Nie idę na spacer, ponieważ pada deszcz.

I am not going for a walk because it is raining.

Breakdown of Nie idę na spacer, ponieważ pada deszcz.

• ja: I
• iść: to go
• nie: not
• na: for
• spacer: the walk
• padać: to rain
• deszcz: the rain
• ponieważ: because

Questions & Answers about Nie idę na spacer, ponieważ pada deszcz.

How do you form the negative present tense in Polish, as in nie idę?

In Polish, you negate a verb by placing nie immediately before it. For the first person singular present you take the affirmative form idę (I go) and prepend nie, giving nie idę (I’m not going). This rule applies to all persons and tenses:

• ja nie idę
• ty nie idziesz
• on/ona nie idzie

Why is there no personal pronoun ja (I) in nie idę na spacer?

Polish is a pro-drop language: subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already indicates person and number. idę clearly means I go, so ja is redundant. You’d only include ja for emphasis:

• Ja nie idę na spacer. (I, personally, am not going for a walk.)

Why is the present tense used in nie idę na spacer instead of a future form like nie pójdę?

Polish uses the present form of iść (to go) for near-future actions, similar to English “I’m not going (to).” If you want to stress a single completed future action, you use the perfective verb pójść in the future:

• Nie idę na spacer. (I’m not going for a walk [now/soon].)
• Nie pójdę na spacer jutro. (I will not go for a walk tomorrow.)

What is the difference between ponieważ and bo?

Both mean “because,” but differ in register and syntax:

• bo is informal, used in speech and simple writing:
  Nie idę na spacer, bo pada deszcz.
• ponieważ is more formal and common in writing or formal speech.
  Neither changes the S-V-O order in the subordinate clause (see next question).

Why is the word order pada deszcz in the subordinate clause?

Polish allows relatively free word order, but the neutral SVO order places the verb before or after the subject depending on emphasis. Here:

• pada deszcz is neutral: verb–subject.
• You could say deszcz pada, but that slightly emphasizes deszcz.
  Conjunctions like ponieważ do not push the verb to the end (unlike German).

Can you swap the clauses? For example, start with Ponieważ pada deszcz?

Yes. Polish allows you to begin with the subordinate clause:

• Ponieważ pada deszcz, nie idę na spacer.
  You can also invert clauses freely to change emphasis.

Why is the preposition na used with spacer?

To express purpose of movement for countable nouns, Polish uses na plus the accusative:

• iść na spacer (go for a walk)
• iść na zakupy (go shopping)
  na here conveys “for the duration/purpose of.”

How do you conjugate the impersonal verb padać in the present?

padać (to fall, used for precipitation) is often used only in the third person singular:

• pada (it’s falling)
  For other forms you could say:
• ja padam (rare, “I’m falling”)
  But in weather contexts only pada (it rains) is used.

Could you use jest deszcz instead of pada deszcz?

No. Polish does not say jest deszcz. You say:

• pada deszcz (it’s raining)
  Or use an adjective:
• jest deszczowo (it’s rainy)
  You could also say leje colloquially for “it’s pouring.”

How do you pronounce ponieważ, and where is the stress?

ponieważ is pronounced [po-NYA-vash]. Stress falls on the penultimate syllable:

• po-NI-waż → the second syllable is stressed.