Making verbs imperfective with -awać
Another common way to create an imperfective verb (for ongoing, repeated, or habitual actions) from a perfective stem is by adding the suffix -awać.
When conjugating -awać verbs in the present tense, you drop the -wać ending and add -j- followed by standard present tense endings (-ę, -esz, -e, -emy, -ecie, -ą).
For example, zostawać (to stay) becomes zostaję (I am staying / I stay).
Imperfective verbs through stem changes and -ać
Many perfective verbs are made imperfective by adding an -ać ending, which often triggers a vowel or consonant change in the root of the word. Because these new imperfective verbs end in -ać, they follow the regular -am, -asz conjugation.
For example, the perfective verb otworzyć (to open) changes its stem vowel from o to ie, becoming the imperfective otwierać.
Similarly, zamknąć (to close) becomes zamykać, and zapomnieć (to forget) becomes zapominać.
Daily habits and routines
These imperfective patterns are heavily used to describe daily routines, such as checking things, putting on clothes, or regular transactions.
Most of these take the regular -am, -asz endings (like sprawdzać and zakładać). However, keep an eye out for verbs like wynajmować (to rent) — because it ends in -ować, it uses the -uję, -ujesz pattern you learned previously.
