The Irregular Past Tense of "iść"
The basic motion verb iść (to go by foot, to walk) is highly irregular in the past tense. Its stem changes completely from the infinitive and depends on the gender of the subject.
For masculine singular subjects, the stem is szed-. For feminine and neuter singular subjects, the e drops out, forming szł-.
| Pronoun | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
|---|
| ja (I) | szedłem | szłam | - |
| ty (you) | szedłeś | szłaś | - |
| on/ona/ono | szedł | szła | szło |
In the plural, the stem of iść changes based on whether the group is masculine personal (includes at least one man) or non-masculine (women, children, objects).
- Masculine personal plural uses the stem szli-.
- Non-masculine plural uses the stem szły-.
| Pronoun | Masculine Personal | Non-Masculine |
|---|
| my (we) | szliśmy | szłyśmy |
| wy (you pl.) | szliście | szłyście |
| oni/one (they) | szli | szły |
You will often use these forms with prepositions describing routes, such as wzdłuż (along), which takes the genitive case.
Surfaces and Directions
When talking about navigation, you might mention the direction someone took or the surface they walked on.
To specify that someone was walking on a surface like a pavement (chodnik) or stairs (schody), use the preposition po followed by the locative case.
Alternatively, to say you walked along a path (ścieżka), you can use the noun in the instrumental case without a preposition.