THE PAST - We were

Once again we'll see that, once we know the past tense 'I form' of a verb we can find the we form almost every time

Let's go back again to the male form of "I was":

I was -

We'll drop the 'łem' (or 'łam') and add 'liśmy':

We were - Byliśmy

It doesn't matter what gender 'we' are, it is always 'liśmy'. In fact if you ever see a word ending 'liśmy' you can be almost sure you are looking at at the past tense of a verb in the 'we' form.

Another mental hook here is to note that 'we' forms end in 'my' - both in the present tense and the past tense.

Take your time to think out the 'we' forms of the following..

Thinking these out, rather than trying to remember them, makes learning faster.

We were in town -
We were in the house -
We lived in Warsaw -
We remembered -
We were looking for your house -
We liked it -

In a handful of cases there is a very slight change to make the word easier to say:

I had a new car - Miałem nowy samochód
We had a new car - Mieliśmy nowy samochód
I thought that it was a new computer - Myślałem, że to był nowy komputer
We thought that it was new computer - Myśleliśmy, że to był nowy komputer
I had to go to town - Musiałem iść do miasta
We had to go to town - Musieliśmy iść do miasta

Again, we are seeing a 'softening' here and it is always achieved by changing the 'a' for an 'e'. It is easier to say 'musieliśmy' than 'musialiśmy.

In spoken Polish you might not even notice these changes but it is important to get them right for your written work.

Past and present tenses

Sort these 'we' form verbs into present and past tenses.

Drag and drop all the dark blue boxes to their correct locations

Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise

Match these translations of we forms in the past tense

Tap on each pair to make them disappear.

Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise

we remembered

pamiętaliśmy

musieliśmy pomóc

mieszkaliśmy w Krakowie

myśleliśmy, że

we were in the supermarket

we lived in Krakow

mieliśmy dom

we thought that

lubiliśmy tego kota

We liked that cat

byliśmy w supermarkecie

We had to help

szukaliśmy nowego laptopa

we were looking for a new laptop

we had a house

Think out the Polish

Practice the sentences from the lesson.

Make sure your sound is turned on to hear the audio during this exercise

We were	q3\|Byliśmy

We were in town	q3\|Byliśmy w mieście

We were in the house (at home)	q3\|Byliśmy w domu

We lived in Warsaw	q3\|Mieszkaliśmy w Warszawie

We remembered	q3\|Pamiętaliśmy

We were looking for your house	q3\|Szukaliśmy twojego domu

We liked it	q3\|Lubiliśmy to

I had a new car	(male) q3\|Miałem nowy samochód

We had a new car	q3\|Mieliśmy nowy samochód

I thought that it was a new computer	(male)

We thought that it was a new computer

I had to go to town	(male) q3\|Musiałem iść do miasta

We had to go to town	q3\|Musieliśmy iść do miasta