Modal verbs with the infinitive (chcieć, móc, musieć, umieć)

Chcę pić kawę. Mogę wejść? Muszę pracować. Umiem pływać.I want to drink coffee. May I come in? I have to work. I can swim.

Four small verbs do a lot of work in everyday Polish: chcieć (to want), móc (to be able, to be allowed), musieć (to have to) and umieć (to know how to). Each one is followed by a second verb in the infinitive, the form that ends in -ć (pić, wejść, pracować, pływać), and that second verb never changes.

Quick shortcut: the modal verb takes the person ending (muszę, musisz, musi), and the verb after it stays in the infinitive (Muszę pracować.).

English modals such as can and must have one fixed form (she can, she must), while want needs to (I want to swim). Polish modals are ordinary verbs with a full set of endings (ona może, ona musi, ona chce), none of them needs a word like to, and English can is split between móc and umieć.

The pattern: modal verb + infinitive

The person and number are shown on the modal verb only. The second verb is simply the dictionary form:

• Chcę czytać. (I want to read.)
• Anna chce spać. (Anna wants to sleep.)
• Musimy iść. (We have to go.)
• Dzieci umieją pływać. (The children can swim.)

In a neutral sentence, an explicit subject pronoun usually comes before the modal verb, and it is often left out altogether: Ja chcę, ty musisz. (I want to, you have to.) Chcieć is also one of the verbs in Polish present tense: irregular verbs, where it appears with a noun and with a verb.

The forms

Two things are worth noticing:

• Móc changes its stem: mog- in the 1st person singular and the 3rd person plural (mogę, mogą), moż- everywhere else (możesz, może, możemy, możecie).
• Chcieć has chcę for "I" and chce for "he, she, it". The two forms differ only in the last letter, and the ending -ę (a nasal vowel) is easy to drop by mistake.

What each verb means

Chcieć says what you want to do (and, with a noun, what you want: Chcę kawę. "I want a coffee"). A softer, polite wish uses chciałbym (said by a man) or chciałabym (said by a woman), "I would like": Chciałbym zamówić kawę. For now it is enough to recognise these as set phrases.

Móc says that something is possible or allowed, because of the circumstances or because someone gives permission:

• Możemy iść jutro. (We can go tomorrow.)
• Czy mogę wejść? (May I come in?)
• Czy możesz powtórzyć? (Can you repeat that?)

The form może also means "maybe" (Może jutro.), so the context decides which one is meant.

Musieć says that something is necessary:

• Muszę już iść. (I have to go now.)
• Marek musi pracować w sobotę. (Marek has to work on Saturday.)

Umieć says that you have learned how to do something, a skill:

• Umiem pływać. (I know how to swim.)
• Czy umiesz mówić po polsku? (Can you speak Polish?)

Móc or umieć?

English uses can for both, but Polish tends to separate them. Umieć is a skill that you have learned, while móc is possibility, capacity or permission in the situation:

• Umiem pływać, ale dziś nie mogę. (I can swim, but today I can't. For example, the pool is closed.)

For permission and for what the situation allows, móc is the verb: Czy mogę usiąść? (May I sit down?). For a skill, umieć is the usual choice: Dzieci umieją czytać.

Questions and negation

A yes/no question can start with czy, or it can be marked only by the voice and a question mark:

• Czy musisz pracować? (Do you have to work?)
• Możesz przyjść? (Can you come?)

For negation, nie goes directly before the modal verb, as explained in Negation with "nie". The meaning of the negative sentence is not always the mirror image of the positive one:

• Nie chcę pracować. (I don't want to work.)
• Nie umiem pływać. (I don't know how to swim.)
• Nie mogę przyjść. (I can't come.)
• Nie muszę pracować. (I don't have to work. Working is not necessary.)

So nie musisz means "you don't have to" and not "you must not". The idea of "not allowed" is expressed in another way, for example with the fixed phrase nie wolno and an infinitive:

• Tu nie wolno palić. (Smoking is not allowed here.)

Nie mogę can mean both "I am not able" and "I am not allowed", and the context shows which one. The full word-order rules are in the negation lesson.

The past forms of these verbs are built with the endings from Past tense: -ł, -ła, -ło forms, and they are covered there.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Muszę pracuję. → ✅ Muszę pracować. (the second verb stays in the infinitive)
• ❌ Mogę pływam. → ✅ Mogę pływać. (the same rule for every modal verb)
• ❌ Ona chcę spać. → ✅ Ona chce spać. (chcę is only "I", and chce is "he, she, it")
• ❌ Oni mogę iść. → ✅ Oni mogą iść. (the 3rd person plural of móc is mogą)
• ❌ Ja musze iść. → ✅ Ja muszę iść. (the 1st person ends in -ę)

Quick check

Which form of the modal verb fits each gap?

1. Anna ___ pić herbatę. (chcieć)
2. My ___ pracować. (musieć)
3. Czy ___ wejść? (móc; I)
4. Dzieci ___ pływać. (umieć)
5. How would you say "I can't come tomorrow" with móc and przyjść?
6. How would you say "You know how to swim" with umieć and pływać?

Key takeaways

• Chcieć, móc, musieć, umieć take the person ending, and the next verb stays in the infinitive: Muszę pracować.
• Forms: chcę, chcesz, chce, chcemy, chcecie, chcą; mogę, możesz, może, możemy, możecie, mogą; muszę, musisz, musi, musimy, musicie, muszą; umiem, umiesz, umie, umiemy, umiecie, umieją.
• Móc is about what is possible or allowed, umieć is a learned skill.
• Nie goes before the modal verb: Nie mogę., Nie umiem.
• Nie muszę means "I don't have to"; "not allowed" is nie wolno or nie mogę.
• Chciałbym and chciałabym are polite set phrases for "I would like".