The passive participle is the form behind done, written, opened, closed — the word that says something has been acted upon. Polish uses it for two big jobs: to build the passive voice (list został napisany "the letter was written") and as an ordinary adjective (napisany list "a written letter"). Two things make it harder than its English cousin: it has two competing endings (-ny vs -ty) chosen by verb class, and it routinely mutates the stem the way the present tense does. This page maps the formation patterns so the participle of a verb stops being a surprise.
What it is
The passive participle (sometimes "past passive participle") describes the patient — the thing the action was done to. It is built overwhelmingly from perfective transitive verbs (a completed action leaves a result), and like all Polish participles it declines as an adjective, agreeing in gender, number, and case.
Drzwi były zamknięte na klucz.
The door was locked. (lit. closed with a key)
To jest list napisany po polsku.
This is a letter written in Polish.
Zupa ugotowana przez babcię smakuje najlepiej.
Soup cooked by grandma tastes the best.
In those examples zamknięte agrees with drzwi (plural), napisany with list (masculine), ugotowana with zupa (feminine). The agent — who did it — is introduced by przez + accusative (przez babcię).
The three -ny patterns and the -ty pattern
Which ending a verb takes is predictable from its class. There are three flavours of -ny and one of -ty.
1. -ać verbs → -any
Verbs whose infinitive ends in -ać form the participle in -any (no mutation):
| Infinitive | Participle | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| napisać | napisany | written |
| przeczytać | przeczytany | read (through) |
| zadać | zadany | assigned / set |
| pokazać | pokazany | shown |
| zagrać | zagrany | played |
Verbs in -ować also join this group through their -owa- stem, giving -owany: gotować → gotowany ("cooked"), malować → malowany ("painted").
Zadane na jutro zadanie jest dość trudne.
The homework set for tomorrow is rather hard.
2. -ić / -eć / -yć verbs → -ony (with mutation)
This is the tricky class. Verbs in -ić, -eć, and -yć form the participle in -ony — and the stem mutates exactly as it does in the present tense. The final consonant softens or hardens just as in conjugation:
| Infinitive | Participle | Mutation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| zrobić | zrobiony | b → bi | done / made |
| kupić | kupiony | p → pi | bought |
| prosić | proszony | ś → sz | requested / invited |
| zaprosić | zaproszony | ś → sz | invited |
| rzucić | rzucony | ć → c | thrown |
| nosić | noszony | ś → sz | worn / carried |
| zobaczyć | zobaczony | — (none) | seen / spotted |
The mutations are the same set you meet in the present tense and elsewhere (see Consonant mutations reference): ś→sz (prosić → proszony), ć→c (rzucić → rzucony), dzi→dz (chodzić → chodzony). This is why you cannot read the participle straight off the infinitive — prosić gives proszony, not prosiony.
Zaproszeni goście zaczęli przychodzić o siódmej.
The invited guests started arriving at seven.
Obiad jest już zrobiony, możemy jeść.
Lunch is already made, we can eat.
3. Monosyllabic and -nąć verbs → -ty
A small but very common group takes -ty instead of -ny: most -nąć verbs and many short, monosyllabic roots. There is usually no consonant mutation, but the nasal ą in -nąć surfaces as ę in the participle:
| Infinitive | Participle | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| otworzyć | otwarty | opened (irregular) |
| zamknąć | zamknięty | closed |
| wziąć | wzięty | taken |
| umyć | umyty | washed |
| zacząć | zaczęty | begun |
| zepsuć | zepsuty | broken / spoiled |
Watch the nasal vowel: zamknąć → zamkni*ęty*, *zacząć → zaczęty*, *wziąć → wzięty* — the ą of the infinitive becomes ę in the participle. And otwarty ("open") is a genuine irregular, worth memorising as a fixed adjective in its own right.
Sklep jest dziś zamknięty.
The shop is closed today.
Praca jeszcze nie jest skończona.
The work isn't finished yet.
Wzięte z kontekstu, to zdanie brzmi okropnie.
Taken out of context, that sentence sounds terrible.
It declines — fully — like an adjective
Because the participle is an adjective, it inflects through every case. This is invisible in English, where "closed" never changes, but Polish marks it. Watch zamknięty run through the cases agreeing with pokój ("room," masculine):
W zamkniętym pokoju było duszno.
It was stuffy in the closed room. (locative: zamkniętym pokoju)
Stałem przed zamkniętymi drzwiami.
I stood in front of the closed doors. (instrumental pl.)
Nie lubię ugotowanych warzyw.
I don't like cooked vegetables. (genitive pl. after negation)
The endings are the standard hard-adjective set: - y/-a/-e (nom.), -ego/-ej (gen.), -ym/-ej (loc.), and so on. So zamknięty → zamkniętym → zamkniętymi, ugotowany → ugotowanych, exactly parallel to nowy → nowym → nowymi.
Building the passive voice
Beyond the attributive use, the passive participle is half of the Polish passive voice, paired with być (a state, ongoing) or zostać (an event, a change). Both require the participle to agree with the subject:
List został napisany wczoraj.
The letter was written yesterday. (zostać → an event)
Sklep jest otwarty od ósmej.
The shop is open from eight. (być → a state)
Sprawcy zostali aresztowani przez policję.
The perpetrators were arrested by the police. (masc-pers pl.: aresztowani)
The split between być and zostać mirrors English "is open" (state) vs "was opened" (event) — full treatment on the Passive voice page. Note how zostali aresztowani takes the masculine-personal plural -i to agree with sprawcy ("the perpetrators," men).
Common Mistakes
❌ prosiony
Incorrect — prosić mutates ś→sz in the participle.
✅ proszony
requested / invited (from prosić, with ś→sz mutation)
The single biggest source of error: forgetting the mutation. The -ony class softens its stem like the present tense — prosić → proszony, nosić → noszony, płacić → płacony. Don't keep the infinitive's consonant.
❌ zamknąty
Incorrect — the nasal ą of -nąć becomes ę in the -ty participle.
✅ zamknięty
closed
In the -ty class, -nąć verbs shift ą → ę: zamknąć → zamknięty, zacząć → zaczęty, wziąć → wzięty.
❌ W zamknięty pokoju było duszno.
Incorrect — the participle must take the case of its noun.
✅ W zamkniętym pokoju było duszno.
It was stuffy in the closed room. (locative)
The participle declines like a full adjective. After w (location → locative), it must be zamkniętym pokoju, not the bare nominative zamknięty.
❌ List był napisał przez Annę.
Incorrect — the passive uses the participle, not the active past tense.
✅ List został napisany przez Annę.
The letter was written by Anna.
To build a passive, pair być/zostać with the participle (napisany), not the finite past napisał ("he wrote"). The agent comes in with przez + accusative.
❌ Sprawcy zostali aresztowane.
Incorrect agreement — 'sprawcy' (men) needs the masculine-personal -i.
✅ Sprawcy zostali aresztowani.
The perpetrators were arrested.
In the plural, the participle splits by the masculine-personal / non-masculine-personal divide: aresztowani (men) vs aresztowane (women, things). It must match its subject.
Key Takeaways
- The passive participle marks the patient; it is built mostly from perfective transitive verbs and declines like an adjective.
- Ending by class: -ać → -any (napisany); -ić/-eć/-yć → -ony with stem mutation (prosić → proszony, kupić → kupiony); -nąć / monosyllabic → -ty with ą → ę (zamknąć → zamknięty, wziąć → wzięty).
- Because it mutates the stem like the present tense, the participle is not readable straight off the infinitive — use the conjugated stem.
- It builds the passive voice with być (state) or zostać (event), agreeing with the subject; the agent takes przez
- accusative.
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Start learning Polish→Related Topics
- The Passive Voice: być and zostać + ParticipleB2 — Polish builds the passive with być (resulting state) or zostać (the event of becoming) plus a passive participle — a state-vs-event split English 'was' hides — with the agent in przez + accusative.
- The Active Adjectival Participle (-ący)B2 — The present active participle in -ący/-ąca/-ące ('reading', 'running') — formed from imperfective verbs, it declines like an adjective and agrees with its noun, one of three distinct Polish '-ing' forms.
- 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.
- Full Adjective Declension TablesA2 — The complete adjective paradigm across all seven cases and both numbers — and why it's the most regular, learnable part of the Polish case system.
- The Perfective: Completion, Result, Single EventB1 — The perfective aspect views an action as a single bounded whole that reached its endpoint — it foregrounds the result and the boundary, lines up events in narrative, and crucially has no present tense.