Active adjectival participles
In formal and academic writing, you can elevate your Polish by replacing wordy relative clauses (clauses starting with który) with sleek participle phrases.
Active adjectival participles describe a noun that is actively doing something. They correspond to English words ending in "-ing" (like "describing" or "containing"). In Polish, they are formed from imperfective verbs and end in -ący, -ąca, or -ące.
Because these participles function strictly as adjectives, they must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they modify. Notice how the participle's ending changes depending on the noun's role in the sentence:
| This new publication, describing complex problems, is very popular among researchers. | Ta nowa publikacja, opisująca złożone problemy, jest bardzo popularna wśród badaczy. |
| I bought a publication containing a detailed analysis of this phenomenon. | Kupiłem publikację zawierającą szczegółową analizę tego zjawiska. |
| I was reading an article discussing contemporary problems of the economy. | Czytałem artykuł omawiający współczesne problemy gospodarki. |
Passive adjectival participles
Passive adjectival participles correspond to English "-ed" or "-en" forms (like "completed", "analyzed", or "conducted"). They describe a noun that has had an action performed on it.
These participles typically end in -ny, -na, -ne (or sometimes -ty, -ta, -te).
Just like their active counterparts, they decline exactly like standard adjectives to match their noun. While these participle phrases frequently follow the noun they modify, they can also comfortably sit right before it as a direct adjective.
| The analysis completed last year changed our methodology. | Analiza zakończona w zeszłym roku zmieniła naszą metodologię. |
| The project conducted by the students utilizes old documents. | Projekt przeprowadzony przez studentów wykorzystuje stare dokumenty. |
| The presented concept is the result of the conducted analysis. | Przedstawiona koncepcja jest wynikiem przeprowadzonej analizy. |