- żegnać (verb) (-am -asz) (impf), (pf) pożegnać = to say farewell / good-bye.
- żegnam! farewell!
- Note: pożegnanie (neuter noun) = a farewell
Some advice please … whats the difference between saying ‘Żegnam’ and ‘Żegnaj’? I guess that because ‘Żegnaj’ is imperative, it expresses a stronger emotion, but could anyone give me some context for both? Thanks!
“Żegnaj” and “żegnam” are often interchangeable, as they both imply a certain finality, as in “we might never see each other again”. I’d say “żegnaj” is the default way of saying “farewell”, while “żegnam” is only used when we want to signal that we’re somehow frustrated with the other person and the fact that we won’t meet them again is because of our own choice.
So “żegnaj(cie)” is something that a person on their deathbed might say to their family, or a farewell exchanged by two lovers who are parting their ways. “Żegnam” is more likely to be used by an angry employee who slams the door having told their boss that they’re quitting, something like that.
Though they’re technically different grammatical forms of the verb “żegnać”, it’s probably better treat them as fixed expressions. The two have slightly different connotations, but they don’t really make much sense from the grammatical point of view (i.e. “żegnaj” might be imperative, but it doesn’t make it sound stronger here).
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English Translation
Goodbye forever.
Thank you so much for the explanation provided for this. Am I correct in assuming the same rules and principles apply to the verb “witać”, where “witam”, “witaj” exist?
My understanding is that verbs ending -ać are conjugated in the same manner and that this applies to both żegnać and witać … however … there may well be some exceptions for some other verbs with the -ać ending. Hopefully alukasiak might comment further on this.