Learn Hardcore Polish: Śpiewanie pod prysznicem jest jej hobby.

In Polish, when an action is used as the grammatical subject of the sentence, it is usually turned into a verbal noun (a kind of gerund), not left in the infinitive.

śpiewać = “to sing” (infinitive, a verb form)
śpiewanie = “singing” (verbal noun, acts like a noun)

Polish prefers a noun as the subject of jest:

Śpiewanie pod prysznicem jest jej hobby.
= Singing in the shower is her hobby.

Using the infinitive here (Śpiewać pod prysznicem jest jej hobby) sounds wrong or at least very unnatural in standard Polish. So think of śpiewanie as the equivalent of English singing (as a noun), not to sing.

What exactly is śpiewanie grammatically, and how is it formed?

Śpiewanie is a verbal noun (Polish: rzeczownik odczasownikowy), often called a gerund-like form.

It is formed from the verb śpiewać (to sing):

verb stem: śpiewa-
add suffix: -nie
→ śpiewanie

Such nouns behave grammatically like neuter nouns:

Śpiewanie jest trudne. – Singing is difficult.
Lubię śpiewanie. – I like singing.

They are declined like regular neuter nouns ending in -nie, e.g.:

Nominative: śpiewanie (subject)
Genitive: śpiewania
Dative: śpiewaniu
Accusative: śpiewanie
Instrumental: śpiewaniem
Locative: śpiewaniu

In your sentence, śpiewanie is in the nominative, because it’s the subject.

What does pod prysznicem literally mean, and why is it pod, not w?

Literally:

pod = under
prysznicem = the shower (in the instrumental case)

So literally pod prysznicem = under the shower, but in natural English we say in the shower.

Why pod and not w?

w prysznicu would literally mean inside the shower (as an object), and sounds odd.
Polish conceptualizes this as being under the showerhead or water stream, so pod prysznicem is the standard idiomatic way to say “in the shower” (when referring to washing, singing, etc.).

So whenever you want to say “do something in the shower,” you normally use pod prysznicem in Polish.

What case is prysznicem, and why is that case used after pod here?

Prysznic is a masculine noun:

Nominative (dictionary form): prysznic
Instrumental: prysznicem

In pod prysznicem, prysznicem is in the instrumental case.

The preposition pod can take two different cases in Polish:

Accusative – when there is motion to a place:
- Idę pod prysznic. – I’m going to the shower.
Instrumental – when it’s about being in a fixed location:
- Stoję pod prysznicem. – I’m standing under/in the shower.

In your sentence, it’s about the location where the singing happens, not movement toward it, so pod + instrumental is used: pod prysznicem.

Why is it jej hobby and not swoim hobby?

This is a very important Polish reflexive rule.

jej = her (belonging to some female person you’re talking about)
swoim/swoje = one’s own (refers back to the subject of the sentence)

In the sentence:

Subject: Śpiewanie pod prysznicem (the activity of singing)
Person who has the hobby: ona (she) – only implied, not the grammatical subject

Swoim must refer to the subject, so:

Śpiewanie pod prysznicem jest swoim hobby.
would mean: Singing in the shower is *its own hobby* – nonsense.

Because the owner of the hobby is not the grammatical subject, you cannot use swoim here. You must use the regular possessive:

Śpiewanie pod prysznicem jest jej hobby.
= Singing in the shower is her hobby.

Can I also say Śpiewanie pod prysznicem to jej hobby? Is there a difference?

Yes, that sentence is completely correct and natural:

Śpiewanie pod prysznicem jest jej hobby.
Śpiewanie pod prysznicem to jej hobby.

Both mean: Singing in the shower is her hobby.

Differences are subtle:

jest
- noun is a bit more formal / neutral-grammatical.
to
- noun is very common in everyday speech, often a bit more colloquial and emphatic: “X – that’s her hobby.”

In practice, in this kind of neutral sentence, they are interchangeable for most speakers.

Can I reverse the order and say Jej hobby jest śpiewanie pod prysznicem?

Yes. This is also correct and natural:

Jej hobby jest śpiewanie pod prysznicem.

Meaning is the same, but the focus shifts slightly:

Śpiewanie pod prysznicem jest jej hobby.
Emphasis (logically) on the activity: “As for singing in the shower – that’s her hobby.”
Jej hobby jest śpiewanie pod prysznicem.
Emphasis on what her hobby is: “Her hobby is (specifically) singing in the shower.”

Both are fine; context and intonation decide which feels more natural.

Why doesn’t hobby change its form? Shouldn’t it be something like hobbiem in the instrumental?

Hobby is an indeclinable loanword in Polish:

It has the same form in all cases: hobby.
It is treated as neuter singular grammatically, but you never add endings to it.

So you will see:

Nominative: Moje hobby to muzyka. – My hobby is music.
Genitive: Nie mam żadnego hobby. – I don’t have any hobby.
Instrumental: Interesuję się nowym hobby. – I’m interested in a new hobby.

The form stays hobby, regardless of function in the sentence. There is no form like hobbym or hobbiem in standard Polish.

I learned that after jest you use the instrumental (e.g. Jestem lekarzem). Why is it jest jej hobby, not something like jest jej hobby(m)?

You’re right that there is a common rule:

With być (to be), professions/roles often use the instrumental:
- Jestem lekarzem. – I am a doctor.
- Ona jest nauczycielką. – She is a teacher.

But:

Not all predicate nouns must be instrumental.
Especially with abstract nouns like hobby, the nominative is very common and perfectly correct:
- To jest jej hobby.
- Śpiewanie pod prysznicem jest jej hobby.
Hobby is indeclinable, so even if you want the instrumental meaning, the form stays hobby; you don’t add an ending.

So both facts together explain the shape:

The structure with jest
- abstract noun in nominative is fine.
And there is no separate instrumental form for hobby anyway.

What’s the difference between śpiewanie and the noun śpiew?

Both relate to singing, but they’re not interchangeable:

śpiewanie – the activity of singing (verbal noun, gerund-like)
- Śpiewanie pod prysznicem jest jej hobby. – Singing in the shower is her hobby.
- Lubię śpiewanie dzieci. – I like children’s singing (the act).
śpiew – song / the sound of singing, more like “singing (as a sound, style, or event)”
- Śpiew ptaków jest piękny. – The birds’ singing is beautiful.
- Słychać śpiew chóru. – You can hear the choir’s singing.

In your sentence, we care about the activity as a hobby, so śpiewanie is the natural choice.
Śpiew pod prysznicem jest jej hobby would sound strange or at least stylistically off.

Is Śpiewanie pod prysznicem jest jej hobby a completely natural sentence in Polish?

Yes, it is fully natural and correct. A few equally natural variants are:

Jej hobby to śpiewanie pod prysznicem.
Jej hobby jest śpiewanie pod prysznicem.
Śpiewanie pod prysznicem to jej hobby.

All are idiomatic; speakers might choose one or another depending on rhythm or what they want to emphasize, but none of them is “wrong Polish.”

How do you pronounce Śpiewanie pod prysznicem? Any tricky sounds for English speakers?

Key points:

Ś – soft “sh” sound, like a slightly palatalized sh:
śpiewanie ≈ “shpyeh-VA-nye”
ie in śpie- – roughly “pye” (one syllable, soft p).
w – always like English v, never like English w.
rz in prysznicem – pronounced like Polish ż, similar to French j in jour, or a voiced “zh.”
cz, sz (not in this exact sentence, but common patterns) are like hard ch in church and sh in shop.

Approximate full phrase:

Śpiewanie pod prysznicem ≈ shpyeh-VA-nye pod prish-NEE-tsem

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

śpiewanie
prysznicem