Time expressions in Polish classes cause a lot of pain. Actually my student recently asked me for this post and I finally decided to publish it. I hope it will be useful for you!

Let’s start with some basic words you need to know:

chwila / moment – moment

/ – moment sekunda – a second

– a second minuta – a minute

– a minute godzina – an hour

– an hour dzień – a day

– a day tydzień – a week

– a week miesiąc – a month



– a month rok – a year

– a year dekada – 10 years

– 10 years wiek – century

You can use them without any change if they are the subject of the sentence for example.

Rok to za mało, żeby nauczyć się polskiego – A year is too short to learn Polish.

Dzień był słoneczny i ciepły. – The day was sunny and warm.

Some of the words will just change and won’t need prepositions to express the time relation. For example:

dzisiaj – today

– today wczoraj – yesterday

– yesterday przedwczoraj – the day before yesterday

– the day before yesterday jutro – tomoroow

– tomoroow pojutrze – the day after tomorrow

Now I’m going to present you different ways to express time and segments of time. Look carefully because they will change their forms:

W tym momencie / tygodniu / miesiącu / roku – this moment/ week / month / year

– this moment/ week / month / year W tej chwili / sekundzie / minucie – this moment / second / minute

– this moment / second / minute O tej godzinie – at this hour

– at this hour Obecnie – currently

– currently Natychmiast – immediatelly

– immediatelly W dzisiejszych czasach – nowadays

– nowadays W ciągu tygodnia / miesiąca / roku – during a week / month / year

– during a week / month / year Podczas spotkania / kolacji / wakacji – during the meeting / dinner/ holidays

When we talk about past we need to use different prepositions

w zeszłym / tamtym/ ubiegłym * tygodniu / miesiącu / roku – last week/ month/ year

– last week/ month/ year tydzień / miesiąc / rok temu – a week / month / year ago

– a week / month / year ago dwa / trzy / cztery tygodnie / miesiące / lata**temu – 2/3/4 weeks / months / years ago

2/3/4 weeks / months / years ago pięć/ sześć …. tygodni / miesięcy / lat temu – 5/6 … weeks / months/ years ago

– 5/6 … weeks / months/ years ago (nie) dawno temu – (not) long time ago

– (not) long time ago od dawna – since long time ago

– since long time ago kiedyś – sometime ago (also: in some time)

*all these forms can be used interchangeably

** all digits ended with 2, 3, 4 except 11, 12, 13 will follow the pattern. The rest of numbers will follow 5,6 pattern.

When we talk about future the phrases look like this:

za dzień tydzień / miesiąc / rok – in a day/ week / month / year

– in a day/ week / month / year za dwa dni/ tygodnie / miesiące / lata – in two days/ weeks / months / years (look the rule above **)

– in two days/ weeks / months / years (look the rule above **) za pięć dni tygodni / miesięcy / lat – in days/ five weeks / months / years

in days/ five weeks / months / years Zaraz! – It’s an expression you would use when someone is calling you and asking to hurry up but you need a few seconds more

– It’s an expression you would use when someone is calling you and asking to hurry up but you need a few seconds more Wkrótce / (Za) niedługo – soon

You may also need these words to express something what happened a certain amount of time after another event. Then you need preposition “po”.

po chwili / sekundzie / minucie / godzinie – after a while / second / minut / hour

– after a while / second / minut / hour po dniu / tygodniu / miesiącu / roku – after a day / week / month / year

If you know “po” means “after”, you probably wonder if you can also use the word “przed” – before. The answer is – yes but some of them would sound posh and the grammar will get complicated. Have a look:

Przed dwoma dniami / tygodniami / miesiącami / laty (sic!)

On the other hand it will sound totally normal if you say:

Przed chwilą – a moment ago

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