One of you sent me an email wanting to know more about the verbs I listed in the Dative part 3 blog post. “What’s the deal with those two forms?” was the question.

Well, I’m glad you asked. And here are the verbs in question:

• dać/dawać – to give
• oddać/oddawać – to give back/ to return
• sprzedać/sprzedawać – to sell
• kupić/kupować – to buy
• pomóc/pomagać – to help
• pokazać/pokazywać – to show

Remember when we were talking about grammatical aspect and imperfective verbs? I said back then that almost all Polish verbs have two grammatical aspects – perfective and imperfective.

Perfective means or implies than an action is finished and completed. Imperfective – that the outcome of whatever it is you are doing is still pending, or that an action is habitual, or somesuch. And I also said that perfective verbs don’t exist in the present tense.

Are you with me? OK so far?

Then let’s take a look at our verb list above.
“Dać” and “dawać” both mean the same in English, but in Polish the difference is quite visible. They both can be translated as “to give.” So, what’s the deal with the difference?

“Dać” means to give once and it’s done, finished. Whoever you gave it to now has it and you can go home. The action is completed. You have nothing else to do. As a perfective verb, it has no present tense. It only exists in the past and the future. For example:
Dałam jej pieniądze. – I (female speaker) gave her money. She has it now. I only gave it to her once.

“Dawać,” on the other hand, implies a habitual action. Something you do over and over. And as an imperfective verb, it has forms in all three tenses. Here’s one example:
Dawałam jej pieniądze. – I (female speaker) have/had been giving her money. For some time in the past she (whoever she might be) had been getting cash from me. Lucky her.

You see the difference now? What in English is accomplished by different tenses, in Polish is done by different verbs.

Here are the forms of “dać”

Future tense: audio

• ja – dam
• ty – dasz
• on/ona/ono – da
• my – damy
• wy – dacie
• oni – dadzą

Past tense: audio

• ja (fem / masc) – dałam / dałem
• ty (fem / masc) – dałaś/ dałeś
• on – dał
• ona – dała
• ono – dało
• my (fem / masc) – dałyśmy / daliśmy
• wy (fem / masc) dałyście / daliście
• oni – dali
• one – dały

And now for “dawać”

Future tense: audio

• ja – będę dawać or będę dawała / dawał (fem / masc)
• ty – będziesz dawać or będziesz dawała / dawał (fem / masc)
• on – będzie dawać or będzie dawał
• ona – będzie dawać or będzie dawała
• ono – będzie dawać or będzie dawało
• my – będziemy dawać or będziemy dawały / dawali (fem / masc)
• wy – będziecie dawać or będziecie dawały / dawali (fem / masc)
• oni – będą dawać or będą dawali
• one – będą dawać or będą dawały

Present tense: audio

• ja – daję
• ty – dajesz
• on/ona/ono – daje
• my – dajemy
• wy – dajecie
• oni – dają

Past tense: audio

• ja (fem / masc) – dawałam / dawałem
• ty (fem / masc) dawałaś / dawałeś
• on – dawał
• ona – dawała
• ono – dawało
• my (fem / masc) – dawałyśmy / dawaliśmy
• wy (fem / masc) – dawałyście / dawaliście
• oni – dawali
• one – dawały

Complicated? Nah! Just a little maybe.