big one — there is no special "you (polite)" imperative: politeness toward a stranger is handled by a completely different construction with niech or proszę, never by an imperative aimed at pan/pani. Get that wrong and a perfectly grammatical sentence becomes rude.

Which persons have an imperative

Polish has imperative forms for only three persons, because you can only command people you are actually addressing — plus a "let's" form for the group you belong to:

The 1pl and 2pl are simply the 2sg form plus an ending, so once you have the ty command, the other two are automatic. There is no 1sg ("let me…") and no plain 3rd-person imperative — for "let him/her/them do it" and for the polite "you," Polish reaches for niech (below).

Building the 2sg (ty) command

The base of every imperative is the 3rd-person plural present form. Take the oni form, strip the ending, and you usually have your command:

Notice the spelling and sound changes that fall out of this. Robią → rób raises the vowel to ó (a regular o → ó shift when a syllable closes). Idą → idź and być → bądź end in the soft consonant dź, written with the kreska — never plain dz. These diacritics are not decorative: idz is simply not a Polish word.

When the cluster is hard: -ij / -yj

If stripping the ending would leave an unpronounceable consonant cluster, Polish inserts -ij (after a soft consonant) or -yj (after a hard one) to make the command sayable:

Adding -my and -cie: "let's" and plural "you"

Once you have the 2sg form, the other two are mechanical. Add -my for "let's…" and -cie for a command to several people:

A very common irregular "let's go" worth memorising is chodźmy (from chodzić) — the everyday way to say "let's get going":

The wy-imperative róbcie/piszcie/idźcie addresses a group you are giving orders or instructions to — children, a class, a team. It is not a polite way to address one person; using wy to a single adult sounds either archaic or rural-collective (the old socialist wy form), and is not how you are polite to a stranger today.

The polite imperative: niech + 3rd person

Here is the construction English has no equivalent for. To command or invite a third party ("let him…", "let them…"), or — crucially — to address one person politely, Polish uses the particle niech plus the ordinary 3rd-person present:

Because formal Polish addresses people in the 3rd person (pan "sir," pani "madam" take he/she verbs — see formal Pan/Pani address), the polite command naturally rides on niech + that 3rd-person verb. This is the standard way a doctor, shop assistant, or official tells you what to do:

proszę + infinitive: the neutral polite request

The other everyday polite option avoids the imperative entirely: proszę ("please / I ask") followed by the infinitive. This is the standard register on signs, in announcements, and with anyone you address as pan/pani:

The fuller mechanics of proszę, conditional softening (Czy mógłby pan…?), and warming particles are covered on the politeness and softening page; here the point is just the form: proszę + infinitive is a complete polite alternative to a command.

A note on aspect

Which aspect you put in the imperative changes the feel of the order: perfective for a single, completed action you want done now (Zamknij drzwi! "Shut the door!"), imperfective for general instructions, repeated actions, and — importantly — negative commands (Nie zamykaj drzwi! "Don't keep shutting the door"). This interacts subtly with politeness and is treated in full on aspect in the imperative.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The imperative exists for three persons: 2sg (rób!), 1pl "let's" (róbmy!), 2pl (róbcie!).
• Build the 2sg from the present stem (the oni form minus its ending), not the infinitive: piszą → pisz, idą → idź.
• Hard clusters take an inserted -ij/-yj: śpij, zamknij, poczekaj.
• Add -my for "let's" and -cie for plural "you" — both built on the 2sg form.
• For "let him/them…" and for politeness to one person, use niech + pan/pani + 3rd-person verb (Niech pani siada) or proszę + infinitive (Proszę usiąść) — never a ty-imperative aimed at pan/pani.
• Watch the diacritics: ó (rób, zrób), the soft dź (idź, bądź, chodź).