Polish, as I understand it

Brać     -     the verb to take in it's imperfective form.  Like English, you can take a shower, take a tablet , take no prisoners, take payment, take something (with your hands), take by force and more besides. Biorę prysznic     -     I'm taking a shower Czy bierzesz prysznic?     -     Are you taking a shower? bierze      -     s/he is taking plurals: bierzemy / bierzecie / biorą     Brałem prysznic     -     I was taking a shower (said by a male) Brałam prysznic     -     I was taking a shower (said by a woman) brałeś / brałaś - 2nd person sing. masc. / fem. past tense brał / brała - 3rd I'm going to leave the plurals for now.  Partly for simplicity and partly because I'm an uptight Englishman and communal showering is just too horrific to contemplate and only the young focus on the sexy side of showering with your partner, ignoring th...

Boli mnie głowa, więc powinnam wziąć tabletkę - I have a headache, so I should take a tablet Brać, imperfective form     /     Wziąć, perfective form Wzięłem ♂ / Wzięłam ♀ już dziś tabletkę - I've already taken a tablet today. The past perfective form seems more useful when taking tablets because it is such a quick activity, it is completed very quickly.  The present imperfective form could be used to say you take tablets for a condition. Biorę tabletki na nadciśnienie - I take tablets for hypertension. Brać / Wziąć have other meanings apart from taking medication, depending on context. Such as taking with your hands (grabbing), taking advantage of something, to overcome an obstacle and to have sex. Note that the perfective verb, zabrać, might look like it is the perfective form of brać and seems an easier option than wziąć, but it is the perfective form of zabierać and cannot be used in the context of taking medication.  It does mean to take, but in other ...