Postaw

Postaw is a Polish verb form that is most commonly encountered as an imperative. It is the second-person singular command form of the perfective verb postawić, meaning to place, set upright, or put somewhere. In everyday speech, postaw is used to give a direct instruction to one person, as in Postaw tę książkę na półce or Postaw to na stole.

In grammar, postaw functions as the imperative mood for the informal singular address. It does not convey ongoing action by itself but instructs the listener to complete the action described by the infinitive postawić. The form can be extended with pronouns and objects, for example Postaw to tutaj or Postaw go na stole, depending on what is being commanded.

Related forms include the imperfective partner stawiać, which denotes habitual or repeated placing, and the infinitive/stem stawić or postawić, used in various tenses and aspects. The noun postawienie describes the act or result of placing or setting something up. The pair postawić and stawiać together express a core Polish distinction between completed actions and ongoing or habitual actions related to positioning or arranging objects.

Usage notes: postaw is primarily used in direct speech and informal contexts. In formal writing, speakers might opt for more neutral constructions or the related imperfective forms to emphasize duration or repetition rather than a single completed action. The word is not typically a proper noun and is not used as a place name or surname in standard Polish.

See also: Polish imperative forms, postawić, stawić, stawiać, postawienie.