Verb classification in Polish language

I'm wondering, as i'm learning declensions, i notice certain verbs use a different declined form. For example, szukać and słuchać use the genitive (as well as every negative verb) but imponować and other certain verbs use the dative. Is there a certain name for types of verbs using a specific form or is it because of the purpose of the verbs?

I too learned Polish as a foreigner and frankly was often just plain stumped in the beginning!
Context clues are the way I learned the case distinctions, especially hard for me because I came to Polish from German and case usage ofte varies considerably from language to language.

The Genitive is perhaps the most widely used case in Polish, followed by the Instrumental, usually when providing nationalities and/or professions etc... e.g. "Jestem Polak[iem]." = I am Polish."(m.) vs. "Jestem Polką. = I am Polish" (f.), "On jest tłumacz[em]." = He is a translator etc.. As English has no such equivalent, it takes time getting used to.

The Dative always requires an INDIRECT object, e.g. "Pomóż mi!" (Help me!)
The Accusative always requires a DIRECT object, e.g. "Widzę książkę." = I see [the/a] book.
and so forth, and so on...

From hereon in, things get much more involved:-)

Did my reply make sense?

The Genitive was probably the toughest for me to wrap my mind around. On the one hand it indicates possession, on the other hand, it is always used following certain prepositions such as "do", "według", "u" etc.., each one without a straightforward translation into English! As soon as I quit trying to rationalize and make them fit English patterns, I began slowly to think in Polish to the greatest extent possible.

For the Dative case I think yes.
This case would normally be used for a verb that requires you to have someone who is a recipient or beneficiary of your action.
Commonly used verbs for dative case include:

Dać/Dawać - to give
Oddać/Oddawać - to give back
Kupić/Kupować - to buy
Pomóc/Pomagać - to help.

e.g Muszę pomóc mojemu tacie - I must help my dad ( Dad is the recipient of my help )
In the Nominative ( or dictionary form ) my dad = mój tata, the endings then change in the Genitive to mojemu tacie.

In Polish all noun cases have questions assigned to them e.g who?/what? To whom?/To what? About who?/About what? etc
For the Dative case, To whom?/To what? applies = Komu? Czemu?
So if you see komu or czemu, you will need to use the Dative case.

BTW, I'm not a native speaker, so someone Polish might be able to explain this better.

You seem to know it very well! What is your native language?

British Lyzko, and I wouldn't say I know it well at all, just that I've worked hard at it.

The overwhelming majortiy of Polish verbs take the accusative case. I'd suggest you make up lists of the most common ones requiring genitive, dative and instrumental adn aqdd to them as you go along.

.

Same here, yet your explanation was a tad more "fleshed out" than mine:-)

try again

Chemikiem did just fine.