The verb to be, singular (być)

The verb "to be" (być)

In Polish, verbs change their endings depending on who is doing the action. Here are the singular forms for the verb być (to be):

Because the verb itself tells you who is acting (for example, jestem can only mean "I am"), Polish speakers usually drop the subject pronouns ja and ty in everyday speech.

Let's state where someone is using gdzie (where) and tu (here).

He, she, and locations

For the third person (he, she, or it), we use the verb form jest. Unlike "I" and "you", the pronouns on (he) and ona (she) are usually kept in the sentence. We can also describe locations using the words blisko (close) and tam (there).

"It" and grammatical gender

In English, objects are always referred to as "it". In Polish, every noun has a grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter). When replacing a noun with "it", you must use the pronoun that matches its gender:

• on (he / it) for masculine nouns (like samochód, car)
• ona (she / it) for feminine nouns (like książka, book)
• ono (it) for neuter nouns (like krzesło, chair)

Let's see this in action alongside a new location word, daleko (far).

Emphasizing "I" and "you"

Earlier, we learned that ja (I) and ty (you) are normally dropped. However, you will still use them when you want to emphasize or contrast who is doing what.