Learn Hardcore Polish: Moja piżama leży na łóżku.

mój – masculine singular (e.g. mój sweter – my sweater)
moja – feminine singular (e.g. moja piżama – my pajamas)
moje – neuter singular or non‑masculine‑personal plural (e.g. moje łóżko – my bed, moje spodnie – my trousers)

So moja piżama is the only grammatically correct choice here.

In English we say “pajamas” in the plural. Why is piżama singular in Polish?

Languages divide up “clothing items” differently.

In English, pajamas is grammatically plural, even though it’s one set.
In Polish, piżama is treated as one item, so it’s singular.

You use the plural piżamy only when you mean several sets:

Moja piżama leży na łóżku. – My pajamas are on the bed. (one set)
Moje piżamy leżą na łóżku. – My pajamas are on the bed. (several different pajamas)

So the singular piżama is the normal way to refer to one set of pajamas in Polish.

Can I say Moja piżama jest na łóżku instead? What’s the difference between jest and leży here?

Yes, you can say both:

Moja piżama jest na łóżku. – My pajamas are on the bed.
Moja piżama leży na łóżku. – My pajamas are lying on the bed.

Difference in nuance:

jest – neutral “is/are”, just states the location.
leży – specifically “lies/is lying”, it suggests the pajamas are lying flat, resting there.

In everyday speech, both are common. Leży is a bit more visual/specific about the position; jest is more neutral.

Why isn’t there a separate word for “is” before leży (why not Moja piżama jest leży na łóżku)?

Because leży already includes the idea “is lying”.

English: is lying = auxiliary is
- main verb lying.
Polish: leży is a single present‑tense verb meaning “(it) lies / is lying”.

You cannot say jest leży – that would be like saying “is is lying”.
So:

✅ Moja piżama leży na łóżku.
❌ Moja piżama jest leży na łóżku.

Why is it na łóżku and not na łóżko?

The preposition na uses different cases depending on the meaning:

na
- locative = location (where something is)
na
- accusative = direction/movement (onto where something goes)

In this sentence, leży describes a static location (where it is), so we use locative:

Moja piżama leży na łóżku. – on the bed (where?) → łóżku (locative)

If you describe putting something onto the bed (movement), you use accusative:

Kładę piżamę na łóżko. – I’m putting the pajamas onto the bed. (onto what?) → łóżko (accusative)

So na łóżku fits because we’re talking about where it lies, not where it’s being put.

What case is łóżku in, and what is the base form of the noun?

The base (dictionary) form is łóżko – neuter, nominative singular.
łóżku is the locative singular form.

A simplified declension:

Nominative: łóżko – bed (subject form)
Genitive: łóżka – of the bed
Dative: łóżku – to the bed
Accusative: łóżko – (I see) the bed
Instrumental: łóżkiem – with the bed
Locative: łóżku – on/in/about the bed (after certain prepositions)
Vocative: (same as nominative, rarely used)

Locative in practice appears mostly after prepositions like na, w, o, po:

na łóżku – on the bed
w łóżku – in bed
o łóżku – about the bed

What case is piżama in here, and why?

Piżama is in the nominative singular.

In a basic sentence like:

X leży na Y.

the subject X (the thing performing the action of lying) is in nominative.

So:

Moja piżama – nominative (subject)
leży – verb
na łóżku – prepositional phrase (locative)

The possessive moja also has to be nominative feminine singular to agree with piżama.

Can the word order change? For example, is Na łóżku leży moja piżama also correct?

Yes, Polish word order is relatively flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:

Moja piżama leży na łóżku.
- Neutral, typical statement: subject → verb → place.
Na łóżku leży moja piżama.
- Emphasizes the place first: “On the bed (not somewhere else) lies my pajamas.”
- Common if you’re answering a “where?” question:
  – Gdzie jest twoja piżama? – Where are your pajamas?
  – Na łóżku leży moja piżama.
Na łóżku moja piżama leży.
- Also possible, but sounds a bit more expressive/poetic in modern Polish.

The meaning stays the same; word order mainly affects focus and emphasis.

Do I always need to say moja? Can I just say Piżama leży na łóżku?

You can absolutely drop moja:

Piżama leży na łóżku. – The pajamas are on the bed.

Polish does not require possessive pronouns every time:

If it’s obvious from context whose pajamas you mean, you can omit moja.
With moja, you explicitly stress that they are mine.

Examples:

In your own bedroom, if someone asks Gdzie jest piżama? – you’d likely answer:
Piżama leży na łóżku. (no need to say “my”)
If you’re contrasting owners, you might say:
Moja piżama leży na łóżku, a twoja w szafie. – My pajamas are on the bed and yours are in the wardrobe.

How do you pronounce the special letters in piżama and łóżku?

Approximate pronunciation (stressed syllable in caps):

piżama → pee‑ZHA‑ma
- ż sounds like zh in English “measure”, “vision”.
- Stress: pi‑ŻA‑ma (second‑to‑last syllable).
łóżku → WOOZH‑koo
- ł is like English w.
- ó is pronounced like Polish u, similar to “oo” in “boot”.
- ż again like zh in “measure”.
- Stress: ŁÓ‑żku (again, second‑to‑last syllable).

So roughly: moja piżama leży na łóżku ≈ MO-ya pee‑ZHA-ma LE-zhi na WOOZH‑koo (very approximate English-style transcription).

Why is there no word for “the” or “a” (like “on the bed”) in the Polish sentence?

Polish does not have articles like English “the” or “a/an”.

łóżku on its own can mean “the bed”, “a bed”, or even “my/your bed”, depending on context.
Definiteness/indefiniteness is usually clear from context, and sometimes from word order or added words like ten (this/that).

So:

Moja piżama leży na łóżku. could be translated as
- My pajamas are on *the bed.*
- My pajamas are on *a bed.*

In normal context, an English speaker would almost always understand it as “on the bed”.