Kamień leży na szlaku turystycznym.

Because leżeć means to lie or to be lying in a horizontal/resting position.

So:

• Kamień leży... = The stone is lying...
• Kamień jest... would usually need an adjective or noun after it, such as Kamień jest duży (The stone is big).

In Polish, just like in English, to be and to lie are not the same idea. Since a stone is resting somewhere, leży is the natural choice.

Kamień is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of the sentence.

It is the thing doing the action of lying:

• Kamień = the stone
• leży = lies / is lying

So the basic subject form is used.

Because na can mean on or on/at in the sense of location, and with a location meaning it usually takes the locative case.

Here the phrase means on the tourist trail / on the hiking trail, so we use:

• na
  • locative

That is why:

• szlak → szlaku
• turystyczny → turystycznym

So:

• na szlaku turystycznym = on the tourist trail

Because after na in a location phrase, the noun goes into the locative singular.

The noun szlak (trail, route) is masculine, and its locative singular form is:

• szlak → szlaku

This is something you simply need to learn with the noun’s declension pattern.

Because adjectives in Polish must agree with the noun they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Since szlaku is:

• masculine
• singular
• locative

the adjective must also be masculine singular locative:

• turystyczny → turystycznym

So the whole phrase matches correctly:

• na szlaku turystycznym

Literally, it means tourist trail.

In natural English, depending on context, it can mean:

• hiking trail
• marked trail
• tourist route
• walking trail

In many contexts, szlak turystyczny strongly suggests an outdoor trail intended for walkers or hikers.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Kamień ≈ KAH-myen
• leży ≈ LEH-zhih
• na ≈ nah
• szlaku ≈ SHLAH-koo
• turystycznym ≈ too-ri-STIHCH-nim

A few useful sound notes:

• ń in kamień is a soft n sound, a bit like the ny in canyon
• ż sounds like the s in measure
• sz sounds like sh
• czn in turystycznym can be tricky; in normal speech it sounds compact and smooth, not fully separated

Yes. Polish word order is much more flexible than English word order.

The neutral order here is:

• Kamień leży na szlaku turystycznym.

But you could also say:

• Na szlaku turystycznym leży kamień.

This version puts more emphasis on the location, as if answering Where is the stone?

The meaning stays basically the same, but the emphasis changes.

Yes. Leży is 3rd person singular present tense of leżeć.

It can translate as either:

• lies
• is lying

Which English version sounds better depends on context. Polish present tense often covers both a simple and continuous meaning that English separates.

So Kamień leży... can mean:

• The stone lies...
• The stone is lying...

Because Polish does not have articles like a or the.

So kamień can mean:

• a stone
• the stone

The context tells you which one is meant.

That is completely normal in Polish.

Yes, absolutely.

• Kamień leży na szlaku. = The stone is lying on the trail.

Adding turystycznym makes it more specific:

• szlak = trail / route
• szlak turystyczny = tourist trail / hiking trail

So the longer version gives more detail, but both are correct.

You add nie before the verb:

• Kamień nie leży na szlaku turystycznym.

That means:

• The stone is not lying on the tourist trail.

In this sentence, the other forms stay the same:

• kamień remains nominative
• na szlaku turystycznym remains locative after na