I can understand the difference between "iść & chodzić" and "jechać & jeździć". The first one is action for only once, second one is the verb for frequency.
But when "pojechać" comes, I am confused!
My teacher said that "pojechać" is the perfect form of "jechać". I asked her, what's the difference between imperfekt and perfekt in polish language? She said that perfekt is action for only once, imperfect is more than one time.
all right, but then when should I use pojechać? and when should I use jechać?
My teacher tried to explained to me, but I don't quite understand because she always explained in Polish which makes me more confused.
Could anyone be so kind to explain to me with a more simple way?
thanks. Sweatin' a few bullets after that one:-)Glad it turned out correctly. LOL
Goin' down to hoist a couple of Żywiec!
Marek
Oh yes, or as US TV's favorite detective use to say, "Jus, one more ting.", PLEASE don't let's start confusing verbs forms and write/say, as a fellow student in my first-year Polish class once did when he confused "jadę" (from the verb "jechać" = to go by conveyance) with "jadam" (from the imperfective verb "jadać" vs. perfective "zjeść" = to eat!!) and came out with "Jadłem do Polski." = I was eating my way to Poland. when what he obviously meant was "Pojechałem do Polski." = I was travelling (by driving) to Poland LOL
In Polish, numerous such errors can occur, much to the chagrin of the student (...and often to the eternal amusement of the native speaker))))))))
Jeźdzę do Warszawy. (teraz = right now) Roughly equal to English present cont. "I'm travelling to Warsaw at the moment."
Jadę do Warszawy. (codziennie = daily) "I travel to Warsaw every day."
Jechałem do Warszawy. [imperf. past tense] "I traveled to Warsaw every day."
I may be wrong, but (I think) the order should be as follow: Jeżdżę do Warszawy. (codziennie = daily) "I travel to Warsaw every day. Jadę do Warszawy. (teraz = right now) Jechałem do Warszawy. I traveled to Warsaw.
I might indeed be wrong. I heard it explained to me the first way by my original Polish instructor (though not a native Pole herself, she'd essentially grown up in and around Katowice before moving to Lwów!). However, I've also seen it written the other way round in certain Polish language textbooks, authored by Polish linguists/language professors in Polish as well as English or German. LOL
Rather embarrassed at this point, I'm afraid. Anyway, tried my best:-)
Yes RJ_cdn has got it right. Just to expand on that:
Jeżdżę - indeterminate imperfective travel - e.g. in general Jadę - determinate imperfective travel - e.g. right now Jechałem - determinate imperfective past tense - I travelled/I was travelling Pojadę - perfective future - I will travel pojechałem - perfective past - I travelled
Then I learned more verbs today, but my teacher still cannot explained to me the difference between Perfekt and Imperfekt.
I know they tried to make me more familiar with Polish language so they explained everything in Polish. But it's just my 60-70th hour (more or less) since I began to learn Polish. I really cannot understand that...
For example, wracać and wrócić. In the very beginning, another teacher said that wrócić is the past tense of wracać. Then in higher level, another teacher said, no, they are different. Then I am really confused.
Another example is, pytać & zapytać, both of them are "to ask", then what's the difference? I mean, in our book, it looks like the Perfekt tense is usually for something "past" already. So I asked my teacher, is it that when we want to express past tense, we should use "the past tense of Perfekt verbs"? But she said no, then explained in Polish again!
after adding something, if the meaning of the verb changes, then it's easy for me to understand, like "wyjechać & przyjechać". But when they have same meaning, then it's really hard for me.
Ps: At the moment I love CHINESE so much because there is only ONE tense, no perfekt/imperfekt, no present/past/future... what a wonderful language! :)
To give you a very short explanation of perfective and imperfective:
imperfective - (e.g. wracać)
can be used for past, present and future tenses: wracałem, wracam, będę wracał
emphasis is on the action itself which normally occurs for a duration of time. In the past tense you can think of it as "I was returning" i.e. an action in progress.
perfective - (e.g. wrócić)
can only be used for past and future. There is no present tense: wróciłem, wrócę
emphasis is on the result of the action, i.e. something you did. In the past tense you can think of it as "I returned" i.e. a completed action.
do a search on this forum for perfective/imperfective because this question is very regularly asked.
Furthermore, there are verbs in Polish which are either one or the other, i.e., either perfective (dokonany) or imperfective (niedokonany):-)
Certainly don't know all those in the latter category off the top of my head, but reassuringly perhaps, the majority of Polish verbs are "paired", so to speak, meaning they have dual aspects, depending on the context of the sentence, e.g. 'lecieć' (perf.) = to fly, but for vehicular travel only, NEVER for winges creatures!!! vs. 'latać' (imperf.) = also, to fly etc....
