Learn Hardcore Polish: Muszę jutro wyrzucić śmieci z kuchni. - I must throw away the trash from the kitchen tomorrow.

muszę = I have to / I must
It’s grammatically present tense, but:
- Polish often uses present tense + time expression for the future.
- jutro (tomorrow) makes it clear the obligation is about the future.

So Muszę jutro… literally is I have to tomorrow…, which corresponds to English I have to … tomorrow / I must … tomorrow. Using present tense with jutro is perfectly normal in Polish.

Why is the verb wyrzucić and not wyrzucać?

Polish has aspect: verbs come in imperfective and perfective pairs.

wyrzucać – imperfective: to be throwing out, to throw out regularly / habitually
wyrzucić – perfective: to throw out once, to complete the action

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about one concrete future task they must complete tomorrow. That’s why the perfective form wyrzucić is used.

If you wanted to talk about a habit, you’d use the imperfective:

Muszę codziennie wyrzucać śmieci. – I have to take out the trash every day.

Can I move jutro to another place in the sentence?

Yes, Polish word order is flexible, and adverbs like jutro can move. All of these are correct, with slightly different emphasis:

Muszę jutro wyrzucić śmieci z kuchni. – neutral; light emphasis on jutro.
Jutro muszę wyrzucić śmieci z kuchni. – stronger emphasis on tomorrow (e.g. not today).
Muszę wyrzucić jutro śmieci z kuchni. – also possible; a bit less typical, but still understood.

The default, most natural versions here would be:

Muszę jutro wyrzucić śmieci z kuchni.
Jutro muszę wyrzucić śmieci z kuchni.

What case is śmieci in, and why does it look the same in different cases?

Śmieci is in the accusative plural here, as the direct object of wyrzucić.

The noun behaves a bit unusually:

It’s practically used only in the plural: śmieci = trash, garbage.
Its nominative plural, accusative plural, and genitive plural forms are all śmieci.
Context and sentence structure tell you which case it is.

Here:

wyrzucić kogo? co? – this verb takes accusative.
Answer: śmieci – so this is accusative plural, even though the form is the same as nominative/genitive plural.

Is there a difference between śmieci and words like śmietnik?

Yes:

śmieci – the trash / garbage itself (what you throw away).
śmietnik – the trash can, bin, or dump (where you put the trash).
śmieć – a singular form meaning a piece of trash, but it’s rare in everyday speech.

In the sentence, wyrzucić śmieci is about getting rid of the trash, not the bin.
If you talked about the bin, you’d say something like wynieść śmietnik (to carry out the trash can), which is a different action.

What does z kuchni literally mean, and why is it kuchni, not kuchnia?

z
- genitive often means from (a place).
kuchnia (kitchen) in the genitive singular is kuchni.

So:

z kuchni = from the kitchen (source, origin)
kuchnia = kitchen in the basic (nominative) form

Compare:

To jest kuchnia. – This is a kitchen.
Idę z kuchni. – I am going from the kitchen.

So z kuchni is required by the preposition z when it means from.

Could we say z kuchnią instead of z kuchni?

No, that would mean something different.

z kuchni – from the kitchen (z
- genitive)
z kuchnią – with the kitchen (z
- instrumental, meaning “together with”)

So wyrzucić śmieci z kuchnią would sound like “throw out the trash with the kitchen”, which is wrong. To express from the kitchen, you must use z kuchni.

Is z kuchni necessary, or can I just say Muszę jutro wyrzucić śmieci?

You can absolutely drop z kuchni:

Muszę jutro wyrzucić śmieci. – I have to take out the trash tomorrow.

Adding z kuchni gives extra information about where the trash is located or which trash you mean (for example, as opposed to trash from another room). It’s optional from a grammatical standpoint, but adds precision in meaning.

Would wynieść śmieci work instead of wyrzucić śmieci? What’s the difference?

Both are common, but there’s a nuance:

wyrzucić śmieci – to throw away the trash (focus on the act of discarding).
wynieść śmieci – to take the trash out (of some place) (focus on carrying it out of the apartment/room).

In everyday speech, wynieść śmieci is actually very common for take out the trash. Your sentence with that verb would be:

Muszę jutro wynieść śmieci z kuchni.

It would sound fully natural.

How do you pronounce the tricky Polish sounds in muszę, wyrzucić, śmieci, and kuchni?

Very roughly (not IPA, just an English-based guide):

muszę – MOO-sheh
- sz = sh in she
- final ę is nasal; here often sounds close to a plain e in fast speech: MOO-sheh.
wyrzucić – approx. vih-ZHOO-cheech
- wy like vi in village, but shorter and more central.
- rz = zh like vision.
- ci before a vowel often sounds like soft ć: a soft ch / tch (tongue closer to the palate).
śmieci – approx. SHMYEH-chee
- ś is a soft sh, tongue more to the front than in English sh.
- mie sounds like myeh.
- final ci again a soft chi/tchi.
kuchni – approx. KOOKH-khnee
- ch = a voiceless kh (like in Scottish loch or German Bach).
- ni before a vowel is soft, somewhat like Spanish ñ
  - i (nyi), though here followed by nothing, so more like nʲi.

Polish stress is almost always on the second-to-last syllable:

MUSzę, wyRZUcić, ŚMIEci, KUCHni.