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B1 · Intermediate · Lesson 16
Verbs of motion
'To go' splits two ways at once.
Polish 'go' divides by on foot vs by vehicle, and by a single trip vs a habit — giving four core verbs. Pick the wrong one and you might claim you commute to work on foot when you mean by bus.
| One trip, now | Habit / repeated | |
|---|---|---|
| On foot | iść | chodzić |
| By vehicle | jechać | jeździć |
- •iść — walking somewhere right now.
- •chodzić — walking there regularly.
- •jechać / jeździć — the same split, but by vehicle.
Quick check
Codziennie ____ do pracy autobusem.
Habit + vehicle = jeżdżę.
Teraz ____ do sklepu. (on foot, now)
One trip on foot, now = idę.
'I'm going to Gdańsk (now, by train)': ____ do Gdańska.
Between cities you take a vehicle: jadę.
Practice
Now produce the answers yourself — type them, choose the form, or build the sentence.
Teraz ___ do domu. (on foot, now)
Codziennie ___ do pracy autobusem.
habit + vehicle.
___ do Krakowa. (now, by train)
between cities → vehicle.
Codziennie ___ do szkoły. (chodzić, ja)
Say: Where are you going?
What this lesson covered
Polish verbs of motion split in a way English doesn't, and this lesson mapped it out. “To go” divides first by how you travel — iść / chodzić for on foot, jechać / jeździć by vehicle — and again by the situation: iść and jechać for a specific trip happening now, chodzić and jeździć for regular, repeated journeys. So idę do sklepu is “I'm walking to the shop right now,” while chodzę na siłownię is “I go to the gym (regularly)”; jadę do Krakowa is one trip by vehicle, jeżdżę do pracy is a daily commute. The trick is to ask two questions — on foot or by vehicle? one trip or a habit? — and the right verb follows. These four verbs, plus their prefixed future forms like pójdę, cover most of how you'll talk about coming and going.