Learn Hardcore Polish: Wieczorem on zapomina wyrzucić śmieci i kosz na śmieci nadal stoi w kuchni. - In the evening he forgets to throw away the trash and the trash bin is still standing in the kitchen.

It is the instrumental singular of wieczór (evening).
In Polish, many time expressions use a bare case form (often instrumental) to mean “at / in [time]”, for example:
- rano – in the morning
- po południu – in the afternoon
- wieczorem – in the evening
- nocą – at night

You could say wieczorem or wieczorami:

wieczorem – in the evening (often understood as this or any usual evening)
wieczorami – in the evenings (regularly, habitually)

The phrase w wieczór is either very archaic or simply sounds wrong in modern Polish. Use wieczorem instead.

Do we really need the pronoun on here? Could we just say Wieczorem zapomina wyrzucić śmieci…?

No, on is not strictly necessary. In Polish, the personal pronoun is usually omitted if it is clear from the verb ending who the subject is.

Wieczorem zapomina wyrzucić śmieci… – perfectly natural: In the evening he forgets to take out the trash…
Wieczorem on zapomina wyrzucić śmieci… – also correct, but on is more emphatic, like:
- In the evening *he (as opposed to someone else) forgets…*
- or It is he who keeps forgetting in the evening…

So:

Neutral sentence: Wieczorem zapomina wyrzucić śmieci…
Slight emphasis/contrast: Wieczorem on zapomina wyrzucić śmieci…

Why is the verb zapomina used instead of something like zapomniał?

zapomina is 3rd person singular, present tense of zapominać (imperfective).
Here it describes a repeated / habitual action:
- Wieczorem on zapomina… – In the evening he (regularly) forgets…

Compare:

On zapomina wyrzucać śmieci. – He (tends to) forgets to take out the trash. (habit)
On zapomniał wyrzucić śmieci. – He forgot to take out the trash. (one specific occasion, past; zapomniał is past of zapomnieć, perfective)

So zapomina is chosen here to talk about something that keeps happening, not a one-time event.

Why is it zapomina wyrzucić śmieci and not something like zapomina o wyrzuceniu śmieci?

Both patterns are possible, but they differ slightly in style and frequency:

zapomina + infinitive (very common, natural)
- zapomina wyrzucić śmieci – forgets to take out the trash
- zapominam zamknąć drzwi – I forget to close the door
zapomina o + noun (verbal noun) – more formal or heavier stylistically
- zapomina o wyrzuceniu śmieci – literally: forgets about the throwing out of the trash
- zapomniałem o zamknięciu drzwi – I forgot about closing the door

In everyday spoken Polish, for actions that someone forgets to do, zapomina + infinitive is very natural and more common than zapomina o + verbal noun. That’s why we have zapomina wyrzucić śmieci.

Why is wyrzucić (perfective) used instead of wyrzucać (imperfective)?

Using wyrzucić (perfective) focuses on the completion of the action: taking out the trash as a single, finished act.

zapomina wyrzucić śmieci
- He forgets to take out the trash (as a one-time task, each evening).
- The infinitive wyrzucić expresses a single completed action that should happen but doesn’t.

If you said:

zapomina wyrzucać śmieci
- This sounds like: He forgets to be in the habit of throwing out the trash – which is odd.
- Imperfective wyrzucać is used more to describe ongoing / repeated actions themselves, not specific tasks that should be completed.

So:

Forgetting to do something once / each time → typically perfective infinitive: zapomina wyrzucić śmieci.

What case is śmieci in, and why does it look the same in several forms?

In wyrzucić śmieci, śmieci is:

Accusative plural (direct object of wyrzucić).

Details:

The basic dictionary form is śmieć (a piece of trash), but in practice śmieci is usually used as a plural-only noun meaning trash / garbage.
For śmieci, nominative plural and accusative plural have the same form:
- To są śmieci. – These are trash. (nominative plural)
- Wyrzucam śmieci. – I am throwing out the trash. (accusative plural)

So here śmieci is accusative, because it’s the thing being thrown out.

What exactly does kosz na śmieci literally mean, and how is the structure built?

Kosz na śmieci literally means “basket for trash” → “trash can / garbage bin.”

Structure:

kosz – basket, bin
na – preposition meaning for (function/purpose) here
śmieci – trash/garbage (accusative plural)

When na expresses purpose, it usually takes the accusative:

buty na lato – shoes for summer
krem na ręce – cream for hands
kosz na śmieci – bin for trash

So kosz na śmieci is a noun phrase meaning a bin whose purpose is for trash.

Why isn’t it kosz na śmieciach (with a different case after na)?

The preposition na can take either:

Accusative – when it expresses purpose or movement onto something.
Locative – when it expresses location (“on / on top of / at”).

In kosz na śmieci:

na + accusative → purpose: a bin for trash.

If we used a locative form na śmieciach, it would mean “on (top of) the trash”, like:

Stoi na śmieciach. – It is standing on the trash.

So here, because we want “bin for trash,” we must use na + accusative → na śmieci.

What does nadal mean here, and how is it different from ciągle or wciąż?

In this sentence:

kosz na śmieci nadal stoi w kuchni – the trash can is *still standing in the kitchen.*

nadal:

Means “still, yet, up to now”, emphasizing continuation of a state.
Neutral in tone.

Comparison:

nadal – still (state continues)
wciąż – still / yet / continuously (often similar to nadal, sometimes a bit more emotional)
ciągle – still / constantly; can often imply annoying repetition or too often:
- On ciągle zapomina. – He keeps forgetting (and it’s annoying).

In this neutral description, nadal is very appropriate:

Kosz na śmieci nadal stoi w kuchni.
You could also say Kosz na śmieci wciąż stoi w kuchni, with almost the same meaning.
ciągle here would sound more like complaining in many contexts: it still (always) stands there, ugh.

Where can we place nadal in the sentence, and does word order change the meaning?

In Polish, adverbs like nadal are fairly flexible in position. All of these are possible:

Kosz na śmieci nadal stoi w kuchni.
Kosz na śmieci stoi nadal w kuchni.
Nadal kosz na śmieci stoi w kuchni.

The basic meaning – the trash can still stands in the kitchen – stays the same.

Slight nuances:

Placing nadal earlier often gives it a bit more emphasis:
- Nadal kosz na śmieci stoi w kuchni. – It still stands in the kitchen (you might be surprised/annoyed).
The version in the original sentence (…nadal stoi…) is very neutral and common.

Why is it stoi and not something like staje or stanął?

stoi – 3rd person singular, present tense of stać (to stand).
It describes a current, static state: is standing / is located upright.

In the sentence:

kosz na śmieci nadal stoi w kuchni – the trash can is still standing in the kitchen.

Compare:

stanąć (perfective) – to take a stand, to come to stand (the moment it starts standing)
- Kosz stanął w kuchni. – The bin ended up standing in the kitchen. (focus on the event)
stawać (imperfective counterpart) – to be standing (repeatedly starting to stand, etc., less common in this use)
- Kosz staje w kuchni. – sounds odd here in most contexts.

For a simple state (it is standing there, still there), stoi is the correct, natural choice.

Why is it w kuchni and not w kuchnię?

The preposition w can take:

Locative – when it means in / inside (location)
Accusative – when it means into (movement into)

Here we have location:

stoi w kuchni – stands in the kitchen → w + locative.

So:

kuchnia (dictionary form: kitchen)
w kuchni (locative singular; answer to where?)

If it were movement into the kitchen, you’d use:

Idzie do kuchni. – He is going to the kitchen.
Wchodzi w kuchnię. – He enters into the kitchen (more literal/rare; do kuchni is much more common).

The word śmieci appears twice. Does that sound repetitive or awkward in Polish?

No, it sounds completely natural in Polish.

Sentence:

Wieczorem on zapomina wyrzucić śmieci i kosz na śmieci nadal stoi w kuchni.

Even though śmieci appears in:

wyrzucić śmieci – throw out the trash
kosz na śmieci – trash can

this repetition is very normal. Polish often repeats the same noun in nearby phrases rather than replacing it with a pronoun where English might avoid repetition.

You could rephrase to avoid it (e.g. kosz na nie), but in this context that would sound less natural than simply repeating śmieci.