Irregular past stems (miał, mieli)

The e/a Alternation in Past Tense Stems

Many common Polish verbs end in -eć, such as mieć (to have). In the past tense, the stem vowel of these verbs changes depending on the gender of the subject.

• Use the stem vowel e for the masculine personal plural (groups of people including at least one man).
• Use the stem vowel a for all other forms (masculine singular, feminine, neuter, and non-masculine plural).

For mieć, this creates the base forms mieli (they had - masculine personal) alongside miał (he had), miała (she had), and miały (they had - non-masculine). Note that Polish uses mieć rację to express being right.

For "we" and "you (plural)", the masculine personal endings -śmy and -ście attach directly to the e stem, giving us mieliśmy (we had) and mieliście (you had).

Other Verbs Ending in -eć

This same e/a stem shift happens in other everyday verbs ending in -eć. Notice how the masculine singular keeps the a, while the masculine personal plural switches to e:

• myśleć (to think): myślał / myśleli
• widzieć (to see): widział / widzieli
• siedzieć (to sit): siedział / siedzieli
• chcieć (to want): chciał / chcieli
• rozumieć (to understand): rozumiał / rozumieli
• wiedzieć (to know): wiedział / wiedzieli

Talking About Knowledge and Doubt

You will frequently use these past tense verbs to describe past states of knowledge. Key nouns for this include dowód (proof), informacja (information), szczegół (detail), and wątpliwość (doubt).