Religious Festivals & Traditions: Grammar (AQA GCSE Polish): Revision Note

• When talking about festivals and traditions, it is useful to know how to say when events take place

• Knowing how to form dates accurately will help you in all four skills

• Look at these grammar points in more detail

Verbal aspect (perfective/imperfective)

• In Polish, verbs often come in pairs. This is called verbal aspect (aspekt czasownika)

• It is particularly important when talking about past, present and future events, including celebrations and traditions

Imperfective aspect (czasowniki niedokonane)

• Use the imperfective aspect to describe an action that is ongoing, repeated or habitual, without focusing on whether it has been completed

  • obchodzić – to celebrate

  • przygotowywać – to prepare

  • kupować – to buy

  • zapraszać – to invite

• Co roku obchodzimy Boże Narodzenie z rodziną
  We celebrate Christmas with our family every year

Perfective aspect (czasowniki dokonane)

• Use the perfective aspect when an action is seen as completed or finished, or when you want to focus on its result

  • obchodzić - obchodzić

  • przygotowywać - przygotować

  • kupować - kupić

  • zapraszać - zaprosić

• Wczoraj przygotowaliśmy uroczysty obiad
  Yesterday, we prepared a special meal

Key difference

Ordinal numbers and dates

• In Polish, use the following structures to say when something happens, especially when talking about festivals, celebrations and traditions:

  • Use w + month in the locative case to say ‘in’ a month, e.g. w grudniu (in December)

  • Use w + day of the week to say ‘on’ a day, e.g. w poniedziałek (on Monday).

  • Use an ordinal number + month in the genitive case to say a specific date when answering the question Kiedy? (When?), e.g. pierwszego maja (on the first of May)

  • Ordinal numbers (liczebniki porządkowe) show the order or position of something, e.g. pierwszy (first), drugi (second), trzeci (third)

• Polish ordinal numbers change their endings depending on the grammatical case. For example: pierwszy maja is the basic form, but pierwszego maja is commonly used when answering Kiedy?

• In written dates, numerals are often used, e.g. 1 maja, 3 maja, 11 listopada

• Some celebrations have a fixed date, while others, such as Wielkanoc, have a date that changes every year

Example sentences

• Boże Narodzenie obchodzimy w grudniu. — We celebrate Christmas in December.

• Wielkanoc obchodzimy wiosną. — We celebrate Easter in spring

• Trzeciego maja obchodzimy Święto Konstytucji 3 Maja. — On the third of May, we celebrate Constitution Day

• Wszystkich Świętych przypada pierwszego listopada. — All Saints’ Day takes place on the first of November

• Sylwestra obchodzimy trzydziestego pierwszego grudnia. — We celebrate New Year's Eve on the thirty-first of December