Open any Polish newspaper and you meet it in the first headline: Podpisano umowę ("An agreement was signed"), Otwarto nową stację ("A new station was opened"), Znaleziono ciało ("A body was found"). This is the -no/-to impersonal past — a verb form unlike anything in English. It has no subject, no agent, and never changes, yet it keeps its object in the accusative as if a normal active verb were there. For an English speaker, learning to read zbudowano as a verb — not a noun, not a typo — is a genuine reading milestone. This page covers what it is, how it's built, what it means, and how it differs from the passive and the się-impersonal.
What it is: a true subjectless past
The -no/-to form expresses that someone (unspecified) did something in the past, with the doer completely erased. There is no oni ("they"), no passive subject, nothing. The action is simply reported as having been done.
Zbudowano nowy most nad Wisłą.
A new bridge was built over the Vistula. / They built a new bridge. (no subject at all; most stays accusative)
Znaleziono zaginionego turystę.
The missing tourist was found. (turystę = accusative object; the finder is unnamed)
Powiedziano mi, że biuro jest zamknięte.
I was told the office is closed. (lit. 'one told me' — mi = dative, no subject)
Otwarto wystawę o historii miasta.
An exhibition on the city's history was opened. (wystawę = accusative)
The defining feature, the one English cannot copy: the object stays in the accusative. In a real passive, the affected thing becomes the subject and goes nominative (most został zbudowany — most nominative). In the -no/-to impersonal, nothing is promoted; most, turystę, wystawę remain plain accusative objects of a verb that simply has no subject. The construction behaves like an active sentence whose subject has been surgically removed.
How it's formed: passive-participle stem + -no / -to
The form is built from the same stem as the passive participle, swapping the adjectival ending for a frozen -no (for -ny/-ony participles) or -to (for -ty participles):
| Infinitive | Passive participle | -no/-to impersonal | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| zbudować | zbudowany | zbudowano | (one/they) built |
| zrobić | zrobiony | zrobiono | (one) did |
| napisać | napisany | napisano | (one) wrote |
| znaleźć | znaleziony | znaleziono | (one) found |
| powiedzieć | powiedziany | powiedziano | (one) said/told |
| otworzyć | otwarty | otwarto | (one) opened |
| zamknąć | zamknięty | zamknięto | (one) closed |
| zacząć | zaczęty | zaczęto | (one) began |
The rule of thumb: -ny/-ony participles → -no; -ty participles → -to. The form is then frozen — there is no gender, no number, no person. Zbudowano is the same whether one bridge or ten were built, by a man or a committee. Compare the passive participle, which does change (zbudowany / zbudowana / zbudowane); the impersonal zbudowano never does.
Wczoraj aresztowano trzech podejrzanych.
Three suspects were arrested yesterday. (frozen aresztowano; podejrzanych = accusative)
W zeszłym roku otwarto dwie nowe linie metra.
Two new metro lines were opened last year. (otwarto unchanged; dwie linie = accusative object)
What it means and where it lives: the register of report
Functionally, -no/-to is the agentless narrative past of reports, news, history, and official notices. It says "X was done" while keeping the prose brisk and the focus on the event, not the doer — exactly what a headline or a chronicle wants.
Podpisano umowę handlową między krajami.
A trade agreement was signed between the countries. (news register)
W 1410 roku stoczono bitwę pod Grunwaldem.
In 1410 the Battle of Grunwald was fought. (historical narrative)
Sklep zamknięto z powodu remontu.
The shop was closed due to renovation. (a notice on the door)
Na zebraniu omówiono budżet na przyszły rok.
At the meeting, next year's budget was discussed. (minutes/report register)
It is (formal) and (literary) in flavour — natural in journalism, academic prose, official communication, and narrative, and somewhat elevated in casual speech, where Poles more often use a vague oni ("they") or the się-impersonal instead. Recognising it is non-negotiable for reading Polish; producing it well marks an advanced learner.
-no/-to vs the passive vs the się-impersonal
Three agentless strategies compete; the differences are sharp. Take "the shop was closed":
| Construction | Example | Subject? | Object case | Tense / register |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -no/-to impersonal | Sklep zamknięto. | none | accusative (sklep) | past only; (formal) news/report |
| zostać passive | Sklep został zamknięty. | sklep = subject | nominative (sklep) | event passive; written |
| być passive | Sklep jest zamknięty. | sklep = subject | nominative (sklep) | resulting state |
| się-impersonal | (present) zamyka się sklep | none | accusative | present-leaning; spoken |
Two contrasts matter most:
vs the passive — subject and case. The być/zostać passive promotes the affected thing to subject (nominative) and makes the participle agree: Most został zbudowany ("the bridge was built", most = nominative subject). The -no/-to impersonal does neither: Zbudowano most keeps most as an accusative object and leaves the verb subjectless and frozen. So the case of the noun is the giveaway.
Most zbudowano w 1990 roku.
The bridge was built in 1990. (-no/-to: most = accusative, frozen zbudowano)
Most został zbudowany w 1990 roku.
The bridge was built in 1990. (zostać passive: most = nominative subject, agreeing participle)
Both translate the same into English, which is exactly why the distinction is invisible to English speakers — and exactly why it must be learned.
vs the się-impersonal — tense. The się-impersonal dominates the present (Tu się nie pali); the -no/-to form is the past counterpart. They share the agentless, subjectless feel, but they divide the tenses between them: present → się, past → -no/-to.
Tu się nie parkuje, a wczoraj odholowano trzy auta.
There's no parking here, and yesterday three cars were towed. (present się-impersonal + past -no/-to)
For the whole comparison, see passive and impersonal strategies and the news examples in a short news article.
A few more so the pattern sticks
Odkryto nowy gatunek owada w Amazonii.
A new species of insect was discovered in the Amazon. (odkryto — frozen; gatunek = accusative)
Zburzono stary dworzec, by postawić galerię.
The old station was demolished to put up a mall. (zburzono — agentless past)
Common Mistakes
Putting the object in the nominative (treating it like a passive). The -no/-to verb has no subject, so the affected thing stays an accusative object. Don't promote it to nominative.
❌ Zbudowano nowy most.
...is right — but learners write 'Zbudowano nowy most został', mixing it with the passive. Keep it pure: accusative object, no auxiliary.
✅ Zbudowano nowy most.
A new bridge was built.
Making the form agree with the object. The -no/-to form is frozen — no gender, no number. It does not change for a feminine or plural object the way a participle would.
❌ Otwarta wystawę.
Incorrect — that's the feminine participle, not the impersonal. The frozen form is otwarto.
✅ Otwarto wystawę.
An exhibition was opened.
Adding a przez-agent. The -no/-to impersonal erases the agent entirely and resists naming it. If you must say "by X", use the zostać passive instead.
❌ Most zbudowano przez rząd.
Awkward — to name the builder, switch to the passive.
✅ Most został zbudowany przez rząd.
The bridge was built by the government.
Reading -no/-to as a noun. Beginners parse znaleziono as some noun. It is a verb — note the accusative object beside it and the past meaning "(one) found".
✅ Znaleziono portfel na ulicy.
A wallet was found on the street. (znaleziono = impersonal past verb; portfel = accusative object)
Key Takeaways
- -no/-to = a subjectless, agentless, frozen past verb: "(one/they) did X / X was done".
- Built from the passive-participle stem: -ny/-ony → -no, -ty → -to (zbudowano, otwarto).
- The object stays accusative (zbudowano most) — nothing is promoted to subject; this is the key difference from the passive.
- It is the (formal) register of news, history, and reports, and is the past counterpart to the present-tense się-impersonal.
- It cannot name an agent — for "by X", use the zostać passive.
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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.
- Impersonal się and the się-PassiveB2 — The everyday Polish way to say 'one does / you do / people do' without a subject — the impersonal się of signs, rules and generalisations, plus the się-passive for backgrounding the agent.
- Impersonal and Subjectless SentencesB1 — A survey of the many Polish sentences that have no grammatical subject — the się-impersonal, the -no/-to past, trzeba/można/wolno, weather verbs, and dative-experiencer states like zimno mi.
- Annotated Text: A Short News ArticleB2 — A short hard-news report, annotated to reveal the journalistic style: the -no/-to impersonal past, the zostać passive, agentless reporting, nominalizations and genitive-heavy phrases.
- Choosing a Passive/Impersonal StrategyC1 — The full register-graded menu for backgrounding an agent in Polish — być/zostać + participle, the się-passive, the -no/-to impersonal past, and trzeba/można — and which one is idiomatic where an English speaker would reach for the be-passive.