utrzymujacy

Utrzymujacy, written with diacritics as utrzymujący, is the present active participle of the Polish verb utrzymywać (or utrzymać). It functions as an adjective describing someone or something that performs the act of maintaining, keeping, or sustaining. In non-diacritic text the form is often rendered as utrzymujacy. The participle follows the regular adjectival inflection patterns of Polish.

Usage and meaning

The word denotes an ongoing or habitual maintaining action. It is commonly used to describe people who maintain something for others, such as finances, order, or relationships, or objects and systems that keep a state or condition. It can appear as an attributive modifier (before the noun) or as a predicative descriptor after a linking verb. Examples include a person utrzymujący rodzinę (a breadwinner) and firma utrzymująca wysokie standardy (a company maintaining high standards). The sense is active and agentive: the subject is the one who maintains.

Relation to related terms

Utrzymujacy is derived from utrzymywać/utrzymać, whose nouns include utrzymanie (maintenance, sustenance) and utrzymanie porządku (maintenance of order). The form is the present participle, contrasting with the passive participle utrzymany (maintained). In formal or legal or descriptive writing, the agentive sense is common, but in everyday speech, simpler phrases may be used.

Orthography and variants

In standard Polish, the correct spelling uses diacritics: utrzymujący. In ASCII texts or programming contexts, it may appear as utrzymujacy. The meaning remains the same, though diacritic-free forms are less preferred in polished prose.