Breakdown of Gdy pada śnieg, zielone chmury znikają za białym niebem.
gdy
when
padać
to snow
śnieg
the snow
zielony
green
chmura
the cloud
znikać
to disappear
za
behind
biały
white
niebo
the sky
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Questions & Answers about Gdy pada śnieg, zielone chmury znikają za białym niebem.
Why is gdy used at the beginning instead of kiedy?
Both gdy and kiedy can mean “when” in Polish. gdy is slightly more literary or neutral in written contexts, while kiedy is very common in everyday speech. You could swap them here without changing the meaning: Kiedy pada śnieg, zielone chmury znikają za białym niebem.
Why does Polish use pada śnieg for “it snows”?
Polish has no dummy subject like English it. Instead, weather verbs are used impersonally: pada is the 3rd person singular of padać (“to fall”). śnieg stays in the nominative. Literally it’s “falls snow.”
What case is białym niebem, and why?
niebem (“sky”) is in the instrumental case (singular) because certain prepositions, including za when indicating location (“behind something”), require the instrumental. You describe where something is by saying “behind (i.e. after) the white sky” = za białym niebem.
Why is zielone chmury in the nominative plural?
chmury (“clouds”) is the subject of znikają (“they disappear”). Subjects are in the nominative. Since chmury is feminine, plural, the adjective zielone also takes the nominative plural ending -e.
Can the word order be changed?
Yes. Polish word order is fairly flexible. You could say Zielone chmury znikają za białym niebem, gdy pada śnieg, to emphasize the clouds first. However, fronting the time clause (Gdy…) is very common.
Why is there no article (“the” or “a”) before śnieg, chmury, or niebem?
Polish does not use definite or indefinite articles. Nouns stand alone, and context tells you if they’re definite or general. Here it’s clear from context.
Does znikają imply a one-time action or a habitual/ongoing one?
znikają is present tense. It can express a habitual action (“they disappear every time it snows”) or a current process (“right now they’re vanishing”). English distinguishes “are disappearing” vs. “disappear,” but Polish uses znikają for both.
What is the aspect of znikają?
znikają is imperfective, meaning it focuses on the process or repeated action. The perfective counterpart would be znikną (“they will vanish/be gone”). You’d use that if you want to stress the completion of disappearance.
Can gdy ever govern another case or affect verb form?
No, gdy is just a subordinating conjunction for time clauses; it doesn’t change noun cases or verb forms. It simply links the clause gdy pada śnieg to the main clause.