się (bezosobowe)

The impersonal się (konstrukcja bezpodmiotowa z się) is one of the most common ways to generalize in Polish. Unlike the English 'one,' which can feel formal, this construction is neutral and used in everyday speech.

1. Formation:
To create this form, use the 3rd-person singular form of the verb and add się. In the past tense, the neuter singular form is used. For the future tense, the formation depends on the verb's aspect. For imperfective verbs, use the 3rd-person singular of być (będzie) + się + the infinitive or the 3rd-person neuter past. For perfective verbs, use the 3rd-person singular future form + się.

• Mówi się (One says / People say)
• Piło się (One drank / People used to drink)
• Będzie się mówić / Będzie się mówiło (One will say / People will say)
• Zrobi się to jutro (One will do it tomorrow / It will get done tomorrow)

Word Order: As a clitic, się prefers the second position in a clause and cannot start a sentence in standard Polish. If the sentence starts with the verb, się follows it (Mówi się). If the sentence starts with another word, like an adverb or pronoun, się typically precedes the verb (Tu się nie pali). In negated sentences starting with nie, się usually follows the verb (e.g., Nie mówi się) because it should not be placed between nie and the verb.

2. Usage and Nuance:

• Public Rules: Used on signs and instructions (e.g., 'No smoking').
• General Customs: Describing what 'people' typically do in a culture.
• Recipes: Describing steps without addressing the reader directly.

Note on the Past Tense: While the się construction is common in the past (piło się), it is considered informal. For formal or objective writing, the -no/-to form is preferred.

3. Important Constraints:

• Inherently reflexive verbs: You cannot use this construction with verbs that are already inherently reflexive (verbs that always have się, like bać się). To generalize with these verbs, Polish speakers typically use the 3rd-person plural (e.g., Boją się pająków - They/People are afraid of spiders) or the irregular noun człowiek (a person) or ludzie (people) as a generic subject.
• No named agent: You cannot name the agent (the doer of the action) in this construction. You cannot use przez (by) to say who did it. If you need to specify the agent, you must use the standard passive voice.

4. Case Government and Negation:
Even though the subject is removed, the verb still governs its object in the same case. If the verb takes the accusative, the object remains in the accusative (e.g., Pije się kawę). Crucially, the object does not become the nominative subject, and the verb remains strictly 3rd-person singular even if the object is plural (e.g., Czyta się gazety - One reads newspapers). However, due to the rule of genitive after negation, if the impersonal construction is negated, an accusative object must change to the genitive (e.g., Nie pije się kawy).

5. The Dative Experiencer:
This construction is frequently combined with a dative experiencer (like mi, ci, nam) to describe how an action feels to a specific person, rather than generalizing for everyone. For example, Dobrze mi się tu pracuje (I work well here / Working here is pleasant for me).