1. "Should". To express "should (do something)" Polish uses the irregular adjective powinien (literally "obligated") and an infinitive. As the predicate of the sentence, this adjective agrees with the subject of the sentence for gender and number. The paradigm of "He/she/it/should (lit. is obligated to) go" and "They should (lit. are obligated to) go" is the following:

In these sentences with their third-person subjects the linking verb ("is"/"are") is not expressed (no jest or są. Note that the -e- of powinien is fleeting.

In "should" sentences with first- or second-person subjects, the linking verb ("am"/"are") is expressed. It is expressed with the enclitic (unaccented) present-tense forms of być (be), which are:

In sentences with 1st- and 2nd-person subjects, The linking verb agrees with the subject for person and number while powinien agrees with it for gender and number. The following combinations with "should go" occur:

The (e) occurs after a consonant but not after a vowel. For a male speaker to arrive at the correct form, he should first select the masculine singular form powinien with its fleeting vowel and then add -em. He should not take the powinn- stem that is found in all the other forms and add -em, because that results in incorrect *powinnem.

As enclitics, -em and -eś tend not to affect the accent of the word they follow, and this explains the accentuations "po-wi-ńe-em" and "po-wi-ńe-eś". But many speakers say "po-wi-ńe-em" and "po-wi-ńe-eś". The plural enclitics -śmy and -ście tend to be accentually more independent, and the recommended accentuation is "po-wi-ńi-śmy", "po-wi-ny-śmy", po-wi-ńi-śće", "po-wi-ny-śće".

In "should" sentences with 1st- and 2nd-person subjects, which have enclitic linking verbs, the personal pronoun subjects ja, ty, my, and wy may be omitted when not emphasized.

The enclitic forms of być usually follow powinn- (and are written solid with it). But they may also occur earlier in the sentence, e.g., Tyś powinna iść, Myśmy powinni iść.

·  Respond to "Does X Y?" with "No, but X should Y." 1. Czy Janek pisze list do siostry? 2. Czy idziesz do domu? 3. Czy student rozumie wszystko, co mówi profesor? 4. Czy twój kolega jutro jedzie do Nowego Jorku? 5. Czy Jadzia i Jurek czytają Mickiewicza? 6. Czy ten długopis jest tani? 7. Czy jest w Detroit polskie muzeum? 8. Czy chłopcy mają czas na zadanie (assignment) z polskiego? 9. Czy Basia i Ania biegną na lektorat polskiego? 10. Czy będziesz u Marysi jutro wieczorem?

·  Express in Polish. 1. We ought to speak Polish. 2. They should wait for us at home. 3. Shouldn't you be reading a Polish paper? 4. I ought to go to my (language) class today. 5. Stan should understand what you're saying. 6. Danuta should be here. 7. There ought to be a good university there. 8. Henryk's father should see what he is doing. 9. This coffee isn't (to nie to) what it should be. 10. We don't have the teacher that we should have.

2. Accented present-tense forms of być. Powinien is the only adjective in Polish with which the enclitic forms of być MUST be used. In spoken Polish they MAY occur also with other adjectives. Examples: Nie możesz boś za młoda (You can't because you're too young.), Czyście gotowi? (Are you ready?), Ciekawam, jak to będzie (I'm curious how that will be). These sentences are colloquial. It is much more common to combine the enclitic forms of być with jest-, resulting in the following paradigm:

For the present we will continue to use the linking verb być only with predicate adjectives, as in Jestem ciekawy and Basia jest ładna. The reason is that predicate nominatives after the linking verb, e.g., in Jestem studentem and Basia jest ładną dziewczyną, are normally in the instrumental, a case to be presented in Chapter 14.

·  Rewrite the sentences by introducing jest- before the enclitic forms of być. 1. Nie możemy, bośmy za młodzi. 2. Czyśmy gotowi? 3. Czyś ciekawy, kto przyjdzie? 4. Głupiś! 5. Jakaś ty dobra!

·  Express in Polish. 1. New York is very big. 2. You are very kind. 3. No one knows how awful I am. 4. You can't see that film because you're too young. 5. We are curious who that is and why he's here.

3. Past tense. The past tense in Polish, like the future imperfective tense, is a compound tense. Whereas the future imperfective is expressed with the l-form of the verb and the future forms of być, the past tense is expressed with the l-form of the verb and the enclitic present-tense forms of być.

In sentences with a third-person subject, where the enclitic form of być is zero, the past tense is expressed with the bare l-form. Thus the paradigm for "He/she/it/they read" is:

For the first and second persons, the past tense forms consist of an l-form which agrees with the subject for gender and number plus the enclitic linking verb which agrees with the subject for person and number. The paradigm for "I/you/we was/were reading" is:

The enclitic commonly follows the l-form, as above. But in spoken Polish it often occurs earlier in the sentence, for example: Gdzieś ty była? (Where were you?), Nigdym nie czytał tej gazety (I've never read that newspaper), Czyście widzieli rynek? (Did you see the markeplace?), Długośmy na was czekali (We waited for you for a long time).

4. One word or two? An accented word plus an enclitic form of być behaves in some ways like two words, in other ways like a single word. As noted above, powinienem and powinieneś are better regarded as two words, the masculine singular form powinien plus -em and -eś, not the stem powinn- plus -em and -eś, which yields the wrong result.

The same two-word approach should be taken when using certain l-forms of verbs. The masculine and feminine l-forms for iść are szedł and szła. The male speaker in forming the past tense of przyjść (come) should be careful to first form the 3rd-person l-form przyszedł and only then add -em. He should avoid the mistake (sometimes made by young male speakers) of taking their mothers' or sisters' przyszłam and replacing -am with -em, coming up with incorrect *przyszłem. Similarly, the female speaker should avoid modeling her "I came" on male speakers' przyszedłem and coming up with incorrect *przyszedłam.

Many Polish verbs have infinitive stems ending in -ą-, e.g., wziąć (take). When using the l-forms of these verbs with -(e)m and -(e)ś, one should take the two-word approach. For masculine subjects, first take the masculine 3rd-person form wziął (pron. "wźoł") and then add -em and -eś. For feminine subjects, first take the feminine 3rd-person form wzięła (pron. "wźe-ła") and then add -m and -ś.

For purposes of accent, on the other hand, the l-form plus -em or -eś are treated as one word. Thus, czytał is accented on the first syllable, and czytałem on the second syllable. In the plural, czytaliśmy and czytaliście may be accented either on the next-to-last or third-to-last syllable.

·  Rewrite the sentences in the past tense. 1. Mieszkam na Mokotowie a pracuję na Pradze. 2. Bardzo mało widzimy i prawie nic nie rozumiemy. 3. Czy nie możecie czekać na drugi autobus? Zaraz jedzie. 4. Nic nie wiesz o tym, co ja chcę robić. 5. Co mówicie o tej pani, która tak dobrze umie po polsku? 6. Krzysztof jest u siebie i czyta gazetę. 7. Ja idę po ulicy a ty biegniesz. 8. Na co patrzycie? - Na to, co jest na tablicy. 9. Stefan jedzie na Węgry (Hungary), bo tam mieszka jego matka. 10. Kocham cię, ale ty nie kochasz mnie. 11. Nie czekam na ciebie, bo nie mam czasu. 12. Niestety, już nie ma piwa. 13. Dlaczego pracujecie w tamtym sklepie jeżeli nie musicie? 14. Dzieci jadą do miasta. 15. Jadzia i Zbyszek też jadą.

·  Express in Polish. 1. What did you do when (you) were in Poland (w Polsce)? 2. I've never seen a pen that writes so well. 3. Barb's mother had a old dress which was very pretty. 4. Where were you when we were talking to your friend from Poland? 5. When we were at Henryk's yesterday (wczoraj) we saw his new apartment. 6. No one understood what Stan was saying. 7. I had to go home because I wanted to use my dictionary. 8. We were reading Mickiewicz and Słowacki. 9. Didn't you want to speak Polish? 10. George was waiting for Ann, but she was still working.

5. Reported statements. In English when we report a statement we normally follow a past-tense reporting verb with past tense in what is being reported. If John said, "I'm tired", we normally report his statement as "John said that he was tired". In Polish it is different: the tense of the reported action is independent of the tense of the reporting verb. If Jan said, «Jestem zmęczony» (I am tired), this would be reported as Jan powiedział, że jest zmęczony, using jest (is), not był (was). This makes sense because his being tired was contemporanous with his reporting it. Of course, had Jan said, "I was tired already earlier", where his tired state was prior to his reporting it, this past tense is independent of the reporting verb and is retained: Jan powiedział, że już wcześniej był zmęczony. This applies also to other verbs which take complement clauses with factual content, like "know" and "think". Thus Jan wiedział/myślał, że ma rację would be translated as "Jan knew/thought that he was right", but the Polish has present-tense ma.

·  Express in Polish. Rewrite the sentences in the past tense, changing only the first verb. 1. Nie wiem, co znaczy to zdanie. 2. Babcia pisze, że u niej już nikogo nie ma. 3. Jadzia mówi, że nie rozumie nauczyciela. 4. Myślę, że tata ma rację. 5. Wiemy, że Kraków jest bardzo ładny.

6. Subjunctive mood. In English, we may choose to present the action or state expressed by the verb not as fact but as something desirable, hypothetical, or otherwise nonfactual. God blesses America, where the verb is in the so-called indicative mood, is a statement of fact, but God bless America, where the verb is in the subjunctive mood, expresses the desirability of the action. He insists that he is first uses indicative is to assert a fact, whereas He insists that he be first uses subjunctive be to show that being first is not a fact but the object of his volition. Besides denoting volition rather than factuality, subjunctive mood may make a statement less direct and hence more polite, e.g., I would like a cup of coffee, instead of I want a cup of coffee.

All of these options are available in Polish, where subjunctive mood is implemented simply by including the enclitic particle by. It is directly followed by the enclitic forms of być and is accompanied by the l-form of the verb. The full paradigm of "... would like to go" (lit. "... would want to go") is:

The subjunctive particle by (obligatorily followed by -m, -ś, -śmy, -ście in clauses with 1st- and 2nd-person subjects) may also follow the l-form, with which it is written solid: chciałbym, chciałabyś, chcielibyśmy, etc. Note that the presence of -by, -byśmy, etc. after the l-form does not influence the place of accent.

·  Introduce by. 1. Czy masz chwilę czasu? 2. Czego się boimy? 3. Kto chce herbaty? 4. Proszę o szklankę wody. 5. Dokąd idziecie? 6. Chcemy zobaczyć wasze mieszkanie. 7. Możecie popracować. 8. Poczekasz na mnie. 9. Czy zapłacisz za moją kawę? 10. Jesteśmy ciekawi, kto tam będzie.

6.1 "If ... then". In sentences with jeśli (if) ... to (then), we use the indicative mood to express paired situations that may both be factual, e.g., Jeśli (or jeżeli) ona ma rację, to musimy zaraz jechać (If she is right, we must go immediately). Or we mark both clauses with subjunctive by to cast doubt on their factuality, e.g., Gdyby ona miała rację, tobyśmy musieli zaraz jechać (If she were right, we would have to go immediately). To is optional. In its absence, byśmy, which must follow an accented word, follows the first available accented word, e.g., ... musielibyśmy zaraz jechać or ... zaraz byśmy musieli jechać.

"If" in a contrary-to-fact clause is normally gdy, obligatorily followed by by and the enclitic forms of być. But jeśliby and jeżeliby also occur.

The enclitic cluster by plus -m, -ś, -śmy, -ście is written solid with a preceding conjunction or l-form, but follows other classes of words after a space: tobyśmy musieli zaraz jechać and musielibyśmy zaraz jechać but zaraz byśmy musieli jechać.

·  Make both clauses contrary-to-fact by introducing by. 1. Jeśli chcesz, możesz iść z nami na film. 2. Kupimy nowy samochód, jeżeli są na to pieniądze. 3. Jeżeli popatrzysz przez okno, zobaczysz Grzesia nowy samochód. 4. Jeśli państwo wezmą ten autobus, państwo pojadą przez plac Konstytucji. 5. Jeśli profesor Nowak przeczyta to zdanie jeszcze raz, to je zrozumiemy. 6. Jeśli nie ma krzeseł, możemy siedzieć na podłodze (on the floor). 7. Jeżeli nie mają samochodu, to muszą wziąć autobus. 8. Jeśli ona umie po francuzku, to zrozumie, co mówi pan Gagnon. 9. Jeżeli jesteś zmęczona (tired), to możesz nie iść z nami do kina. 10. Jeśli zobaczę Walerego, poproszę go o pomoc (help).

6.2 Volition. A clause that is the complement of a verb expressing volition, e.g., chcieć (want), must be marked for the subjunctive mood. For example: Mama chce, żebyśmy mówili po polsku (Mother wants us to speak Polish). Note how differently the Polish sentence is structured than its English counterpart. The Polish sentence consists of two clauses connected with the conjunction że, literally "Mother wants that we speak Polish. The English sentence is a single clause with a direct object followed by the infinitive. This is impossible in Polish: one NEVER says *Mama chce nas mówić po polsku. The infinitive can only be used when the two subjects are the same, as in My chcemy pracować and Piotr chce pracować. When the subjects differ, żeby must be used: My chcemy, żeby Piotr pracował and Piotr chce, żebyśmy my pracowali.

The word requiring a subjunctive complement may also be an adjective, e.g., ważne (important), as in Ważne, żebyście wszyscy zrozumieli (It is important that you all understand). The subjunctive mood is required in the context of will-imposition and necessity. Where the context is factual, indicative mood is used (no by), e.g., in Mama myśli, że umiemy po polsku (Mother thinks that we know Polish) and Prawda, że wszyscy rozumiecie (It's true that you all understand).

·  Express in Polish. 1. I want you to go home. 2. Zbyszek wants his dog to love him. 3. The professor said for us to write the sentences on the board. 4. It's important that you tell the truth. 5. It's true that Mary no longer loves Greg. 6. The girls wanted to boys to wait for them. 7. The boys think the girls will wait for them. 8. My mother wants us to have a large family (rodzina), but my wife doesn't want it. 9. Mrs. Wojtowicz wanted her daughter to have a nice apartment in Warsaw. 10. I'm asking you to repeat what (that which) I said.

Vocabulary

francuski French	pomoc (fem.) help	prawda truth
gotowy ready	popatrzeć look	prawie almost
mieć rację be right	powinien	ważny