Learn Hardcore Polish: Noce bywają długie.

noce is the nominative plural form of noc. We use it because the sentence talks about nights as the subject in general. The noun noc undergoes a stem change in the plural: noc → noce.

Where is the stress in Noce bywają długie, and how should each word be pronounced?

Polish typically stresses the penultimate syllable. Pronunciation is:
– Noce: NO-ce
– bywają: by-WA-ją (the “ą” is a nasal vowel, like French “on”)
– długie: DŁU-gie

What is the infinitive of bywają, and what nuance does this verb carry in this sentence?

bywają is the 3rd person plural present tense of the imperfective verb bywać (“to occur; to tend to be”). Here it means “nights tend to be” or “sometimes nights are,” implying that being long happens occasionally rather than always.

Why use bywają instead of the more straightforward są (“are”)?

Using bywają adds a sense of irregularity or occasional occurrence.
– Noce są długie would state “nights are long” as a fixed fact.
– Noce bywają długie suggests “nights can be long” or “sometimes nights are long,” without making an absolute claim.