Dodaję nawóz do podłoża i sprawdzam drenaż oraz podstawkę.

In Polish, subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

• dodaję = I add / I am adding
• sprawdzam = I check / I am checking

So ja is unnecessary unless you want emphasis, contrast, or clarification.

• Ja dodaję nawóz... = I’m the one adding the fertilizer...

Most of the time, just Dodaję... sounds more natural.

Dodaję is the 1st person singular present tense form of dodawać, which is an imperfective verb.

It means:

• I add
• I am adding

depending on context.

This form is used when you are describing:

• an action happening now
• a repeated/habitual action
• a process

The perfective partner is dodać, but you would not normally use a present-tense form of a perfective verb for a current action. For example:

• Dodaję nawóz = I’m adding fertilizer
• Dodam nawóz = I will add fertilizer

Because nawóz is the direct object of dodaję, so it is in the accusative case.

For many masculine inanimate nouns in Polish, the accusative singular looks exactly the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: nawóz
• accusative: nawóz

That is why the word does not change here.

Because the preposition do requires the genitive case.

The noun is:

• dictionary form: podłoże = substrate / growing medium

After do, it becomes:

• do podłoża

So this is a normal case change:

• podłoże → podłoża

Also, the verb pattern is important here:

• dodawać coś do czegoś = to add something to something

So dodaję nawóz do podłoża literally follows the standard Polish structure:
I add fertilizer to the substrate.

Not exactly.

Podłoże is a more technical or general word meaning:

• substrate
• growing medium
• potting medium
• sometimes base material

In plant/gardening contexts, it often refers to what the plant grows in, which may or may not be ordinary soil.

Ziemia usually means:

• soil
• earth
• dirt

So in a horticultural sentence, podłoże can sound more precise than ziemia.

Sprawdzam is the 1st person singular present tense of sprawdzać, an imperfective verb.

It means:

• I check
• I am checking

Like dodaję, it can describe:

• what someone is doing right now
• a repeated action
• a step in a process

Its perfective partner is sprawdzić:

• sprawdzam = I am checking / I check
• sprawdzę = I will check / I’ll check

So the sentence uses imperfective verbs because it is describing actions as part of a process.

Both words are direct objects of sprawdzam, so both are in the accusative case. But different noun types change differently.

1. drenaż

This is a masculine inanimate noun, so in the singular its accusative usually looks like the nominative.

• nominative: drenaż
• accusative: drenaż

2. podstawka

This is a feminine noun ending in -a. In the singular accusative, that -a usually changes to -ę.

• nominative: podstawka
• accusative: podstawkę

So:

• sprawdzam drenaż
• sprawdzam podstawkę

are both grammatically normal.

In this context, podstawka most likely means the saucer or tray under a flowerpot.

So if you are talking about plant care, sprawdzam ... podstawkę probably means you are checking:

• whether water has collected there
• whether drainage is working properly
• whether the pot is sitting correctly

It can mean other kinds of stand/base/support in other contexts, but with plants it usually means the pot saucer.

Yes, both can mean and, but they are not always identical in tone.

• i = the basic everyday word for and
• oraz = a slightly more formal or polished version of and

In this sentence:

• i links the two main actions:

  • dodaję nawóz...
  • sprawdzam...

• oraz links the two things being checked:

  • drenaż
  • podstawkę

So the sentence structure is:

• I add fertilizer to the substrate and check the drainage as well as the saucer.

Using oraz here sounds a bit more written or careful than using i twice, but both would be possible in many contexts.

Yes, absolutely.

You could say:

Dodaję nawóz do podłoża i sprawdzam drenaż i podstawkę.

That is grammatically correct. However, many speakers prefer oraz in the second part to avoid repeating i and to make the sentence sound smoother or slightly more formal.

So:

• ... i sprawdzam drenaż oraz podstawkę = a bit more polished
• ... i sprawdzam drenaż i podstawkę = perfectly understandable, a bit plainer

Yes. Polish word order is much more flexible than English because case endings show grammatical relationships.

The original sentence is natural and clear:

Dodaję nawóz do podłoża i sprawdzam drenaż oraz podstawkę.

But you could also say things like:

• Do podłoża dodaję nawóz i sprawdzam drenaż oraz podstawkę.
• Nawóz dodaję do podłoża i sprawdzam drenaż oraz podstawkę.

These versions shift emphasis slightly:

• starting with do podłoża emphasizes where the fertilizer is being added
• starting with nawóz emphasizes the fertilizer itself

For learners, the original order is a good neutral model.

Yes, it is in the present tense.

Both verbs are present forms:

• dodaję = I add / I am adding
• sprawdzam = I check / I am checking

In English, the best translation depends on context:

• If someone is describing what they are doing right now:
  I’m adding fertilizer to the substrate and checking the drainage and the saucer.

• If someone is describing a routine or usual procedure:
  I add fertilizer to the substrate and check the drainage and the saucer.

Polish present tense often covers both meanings.

A few pronunciation points are especially useful here:

• dodaję: the j sounds like English y
• nawóz: final ó sounds like u
• podłoża: ł sounds like English w, and ż sounds like the s in measure
• drenaż: final ż again sounds like zh
• podstawkę: final ę is a nasal vowel; in everyday speech it is often pronounced less strongly than learners expect

A rough learner-friendly guide:

• dodaję ≈ do-DA-ye
• nawóz ≈ NA-voos
• podłoża ≈ pod-WWO-zha
• drenaż ≈ DRE-nazh
• podstawkę ≈ pot-STAF-keng (very approximate)

The most important sounds to notice are:

• ł = w
• ż = zh
• j = y

You would normally use the perfective verbs:

• dodawać → dodać
• sprawdzać → sprawdzić

So the future version would be:

Dodam nawóz do podłoża i sprawdzę drenaż oraz podstawkę.

That means:

• I will add fertilizer to the substrate and check the drainage and the saucer.

This is a very common Polish pattern:

• imperfective present = ongoing/habitual present
• perfective “present” form = future meaning