potrafić

• potrefić (Middle Polish)

From po- +‎ trafić.^[1][2] First attested in 1544.^[3] Compare Czech potrefit, Kashubian pòtrafic, Carpathian Rusyn потрафити (potrafyty), Silesian potrefić, Serbo-Croatian pòtrefiti／по̀трефити, and Slovak potrafiť.

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -afit͡ɕ
• Syllabification: po‧tra‧fić

potrafić impf or pf (imperfective (obsolete or dialectal) potrafiać)^[4][5]

1. (intransitive, auxiliary) to know how, to be able to, can (to have enough skill, strength, means, or ability to do something)

   Synonym: umieć

2. (intransitive, auxiliary, of objects) to be able to, can (to be designed for something)
3. (intransitive, auxiliary) to be able to, can (to do something regularly, usually considered negative by the speaker)
4. (intransitive, auxiliary) to be able to, can (to go to certain limits in one's behavior or to reach a certain state)

potrafić pf

1. (transitive, obsolete) to capture likeness; to hit the mark (to draw or carve successfully)
2. (transitive, obsolete) to hit the mark (to succeed, to manage to do)

   Synonyms: dokazać, poradzić sobie, zaradzić

3. (transitive, Middle Polish) to meet, to come across, to find

   Synonyms: spotkać, natknąć się, znaleźć

4. (transitive, Middle Polish) to achieve, to get

   Synonyms: osiągnąć, uzyskać

5. (transitive, Middle Polish) to hit

   Synonyms: ugodzić, uderzyć

6. (transitive, Middle Polish) to happen to someone, to meet
7. (transitive, Middle Polish) to reach, to get somewhere

   Synonym: dostać się

8. (reflexive with się, Middle Polish) to occur, to happen, to ensue

   Synonyms: przydarzyć się, zdarzyć się, zaistnieć

   1. (reflexive with się, Middle Polish, of people) to appear, to show up

      Synonym: zjawić się

9. (reflexive with się, Middle Polish) to meet, to meet up, to meet each other

   Synonym: spotkać się

Complex future forms such as będzie potrafić/potrafił(a/o) are proscribed. Instead only the simple future potrafi or będzie umieć/umiał(a/o) are prescribed.

The active adjectival participle potrafiący is also proscribed, instead either a subordinate clause with który or umiejący are prescribed.

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), potrafić is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 21 times in scientific texts, 5 times in news, 17 times in essays, 32 times in fiction, and 36 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 111 times, making it the 553rd most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.^[6]

• potrafić in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• potrafić in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “potrafić się”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
• “POTRAFIĆ”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 14.01.2020
• Paweł Kupiszewski (14.01.2020) “POTRAFIĆ%20SIĘ”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century]
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “potrafić”, in Słownik języka polskiego
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “potrafić”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1908), “potrafić”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 4, Warsaw, page 812
• potrafić in Narodowy Fotokorpus Języka Polskiego