"Kto to zrobił?"

Translation: Who did this?

[roman_f1]

"Who had done it?" - why not?

[elbose86]

Yeah, that's fine I think, but I thought I'd take this opportunity to point out that the title of this lesson (Past Perfect) shouldn't be understood as being an exact equivalent to our (English) Past Perfect. It just means Perfective verbs in the Past tense, as far as I'm aware.

Usually the Past Simple would be best to translate them to, because the concept simply requires a finished action in the past (in English we only use Past Perfect to contrast two actions in the past so that we know which occurred first, it's a very specific tense).

[chico.rios]

Seems pretty right to me. Have you reported it?

[roman_f1]

Of course, I have.

[Darlolass0]

Should it not be "who has done it" or "who did it"? If you say "who had done it" that is a further back in the past tense (pluperfect?) (no idea how to translate that in Polish though)

[immery]

there is no "activ" plurperfect in Polish, so all three sentences (did, have done, had done) translate to zrobił. Unless you really want to go for archaic/old fashioned feel, "Kto był to zrobił?".

[Darlolass0]

Ah thanks! That is good news - one less tense I will have to learn then!

[fmarkom]

So the general question form is masculine here, since I cannot know the gender of someone who I don't know who they are, I mean the answer to this could be in any gender, right? I mean "Kto to zrobił? - Ja to zrobiłam. / Wy to zrobiliście."?

[Jellei]

That's right, "kto" is just grammatically masculine singular, even if you are in a girls-only school or if you're sure that it must have been more than one person.

Similarly, "co" is always neuter ("Co to było?") regardless of the gender of the answer.

[Zimowski]

Can't "zrobił" be "made" here?
I wrote "who had made it?" - seems ok to me.

[immery]

Report, seems ok to me too. But maybe past perfect and made are something nobody thought to use here.

[Zimowski]

Reported.
Well, the lesson was called "past perfect". That was the only reason I used it here :)

[immery]

the name of the lesson is misleading. It should be something more like "perfective verbs in past"

They can be translated into past perfect, present perfect or past simple depending on context.

Polish used to have equivalent of Past Perfect, but it's not used any more, only by some old people or when styling the sentence to feel old-fashioned. And it is definitely not taught in this course.

[Zimowski]

Thank you for the answer! :)

Is this past perfect something like "robiłem był"? I've seen this construction in my old textbook and always wondered how to use it.

[immery]

Yes that is it.

here is some info http://jezykowo2.blogspot.com/2010/11/13-czas-zaprzeszy-plusquamperfectum-w.html

You ony use it for stylistic purpose, so unless you are planning on becoming translator or writer you would not need it.

[J.i.t.L]

Is it ok to change the word order to "kto zrobił to?"

[Jellei]

Not really, that's a rather strange emphasis on "it".