Polish Verb Conjugation Guide: być, mieć, robić

You can know the Polish words for home, time, and coffee and still stall on the verb. I am at home, I have time, and I am making coffee are beginner sentences, but Polish does not build them the way English does. The ending carries the person, the subject pronoun is usually optional, and “to do” splits into an ongoing verb and a finished one.

Quick answer: Być means “to be”, mieć means “to have”, and robić means “to do” or “to make”. Być and mieć are irregular, so learn each set of forms on its own. Robić is regular. When the action is finished, switch to its perfective partner zrobić. The present, past, and future are below. Conditional and imperative paradigms sit on the Polish conjugation tables.

Być and mieć are the first two verbs on our Polish list, and robić is the everyday verb for doing and making. In VerbPal we treat that trio as something you produce, not something you recognise on a chart. Jestem, mam, and robię should come out while you are still thinking about the coffee.

What an English speaker has to relearn

Polish verbs agree with a subject. The six slots you will see on every table are ja (I), ty (you, informal singular), on/ona/ono (he/she/it), my (we), wy (you, plural), and oni/one (they). You can say the pronoun. You will often leave it out, because the ending already names the person.

Jestem w domu. (I am at home.) 🔊

Mam czas. (I have time.) 🔊

Robię kawę. (I am making coffee.) 🔊

English “you” covers more than one Polish choice.

• Informal singular ty takes the second-person singular ending: Jesteś w domu? (Are you at home?)
• Plural wy takes the second-person plural ending: Jesteście w domu? (Are you at home? — more than one person.)
• Polite singular uses pan or pani with the third-person verb: Czy pan jest w domu? (Are you at home? — polite, to a man.) Czy pani ma czas? (Do you have time? — polite, to a woman.)

The present tense covers both English “I make” and “I am making”. Polish has no separate continuous tense, so one present form covers both meanings.

Three present shapes are worth knowing before you open a longer list. Być and mieć are irregular. Robić is regular, and it shares its endings with mówić (to speak, to say): mówię, mówisz, mówi, mówimy, mówicie, mówią. Two neighbouring patterns show up as soon as you leave this trio. Czytać (to read) goes czytam, czytasz, czyta, czytamy, czytacie, czytają. Pracować (to work) goes pracuję, pracujesz, pracuje, pracujemy, pracujecie, pracują.

Pro Tip: For one day, drop ja, ty, and my on purpose. If the listener can still tell who you mean, the ending is doing its job.

Present tense of być, mieć, and robić

Learn these three present paradigms until you can say them in order. Być and mieć are on our być and mieć pages, and robić is in the table below. In VerbPal, the present drill asks you to type the form, which is a different skill from nodding at a table.

Być: jestem, jesteś, jest

The infinitive być does not look like its present forms. Memorise the set. Nothing else in this guide is a reliable shortcut to jestem.

Jest does not change for gender. The word after it often does.

• On jest zmęczony. (He is tired.)
• Ona jest zmęczona. (She is tired.)
• Oni są zmęczeni. (They are tired. — a masculine-personal group.)
• One są zmęczone. (They are tired. — a group that is not masculine-personal.)
• Jesteśmy w pracy. (We are at work.)
• Jesteście w Polsce? (Are you in Poland?)

A role or profession after być takes the instrumental: Jestem studentem. (I am a student. — male speaker.) Jestem studentką. (I am a student. — female speaker.) Adjectives after być stay in the nominative: Jestem zmęczony (male speaker), Jestem zmęczona (female speaker).

Mieć: mam, masz, ma

Mieć is also irregular. The present is short, and it does not contain the infinitive’s ie.

• Masz pytanie? (Do you have a question?)
• On ma klucz. (He has a key.)
• Mamy czas. (We have time.)
• Macie plan? (Do you have a plan?)
• Oni mają czas. (They have time.)
• Mam dwadzieścia lat. (I am twenty years old. Literally: I have twenty years.)

Age uses mieć, not być. The present of mieć is the same for on, ona, and ono: Ona ma czas. (She has time.)

Robić: robię, robisz, robi

Robić is the regular pattern to copy. The present endings are -ę, -isz, -i, -imy, -icie, -ą.

• Co robisz? (What are you doing?)
• On robi obiad. (He is making dinner.)
• Robimy zakupy. (We are shopping. Literally: we are doing the shopping.)
• Co robicie dzisiaj? (What are you doing today?)
• Codziennie robię kawę. (I make coffee every day.)

Oni and one share robią, just as they share są and mają. The split between those two “they” pronouns shows up in the past, not in the present.

Pro Tip: Say the three present chains out loud as single breaths: jestem, jesteś, jest, jesteśmy, jesteście, są — then mam, masz, ma, mamy, macie, mają — then robię, robisz, robi, robimy, robicie, robią.

Past tense: the ending carries person and gender

English “was” and “had” hide the speaker. Polish past forms do not. Our conjugation pages list the masculine set: singular masculine for ja, ty, and on, and masculine-personal plural for my, wy, and oni. A female speaker, and a “they” that is not masculine-personal, uses a different ending.

Masculine forms, as listed on the conjugation pages

• Wczoraj byłem w domu. (Yesterday I was at home. — male speaker.)
• Miałem czas. (I had time. — male speaker.)
• On był zmęczony. (He was tired.)
• Mieliśmy czas. (We had time. — masculine-personal group.)
• Robiłem kawę. (I was making coffee. — male speaker, process or habit.)

Spaced repetition is what keeps the gender ending from slipping. Our drills use the SM-2 algorithm to bring byłem and byłam back before you forget them, and you have to produce the form, not pick it from a list.

Feminine and non-masculine-personal forms

For być and robić, feminine singular runs byłam, byłaś, była and robiłam, robiłaś, robiła (I, you, she). The plural that is not masculine-personal runs byłyśmy, byłyście, były and robiłyśmy, robiłyście, robiły (we, you, they). Neuter singular third person is było and robiło.

Mieć uses the same feminine singular pattern, then changes the vowel in the plural. Singular feminine is miałam, miałaś, miała (I, you, she). Masculine-personal plural is mieliśmy, mieliście, mieli (we, you, they), with e. The other plural is miałyśmy, miałyście, miały (we, you, they), with a. Neuter singular third person is miało.

• Wczoraj byłam w domu. (Yesterday I was at home. — female speaker.)
• Miałam czas. (I had time. — female speaker.)
• Ona była zmęczona. (She was tired.)
• Dziecko było w domu. (The child was at home.)
• Robiłam kawę. (I was making coffee. — female speaker.)
• One były w domu. (They were at home. — not a masculine-personal group.)

Ongoing past versus finished past

Robić in the past is the movie still running: a process, a habit, or an action with no claimed result. Zrobić is the snapshot. These masculine past forms of zrobić match the zrobić page: zrobiłem, zrobiłeś, zrobił, zrobiliśmy, zrobiliście, zrobili. Feminine singular is zrobiłam, zrobiłaś, zrobiła (I, you, she).

• Robiłem kawę. (I was making coffee.)
• Zrobiłem kawę. (I made the coffee. — it got done.)
• Robiłam kawę. (I was making coffee. — female speaker.)
• Zrobiłam kawę. (I made the coffee. — female speaker.)

The z- in zrobić is what makes this pair perfective.

Pro Tip: Label every past sentence “male” or “female” before you say it. Switch gender only after a week of clean reps, then check byłem / byłam, miałem / miałam, and robiłem / robiłam as pairs.

Future tense: będę, or a perfective stem

Polish future is two different machines. Być has its own future stem. Imperfective verbs such as mieć and robić borrow that stem and add either a past-style participle or the infinitive. Perfective zrobić does neither. It uses a single word that looks like a present tense and means the future.

Być: będę, będziesz, będzie

This future does not change for gender.

• Jutro będę w Krakowie. (Tomorrow I will be in Kraków.)
• Będziesz w domu? (Will you be at home?)
• Ona będzie zajęta. (She will be busy.)
• Będziemy w pracy. (We will be at work.)
• Będziecie w Polsce? (Will you be in Poland?)
• Oni będą w domu. (They will be at home.)

Mieć and robić: future with będę

Because mieć and robić are imperfective, they have no one-word future. The pages list the masculine participle version.

A female speaker changes the participle, not będę: będę miała, będę robiła, and in the third person będzie miała, będzie robiła. A group of women says będziemy miały and będziemy robiły. You will also hear the infinitive, which does not mark gender: będę mieć (I will have) and będę robić (I will be doing). Both versions are standard. The tables use the participle.

• Będę miał czas. (I will have time. — male speaker.)
• Będę miała czas. (I will have time. — female speaker.)
• Jutro będę robił obiad. (Tomorrow I will be making dinner. — male speaker, process.)
• Jutro będę robiła obiad. (Tomorrow I will be making dinner. — female speaker.)

Zrobić: a future that looks like a present

Zrobić has no present tense. You use it when the action will be completed, and its one-word forms are the future. On the zrobić page those forms are zrobię, zrobisz, zrobi, zrobimy, zrobicie, zrobią.

• Zrobię kawę. (I will make the coffee.)
• Zrobisz to? (Will you do it?)
• Ona zrobi kawę. (She will make the coffee.)
• Zrobimy to razem. (We will do it together.)
• Zrobicie to dzisiaj? (Will you do it today?)
• Oni zrobią to jutro. (They will do it tomorrow.)

Zrobię does not change for gender. Gender returns when you step into the past: zrobiłem for a man, zrobiłam for a woman.

Pro Tip: Before a future sentence, choose the picture. Movie: będę robił or będę robić. Snapshot: zrobię. Then conjugate only the picture you chose.

Negation, commands, and a short production drill

The three tenses above are enough to start speaking. Two more patterns keep those sentences usable: nie in front of the verb, and the short command forms.

Put nie in front, then fix the object

Nie sits immediately before the conjugated verb.

• Nie jestem w domu. (I am not at home.)
• Nie mam czasu. (I do not have time.)
• Nie robię kawy. (I am not making coffee.)

Czas becomes czasu, and kawa becomes kawy, because a negated object of mieć and robić goes into the genitive. The affirmative stays Mam czas. (I have time.) and Robię kawę. (I am making coffee.)

Commands you will actually hear

The informal singular commands on the tables are bądź for być, rób for robić, and zrób for zrobić.

• Bądź w domu. (Be at home.)
• Rób to powoli. (Do it slowly. — the process, imperfective.)
• Zrób to. (Do it. — get it finished.) 🔊

Rób keeps the action open. Zrób asks for the result. Same movie-or-snapshot test, now as a command.

Twelve sentences to produce from memory

Cover the Polish, say the sentence, then check. Use the masculine past and future if you are practising the forms printed on the conjugation pages, and the feminine line when that is the speaker you are.

1. I am at home. — Jestem w domu.
2. She has time. — Ona ma czas.
3. What are you doing? — Co robisz?
4. Yesterday I was at home. (male) — Wczoraj byłem w domu.
5. Yesterday I was at home. (female) — Wczoraj byłam w domu.
6. Tomorrow I will be in Kraków. — Jutro będę w Krakowie.
7. I will have time. (male) — Będę miał czas.
8. I will have time. (female) — Będę miała czas.
9. I am making coffee. — Robię kawę.
10. I will make the coffee. — Zrobię kawę.
11. I made the coffee. (male) — Zrobiłem kawę.
12. Do it. — Zrób to.

When a form feels shaky, open the page for that verb rather than guessing a neighbour: być, mieć, and zrobić. The Polish verb guide is the wider map, and the Polish conjugation tables list the rest.

Pro Tip: Run the twelve sentences once from English to Polish and once from Polish to English. The second direction catches the forms you only half-know.