Learn Hardcore Polish: Rano wyrzucam śmieci do kosza na śmieci w kuchni. - In the morning I throw away the trash into the trash bin in the kitchen.

Ja wyrzucam śmieci… – I throw away the trash…
Wyrzucam śmieci… – same meaning; ja is usually omitted unless you want to emphasize it (e.g. Ja wyrzucam, nie ty. – I throw it away, not you.)

Why do we say rano and not something like w rano for “in the morning”?

Rano is an adverb meaning “in the morning / mornings”, so it does not need a preposition.

Rano wyrzucam śmieci. – I throw the trash away in the morning.
You do not say w rano.

If you want to be more specific, you can say:

Każdego rana wyrzucam śmieci. – Every morning I throw the trash away.
Wczesnym rankiem wyrzucam śmieci. – Early in the morning I throw the trash away.

But the basic everyday way is simply rano.

What is the difference between wyrzucam and wyrzucę?

Both come from the verb pair wyrzucać / wyrzucić – to throw away.

wyrzucam – imperfective, present tense
- Wyrzucam śmieci. – I throw away / I am throwing away trash (habitually or right now).
wyrzucę – perfective, future tense
- Wyrzucę śmieci. – I will throw away the trash (one specific future action).

Polish uses aspect (imperfective vs perfective) rather than continuous forms:

Habit / repeated action: Rano wyrzucam śmieci.
One future action: Za chwilę wyrzucę śmieci. – I’ll throw the trash away in a moment.

Does śmieci mean “trashes”? Why is it plural?

Śmieci is grammatically plural, but in English we usually translate it as “trash” or “garbage”, which are uncountable.

śmieci – plural form used for trash in general
There is a singular śmieć, but:
- as a noun it’s very rare for actual trash
- more commonly it’s a negative word for a person (like “scum”).

So in practice you say:

Wyrzucam śmieci. – I throw out the trash.
Dużo śmieci. – a lot of trash.
You do not normally use a singular form for “a trash”.

Why is śmieci repeated in śmieci do kosza na śmieci? Isn’t that redundant?

Literally it is “trash into the trash bin”, so yes, the word śmieci appears twice:

śmieci – trash
kosz na śmieci – a bin for trash

This is completely natural in Polish and very common:

Wyrzucam śmieci do kosza na śmieci.

But in context, you can shorten it to:

Wyrzucam śmieci do kosza. – I throw the trash into the bin.

People will still understand it’s a trash bin from context.

Why is it do kosza, not do kosz or do koszu?

Preposition do (to, into, up to) requires the genitive case.

The noun kosz (basket, bin) declines like this (singular):

Nominative (basic form): kosz – a bin
Genitive: kosza
Dative: koszowi
Accusative: kosz
Instrumental: koszem
Locative: koszu

With do we must use genitive:

do kosza – into the bin
z kosza – from the bin (also genitive)

So:

Wyrzucam śmieci do kosza. – correct
do kosz – wrong
do koszu – wrong case after do.

Why is it w kuchni and not w kuchnia or w kuchnię?

The preposition w can take locative or accusative, depending on meaning:

w
- locative → location (“where?”)
w
- accusative → movement into (“where to?”)

In this sentence, it’s about location (where the bin is), so we use locative:

Nominative: kuchnia – kitchen
Locative: (w) kuchni – in the kitchen

So:

do kosza na śmieci w kuchni – into the trash bin in the kitchen (static location)

Contrast:

Idę do kuchni. – I’m going to the kitchen. (accusative)
Jestem w kuchni. – I am in the kitchen. (locative)

Here, w kuchni answers “where is the bin?” not “where am I going?”.

Can I change the word order, for example: Rano w kuchni wyrzucam śmieci do kosza na śmieci?

Yes. Polish word order is relatively flexible; you mainly change the order for emphasis or style, not basic meaning.

All of these are possible and natural:

Rano wyrzucam śmieci do kosza na śmieci w kuchni.
Rano w kuchni wyrzucam śmieci do kosza na śmieci.
W kuchni rano wyrzucam śmieci do kosza na śmieci.

Differences:

Putting rano first emphasizes when.
Putting w kuchni first emphasizes where.

What you generally avoid is splitting things in a confusing way, e.g.:

Rano wyrzucam do kosza śmieci na śmieci w kuchni. – sounds odd and messy.

Stick to keeping logical chunks together:

wyrzucam śmieci
do kosza na śmieci
w kuchni
rano (time) can move freely.

How would I say “I take out the trash” (carry it outside), not just “throw it into the bin”?

Wyrzucać śmieci literally means to throw trash away, usually into a bin.

For “take the trash out” (from the apartment/house to a dumpster), Poles more often say:

Wynoszę śmieci. – I take out the trash.
- wynosić / wynieść – to carry something out (e.g. of the house).

So:

Rano wyrzucam śmieci do kosza na śmieci w kuchni. – In the morning I throw trash into the kitchen bin.
Wieczorem wynoszę śmieci. – In the evening I take the trash out.

Why is there no “the” or “a” in the Polish sentence?

Polish has no articles like English a/an/the. Whether you mean “the trash” or “some trash” is understood from context.

Rano wyrzucam śmieci do kosza na śmieci w kuchni.
Can mean:
- In the morning I throw the trash into the trash bin in the kitchen.
- In the morning I throw some trash into the trash bin in the kitchen.

To make something more specific, Polish uses other words, not articles, for example:

te śmieci – these / those trash
moje śmieci – my trash
jakieś śmieci – some trash

What exactly does kosz na śmieci mean? Is kosz always for trash?

kosz – basket, bin, container
- kosz na śmieci – trash bin / trash can
- kosz na pranie – laundry basket
- kosz piknikowy – picnic basket
So kosz alone is not automatically for trash; it’s the context or extra words (na śmieci) that tell you the purpose.

Other common word:

śmietnik – trash container / dumpster / sometimes outdoor bin

Your sentence uses the neutral everyday phrase kosz na śmieci.

Does rano wyrzucam śmieci mean “I am throwing away the trash right now”?

It can, but usually it expresses a habit:

Rano wyrzucam śmieci.
- Most natural reading: I (habitually) take out/throw out the trash in the morning.

To clearly stress that it’s happening right now, you can add a time expression:

Teraz wyrzucam śmieci. – I am throwing out (the) trash now.
Właśnie wyrzucam śmieci. – I am just now throwing out the trash.

Polish uses simple present for both “I do” and “I am doing”; aspect and context decide which is meant.

Is there any difference between w kuchni at the end and putting it earlier, like W kuchni rano wyrzucam śmieci…?

Meaning stays the same (“in the kitchen”), but the focus shifts slightly:

Rano wyrzucam śmieci do kosza na śmieci w kuchni.
→ neutral; time first, then whole description of where.
W kuchni rano wyrzucam śmieci do kosza na śmieci.
→ puts a bit more emphasis on “in the kitchen” (maybe contrasting with another place).

All are correct; choice depends mostly on what you want to stress in the conversation.