No. 8,501 in Polish
potrafił
"Potrafił" means "he was able to" or "he managed to."
In a sentence
On potrafił naprawić samochód bez żadnej pomocy.
He was able to repair the car without any help.
'Potrafił' is used here to indicate the ability to accomplish a specific task in the past.
Kiedy był młody, potrafił biegać bardzo szybko.
When he was young, he could run very fast.
'Potrafił' expresses a general skill or capability that someone had during a specific period in the past.
Nie potrafił odpowiedzieć na trudne pytanie.
He was unable to answer the difficult question.
'Potrafił' is negated here ('nie potrafił') to indicate the lack of ability in the past.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “potrafił” in actual Polish podcasts.
Find “potrafił” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Polish podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there.
Get the appPolish books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).