The impersonal past tense
When the person who performed an action in the past is unknown or irrelevant, Polish uses a special impersonal form. It is extremely common in news, formal writing, and business.
In English, these are usually translated using the passive voice (e.g., "The account was blocked"). In Polish, they act like active sentences with a hidden "someone" as the subject ("[Someone] blocked the account").
Forming with -no and -to
Form this tense by changing the ending of the verb's passive participle:
- Replace -ny with -no (e.g., zablokowany → zablokowano).
- Replace -ty with -to (e.g., wzięty → wzięto).
| Yesterday my account was blocked. | Wczoraj zablokowano moje konto. |
| The money was deposited by transfer. | Pieniądze wpłacono przelewem. |
| A loan was taken out in a foreign currency. | Wzięto kredyt w obcej walucie. |
Objects stay in the Accusative case
Because this construction is essentially active, the thing being acted upon remains the direct object and takes the Accusative case. You can see this clearly with feminine nouns and adjectives, which take their usual Accusative -ę and -ą endings:
| A different currency was deposited into the account. | Na konto wpłacono inną walutę. |
Describing financial narratives
Since the exact person doing the banking or accounting is rarely the focus, this structure is heavily used to describe financial operations and taxes as a sequence of events.
| Profits and interest were paid out yesterday. | Zyski i odsetki wypłacono wczoraj. |
| The tax was paid when the profit was realized. | Podatek zapłacono, gdy osiągnięto zysk. |
