The Two Ways to Fly
Polish uses two different verbs for flying depending on the route and routine: one for a single direction (lecieć) and one for multiple directions or habits (latać).
Unidirectional Flying: Lecieć
Use lecieć when the flight is unidirectional—a single trip heading to a specific destination, or an aircraft currently on its way.
| Tomorrow I am flying to Paris. | Jutro lecę do Paryża. |
Because lecieć focuses on an action happening right now, it is perfect for describing a vehicle mid-flight.
| The helicopter is flying very high. | Helikopter leci bardzo wysoko. |
Multidirectional Flying: Latać
Use latać for multidirectional or general flying. This verb is required when you are talking about:
- General ability or hobbies: Enjoying flying, or the fact that birds and planes can fly.
- Habits and routines: Flights that happen repeatedly or on a schedule.
- Aimless motion: Flying around in multiple directions without a single, set destination.
| Does this pilot like to fly? | Czy ten pilot lubi latać? |
| Planes rarely fly to London. | Samoloty rzadko latają do Londynu. |
When a fly (mucha) buzzes around a room, it constantly changes direction. Because it isn't flying in a straight line, we use latać.
| A fly is flying around in my room. | W moim pokoju lata mucha. |
Heights and Weather
Describe how things fly using the adverbs wysoko (high) and nisko (low). Let's use latać to compare the general habits of planes and helicopters.
| Planes fly high, and helicopters fly low. | Samoloty latają wysoko, a helikoptery latają nisko. |
A specific flight might change its altitude because of a cloud (chmura). Notice how we switch back to lecieć for a specific, one-time flight.
| The helicopter is flying low because there are clouds. | Helikopter leci nisko, bo są chmury. |
| We are not flying to London because there are clouds. | Nie lecimy do Londynu, bo są chmury. |