warunkowe

Warunkowe is a term in Polish grammar used to describe constructions that express a condition or hypothetical situation. It covers two related but distinct phenomena: the tryb warunkowy (conditional mood) and the zdania warunkowe (conditional sentences). The conditional mood is a verbal category used to indicate that an action depends on a condition, often expressing wishes, polite requests, or hypothetical outcomes. In practice it is formed by attaching the appropriate conditional ending to the past tense stem of the verb (for example, zrobiłbym, zrobiłbyś, zrobilibyśmy).

Conditional sentences consist of two parts: a subordinate clause that states the condition (usually introduced by jeśli, jeżeli, gdyby, o ile) and a main clause that states the consequence. They encode real conditions, possible future results, or unreal/hypothetical situations, depending on tense and mood. Polish typically distinguishes several types of zdania warunkowe. A common three-way division is:

- Type I (real condition): jeśli pada deszcz, zostaniemy w domu. (If it rains, we will stay at home.)

- Type II (hypothetical present): gdyby miał pieniądze, kupiłby sobie samochód. (If he had money, he would buy a car.)

- Type III (unreal past): gdyby nie było korków, dotarlibyśmy na czas. (If there had not been traffic jams, we would have arrived on time.)

Use of jako/jeśli/gdyby and variations in word order are common in Polish conditional constructions. The term warunkowe thus encompasses both the morphological system of the conditional mood and the syntactic system of conditional clauses, which together express conditions and their possible outcomes in speech and writing. See also: zdania warunkowe, tryb warunkowy.