Polish has no separate imperfect tense: instead you choose the imperfective verb of a pair in the past to show a repeated habit, a background description, or an action in progress. The perfective partner (often the same verb with a prefix) is reserved for the single completed event that interrupts or finishes things.
Examples
- Kiedy byłem mały, codziennie grałem w piłkę.
- When I was little, I played football every day.
- Padał deszcz, a ludzie szli szybko do domu.
- It was raining, and people were walking home quickly.
- Czytałam książkę, kiedy zadzwonił telefon.
- I was reading a book when the phone rang.
- Dawniej jeździliśmy nad morze co lato.
- We used to go to the seaside every summer.
The mistake to avoid
Using a perfective verb for a repeated habit ("codziennie przeczytałem") — repeated actions always take the imperfective: codziennie czytałem.
Where this fits in
Past habits & descriptions (imperfective past), Polish B1: Use the imperfective past to talk about how things used to be, describe scenes, and narrate ongoing actions interrupted by another event. Polish doesn't have a separate imperfect tense — instead, the imperfective aspect of the past tense does this work.