Learn Hardcore Polish: Rowerzysta chce pożyczyć bezpieczny kask od kolegi. - The cyclist wants to borrow a safe helmet from a friend.

Polish does not have articles like the/A/an. Whether a noun phrase is definite or indefinite is conveyed by context or by adding words such as ten (that/the) for definiteness or jakiś (some/a certain) for indefiniteness. In Rowerzysta chce pożyczyć bezpieczny kask od kolegi the phrase simply means “a safe helmet” (indefinite), but no separate word for “a” or “the” appears.

What does chce mean, and why is it followed by an infinitive?

Chce is the 3rd-person singular present form of chcieć (“to want”). When you want to express “someone wants to do something,” Polish uses chcieć+infinitive. For example:
• On chce jeść – He wants to eat
• Rowerzysta chce pożyczyć kask – The cyclist wants to borrow a helmet

What’s the difference between pożyczyć and pożyczać, and when do I use each?

These are two aspects of the same verb:

pożyczać = imperfective (“to borrow/lend” as a repeated or ongoing action)
pożyczyć = perfective (“to borrow/lend” as a one-time, completed action)
Since chce expresses a single act of borrowing, you use the perfective pożyczyć. If you talked about borrowing habitually or generally, you would use pożyczać.

How do I know that bezpieczny kask is the direct object, and why does bezpieczny not change form?

bezpieczny kask follows the verb pożyczyć, which governs a direct object.
Both bezpieczny and kask are in the accusative case. For masculine inanimate nouns like kask, the accusative form is identical to the nominative form, and adjectives (masculine inanimate) also look like nominative.
You identify it as the object because it answers “What is being borrowed?”

Why is od kolegi in the genitive case, and how do I form the genitive of kolega?

The preposition od (“from”) always requires the genitive case. The noun kolega (friend/male peer) in genitive singular drops -a and adds -i, giving kolegi. So od kolegi means “from (a) friend.”

What’s the stress pattern in ro-wer-zy-sta chce po-ży-czyć bez-pie-czny kask od ko-le-gi?

Polish words are normally stressed on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable. Marking stress in each word:
• ro-wer-ZY-sta
• chce (one syllable)
• po-ży-CZYĆ
• bez-PIE-czny
• kask (one syllable)
• od (one syllable)
• ko-LE-gi

How do I pronounce chce and pożyczyć, especially the cluster chc?

• chce = [xt͡ʂe]. Begin with the Polish “ch” (, like the ch in Scottish “loch”), then “c”+“e” as [t͡ʂe] (like ch in “chart” with an e).
• pożyczyć = [po-ˈʐɨ-t͡ʂɨt͡ɕ]. Key points:
– rz = [ʐ] (like zh in “vision”)
– cz = [t͡ʂ] (like ch in “church”)
– ć = [t͡ɕ] (a softer ch, somewhat like “tch” in “pitch” but palatalized)
Approximate English rendering: “poh-ZHIH-chych.”

Could I use chciałby instead of chce, and what difference does it make?

Yes. Chciałby is the conditional form (“he would like”). It’s more polite or tentative than the straightforward chce (“he wants”). Example:
• Rowerzysta chciałby pożyczyć kask od kolegi – The cyclist would like to borrow a helmet from a friend (politer).

If I want to say “The cyclist wants to lend a helmet to a friend,” how would that sentence look in Polish?

When you lend, the person receiving is in the dative case and you drop od. The verb is the same: pożyczyć coś komuś (“to lend something to someone”). So:
Rowerzysta chce pożyczyć kask koledze.
Here koledze is dative (“to a friend”).