Gramy, dopóki talia się nie skończy.

Gramy means we play.

It is the 1st person plural form of the verb grać (to play). In Polish, the present tense is often used the same way as in English for general or ongoing actions:

• gram = I play / I am playing
• grasz = you play
• gramy = we play

In this sentence, Gramy means we keep playing / we play.

Dopóki means until or as long as, depending on context.

In this sentence, it means until:

• Gramy, dopóki... = We play until...

A very important thing for learners to notice is that dopóki often goes with a verb containing nie in Polish, even when English would not use a negative verb.

This is one of the most common questions learners ask.

In Polish, after dopóki (until), the verb is very often written with nie, but the whole meaning is still positive in English.

So:

• dopóki talia się nie skończy
  literally: until the deck does not finish itself
• natural English: until the deck runs out / until the deck is finished

This nie is a normal grammatical pattern after dopóki. It does not necessarily make the whole sentence negative in the way English would.

Talia means a deck of cards.

So in this sentence:

• talia = the deck

It is in the nominative singular, because it is the subject of skończy się.

Polish does not have articles like a or the.

So talia can mean:

• a deck
• the deck

The exact meaning comes from context. In this sentence, English naturally uses the deck, because both speakers already know which deck they are talking about.

Skończyć się means to end, to run out, to be used up, or to come to an end, depending on context.

Here, talia się skończy means something like:

• the deck will run out
• the deck will be finished
• the cards will be used up

The się is part of the verb here and helps create the meaning to come to an end / to run out, rather than to finish something.

Compare:

• skończyć coś = to finish something
• skończyć się = to end / to run out

For example:

• Skończyłem grę. = I finished the game.
• Gra się skończyła. = The game ended.

This is about aspect, which is very important in Polish.

• kończyć się = imperfective = to be ending / to end repeatedly
• skończyć się = perfective = to end completely / to come to an end

In this sentence, we are talking about the moment when the deck is completely used up, so Polish uses the perfective verb:

• talia się skończy = the deck will run out

Also, perfective verbs do not normally have a true present-tense meaning. Their present forms usually refer to the future.

So skończy here means will end / will run out, not ends right now.

Because the subject is talia (the deck), which is singular.

The verb has to agree with the subject:

• talia się skończy = the deck will run out

If the subject were plural, the verb would change:

• karty się skończą = the cards will run out

Się is a very common Polish word with several uses. Here it is part of the verb skończyć się.

In this sentence, it does not mean oneself in the English sense. Instead, it helps form a verb meaning:

• to come to an end
• to run out

So you should learn skończyć się as a whole expression.

This is often the easiest approach for learners:

• skończyć = finish something
• skończyć się = end / run out

Not with the same meaning.

• talia skończy by itself would sound wrong here.
• talia się skończy is the correct form for the deck will run out / be finished.

Without się, skończyć normally needs an object, because it means to finish something.

Yes, the comma is standard here.

In Polish, when a sentence has a main clause and a subordinate clause introduced by words like dopóki, you normally use a comma:

• Gramy, dopóki talia się nie skończy.

So the structure is:

• Gramy = main clause
• dopóki talia się nie skończy = subordinate clause

Yes, Polish word order is more flexible than English, though some versions sound more natural than others.

For example, you could also say:

• Dopóki talia się nie skończy, gramy.

This still means We play until the deck runs out.

The original order is very natural in conversation:

• Gramy, dopóki talia się nie skończy.

Sometimes aż can also mean until, but it is not always interchangeable with dopóki.

In this sentence, dopóki is a very natural choice for until in the sense of continuing an action up to a certain point.

So for a learner, the safest choice here is:

• Gramy, dopóki talia się nie skończy.

You may encounter aż in similar sentences, but dopóki is especially useful to remember with this pattern.

It is natural and correct.

It sounds like something you might say while explaining the rules of a card game:

• Gramy, dopóki talia się nie skończy.
  We play until the deck runs out.

A slightly more explicit version could also be:

• Gramy, dopóki nie skończy się talia.

This has the same meaning. Polish allows both word orders:

• talia się nie skończy
• nie skończy się talia

Both are correct.