Pan and pani + verb

In Polish the polite you is pan (to a man) and pani (to a woman). Grammatically they behave like he and she, so the verb takes the third-person singular, never the ty-form:

• Skąd pan jest? (Where are you from, sir?)
• Czy pani ma chwilę? (Do you have a moment, madam?)
• Jak się pan nazywa? (What is your name, sir?)

Yes/no questions usually start with Czy, and pan/pani may stand before or after the verb: Czy pani zna...? or Czy zna pani...?

In the past tense the verb shows the gender of the person you speak to: pan był, miał, mógł but pani była, miała, mogła.

In dialogue and everyday texts pan and pani are written in lower case.