Let’s take a little break from in-depth verb conjugation and instead focus on a key verb in Polish.
The verb mieć means to have and, in addition, has other uses in everyday Polish.
First, we’ll start by conjugating the verb.
| mieć [to have] |
| mam | mamy |
| masz | macie |
| ma | mają |
Despite the peculiar infinitive ending, its conjugation is similar to that of regular verbs ending in –ać. We learned those in our previous lesson. In case you missed it, please click here.
Since it means to have, you can use it just like you’d expect:
| Mam pytanie. Jaki jest twój zawód? I have a question. What’s your profession? |
| Idę do sklepa, bo nie mam mleka. I’m going to the store because I don’t have milk. |
| Co ma pan na myśli? What do you have in mind? |
In addition, it can be used in certain situations where existence is expressed:
| W domu mają 5 [pięć] pokoi. There are 5 rooms in the house. The house has 5 rooms. |
And it can be used to express age:
| Ile ma pani lat? How old are you? |
Another usage is expressing obligation. This is done by placing an infinitive immediately after the verb.
| mieć + inf. [to have to, must] |
|---|
| Co mam zrobić? What do I have to do? |
This is truly a versatile little verb.
But wait! It has more uses!
| mieć rację [to be right] |
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| W tej sprawie on ma rację. He’s right on this matter. |
| mieć sens [to make sense] |
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| To, co mówisz nie ma sensu. What you’re saying doesn’t make sense. |
| mieć nadzieję [to hope] |
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| Mamy nadzieję, że wszystko będzie dobrze. We hope everything will be fine. |
| mieć na sobie [to be wearing] |
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| Co ona ma na sobie? What’s she wearing? [What clothes does she have on at the moment?] |
| mieć ochotę [to feel like] |
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| Mam ochotę na coś słodkiego. I feel like something sweet. [I want to eat something sweet.] Or rather more clearly: Mam ochotę zjeść coś słodkiego. I feel like eating something sweet. |
| mieć zamiar [to intend] |
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| Mam zamiar kiedyś podróżować po Europie. I intend to someday travel around Europe. |
| mieć szczęście [to be lucky] |
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| Mam szczęście, mając takich przyjaciól. I’m lucky to have such friends. |
There are certainly more uses, yet I feel that it’s time for me to wrap up this post.
As usual, I hope that you found this this post useful.
See you again really soon!