Passive participles
In Polish, you can turn a verb into an adjective to describe a noun that has had an action performed on it (like "produced" or "damaged"). This is the passive adjectival participle (imiesłów przymiotnikowy bierny).
Because they act exactly like adjectives, they take standard adjective endings to match gender, number, and case. You will often see them used with być (to be) to describe the state of an object or to form the passive voice.
To form them, drop the infinitive ending of the verb and add a suffix: -ny, -ony, or -ty.
The "-ny" suffix
Most verbs ending in -ać (including -ować) replace -ć with -ny (masculine), -na (feminine), or -ne (neuter).
- produkować (to produce) -> produkowany (produced)
- testować (to test) -> testowany (tested)
| This new car is produced in our factory. | Ten nowy samochód jest produkowany w naszej fabryce. |
| Although the production is fast, every product is tested. | Chociaż produkcja jest szybka, każdy produkt jest testowany. |
Just like regular adjectives, their endings change to match grammatical cases.
| We give the tested parts to the engineers. | Dajemy testowane części inżynierom. |
The "-ony" suffix
Verbs ending in -ić or -yć often take the suffix -ony (masculine), -ona (feminine), or -one (neuter). The final consonant of the stem usually changes slightly before this ending.
- uszkodzić (to damage) -> uszkodzony (damaged)
| This part is damaged, so we have to repair it. | Ta część jest uszkodzona, więc musimy ją naprawić. |
The "-ty" suffix
Some short verbs, especially those ending in -bić, -żyć, or -uć, replace -ć with -ty (masculine), -ta (feminine), or -te (neuter).
- rozbić (to smash) -> rozbity (smashed)
- zużyć (to wear out) -> zużyty (worn out)
| This screen is smashed and does not work. | Ten ekran jest rozbity i nie działa. |
| The machines on this line are already completely worn out. | Maszyny na tej linii są już całkowicie zużyte. |