Gdy pada śnieg, zielone chmury znikają za białym niebem.

When it snows, the green clouds disappear behind the white sky.

Breakdown of Gdy pada śnieg, zielone chmury znikają za białym niebem.

• gdy: when
• padać: to snow
• śnieg: the snow
• zielony: green

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.