Healthy & Unhealthy Living: Grammar (AQA GCSE Polish): Revision Note

To talk about 'Healthy lifestyles', you need to know some important grammar - modal verbs, the perfect tense and adverbs of frequency. Look at these grammar points in more detail

Healthy and unhealthy living - Modal verbs

• Musisz pić dużo wody i powinnaś regularnie uprawiać sport
  You have to drink lots of water and you should do sport regularly

• The modal verbs musieć, powinien and pozwalać are used to say what you have to, should or are allowed to do

  • They are very useful for giving health advice

• Modal verb and the infinitive can stand next to each other, and their position in the sentence can change without affecting correctness.

• The three most useful modal verbs for this topic are musieć (must), powinien (should) and pozwalać (allowed to)

• Using Ty (you in general) is a useful way to give general health advice without referring to a specific person

Here are the present tense forms of musieć, powinien and pozwalać:

Using musieć- must

• Use muszę to say what is necessary for a healthy lifestyle:

  • Muszę uprawiać więcej sportu. I have to do more sport

  • Musimy wystarczająco spać. We have to sleep enough

  • Musisz jeść owoce i warzywa każdego dnia. You have to eat fruit and vegetables every day

Using powinien - should

• Use powinien to give advice about what someone ought to do:

  • Powinieneś pić więcej wody. You should drink more water

  • On powinien jeść mniej fast food. He should eat less fast food

  • Powinieneś regularnie uprawiać jogę. You should practice yoga regularly

Using pozwalać - allowed to / are not allowed to (in the negative)

• Use pozwalać in the negative (nie wolno/ nie dozwolone) to say what is not allowed or what you should not do. It is particularly useful for talking about unhealthy habits:

  • Palenie nie jest dozwolone. One must not smoke

  • Nie wolno ci pić aż tyle cukru. You are not allowed to drink so much sugar

  • Nie wolno jej kupować papierosów. She is not allowed to buy cigarettes

Past tense (perfect)

Wczoraj zjadłam dużo owoców i poszłam na siłownię. Yesterday I ate lots of fruit and went to the gym.

• The perfect tense is the main way of talking about the past

  • Use it to talk about what you ate, drank or did, or other past actions related to your health and lifestyle

• The Polish past tense is made up of one word

• There is no auxiliary verb and no participle at the end

• but it changes depending on:

  • gender (masculine, feminine, neuter)

  • number (singular, plural)

  • person (I, you, he/she, we, etc.)

• The past tense is formed by adding a personal ending

• Some common verbs have irregular past participles that you need to learn

Adverbs of frequency

Często chodzę na siłownię, ale czasami jem fast food.
I often go to the gym but I sometimes eat fast food.

• Adverbs of frequency are used to say how often you do something

• They are useful across the whole topic to talk about how often you exercise, you eat healthily, or you engage in unhealthy habits

• Adverbs of frequency usually come directly before the verb

• Using a range of frequency adverbs makes your speaking and writing richer
  It shows variety, natural phrasing, and helps you gain higher marks

• They do not change their form - they always stay the same regardless of the subject

Position in the sentence

In a main clause, the adverb of frequency comes before the verb:

• Ja często uprawiam sport. I often do sport

• On czasami je fast food. He sometimes eats fast food

• Ona zawsze śpi dobrze. She always sleeps well

• Nigdy nie palimy. We never smoke

• Rzadko chodzisz na siłownię. You rarely go to the gym