Learn Hardcore Polish: On lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie. - He likes to write down new words in the notebook.

Polish is a pro‑drop language: the subject pronoun (ja, ty, on, ona, ono, my, wy, oni, one) is often omitted because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

On lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie. – He likes to write down new words in a notebook.
Lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie. – Same meaning; on is just left out.

You keep on when you want to:

Emphasize he (and not someone else)
Make it clearer who you’re talking about in context

Otherwise, it’s natural to drop it and just say Lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie.

What exactly does lubi mean, and how is it different from kocha or podoba mu się?

Lubi is the 3rd person singular form of lubić – to like (habitually / generally).

On lubi kawę. – He likes coffee.
On lubi zapisywać nowe słowa. – He likes writing down new words.

Differences:

lubić – neutral to like (things, activities, people)
- On lubi tę książkę. – He likes this book.
kochać – to love (strong emotion, people, sometimes things)
- On kocha tę kobietę. – He loves this woman.
podobać się – to be pleasing to someone, often used for first impressions / aesthetic liking
- Podoba mu się ta piosenka. – He likes this song (lit. This song pleases him).

To say someone likes doing something, you normally use:

lubić + infinitive
- On lubi czytać. – He likes reading.
- On lubi zapisywać nowe słowa. – He likes writing down new words.

Why is zapisywać used here instead of pisać, napisać, or zapisać?

Polish verbs come in aspects:

imperfective – ongoing, repeated, habitual actions
perfective – single, completed actions

In your sentence:

zapisywać – imperfective, to write down / to record (habitually, repeatedly)
zapisać – perfective, to write down (once, to completion)
pisać – imperfective, to write (in general), not necessarily “write down” as in note-taking

Why zapisywać?

Because lubi describes a habit or general preference. For that, Polish usually uses the imperfective form:

On lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie.
= He likes (as a habit) to write down new words in a notebook.

Comparisons:

On zapisał nowe słowa w zeszycie. – He wrote down the new words in the notebook (once, finished).
On zapisuje nowe słowa w zeszycie. – He is writing down new words in the notebook / He (regularly) writes down new words.

So zapisywać in the infinitive after lubi nicely expresses a habitual activity he likes doing.

Why is zapisywać in the infinitive form? Could it be zapisuje instead?

After lubi (from lubić), Polish uses the infinitive to express what someone likes doing.

Pattern: lubić + infinitive

On lubi czytać. – He likes reading.
On lubi tańczyć. – He likes dancing.
On lubi zapisywać nowe słowa. – He likes writing down new words.

Using zapisuje here would change the meaning:

On zapisuje nowe słowa w zeszycie.
– He is writing down new words in the notebook / He regularly writes down new words there.
(statement about what is happening or regularly happens, not about what he likes.)

To talk about liking an activity, keep the infinitive: lubi zapisywać.

Why is it nowe słowa and not something like nowych słów?

This is about case and number.

słowo – a word (neuter, singular)
słowa – words (neuter, plural nominative / accusative)
słów – words (genitive plural)

In the sentence:

zapisywać is a transitive verb (it takes a direct object).
When that object is neuter plural, and the verb is in a simple affirmative sentence, it normally appears in the accusative plural, which for neuter = same as nominative plural.

So:

Co on lubi zapisywać? – What does he like to write down?
– nowe słowa (accusative plural neuter)

nowe agrees with słowa:

neuter plural, accusative (same form as nominative)

You would use nowych słów (genitive plural) in other structures, e.g.:

Nie lubi zapisywać nowych słów. – He doesn’t like writing down new words.
(Negation often triggers the genitive for direct objects.)

Why is it w zeszycie and not w zeszyt or do zeszytu?

This involves prepositions + cases.

w + locative = in (inside)
- w zeszycie – in the notebook
  Here zeszycie is locative singular of zeszyt.
The idea: the words are inside the notebook, on its pages.
w + accusative = into (movement into) – but usually with places, not notebooks
- e.g. w wodę (into the water) – this use is less common and more limited.
do + genitive = to / into (towards a target)
- do zeszytu – into the notebook (focus on movement towards the notebook)

In practice, for writing:

w zeszycie – in the notebook (location of writing, most natural here)
do zeszytu – into the notebook (a bit more about direction / target, used too, but often you simply say w zeszycie)

So w zeszycie is the standard way to say that the writing takes place in the notebook.

What form is zeszycie, and how is it built from zeszyt?

Zeszyt means notebook (masculine, singular).

Its important forms:

Nominative: zeszyt – the notebook (subject)
Accusative: zeszyt – I bought a notebook. (Kupiłem zeszyt.)
Locative: w zeszycie – in the notebook
Genitive: zeszytu – of the notebook, to the notebook (do zeszytu)

In your sentence we have w zeszycie:

Preposition w (in) requires the locative when it means in, inside.
The locative of zeszyt is zeszycie.

So w + zeszycie = w zeszycie (in the notebook).

How flexible is the word order? Could I say Lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie without On? Or move parts around?

Yes, Polish word order is fairly flexible, especially compared to English.

Neutral / common versions:

On lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie.
Lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie. (subject pronoun dropped)

Other possible orders (still correct):

On lubi w zeszycie zapisywać nowe słowa.
On lubi zapisywać w zeszycie nowe słowa.

These versions may slightly change the focus (for example, emphasizing the notebook vs the words), but the basic meaning is the same.

What is usually not changed:

lubi is generally close to the subject (explicit or implied).
The infinitive phrase (zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie) normally follows lubi as the thing he likes doing.

So:

Lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie. – perfectly natural, maybe even more typical in context.

How do I pronounce lubi, zapisywać, and w zeszycie?

Approximate English-like descriptions (not strict IPA):

lubi – LOO‑bee
- u like oo in food
- i like ee in see
zapisywać – zah-pee-SIH-vatch
- z as in zoo
- a like a in father
- y is a short, central vowel, somewhere between i in sit and u in put
- ć is like a soft ch in cheese, but softer and more palatal, almost like tch in nature said quickly
w zeszycie – roughly v zeh-SHIH-cheh
- w is pronounced like English v
- z as in zoo
- sz as in sh in she
- ci (before a vowel) is like soft ch; in cie it sounds like cheh

So one possible rough reading:

On lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie.
≈ On LOO-bee zah-pee-SIH-vatch NO-veh SWO-vah v zeh-SHIH-cheh

How would I say things like “He wrote down new words in his notebook” or “He is writing new words in his notebook right now”? How does that differ from our sentence?

Your sentence:

On lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie.
– He likes (habitually) to write down new words in a notebook.

For a completed action (once):

On zapisał nowe słowa w zeszycie.
– He wrote down the new words in the notebook (finished).
(zapisał – perfective past)

For an ongoing action (right now) or regular activity (without the idea of “liking”):

On zapisuje nowe słowa w zeszycie.
– He is writing down new words in the notebook.
or
– He (regularly) writes down new words in the notebook.
(zapisuje – imperfective, present)

So:

lubi zapisywać – expresses a preference / habit he enjoys
zapisuje / zapisał – express what he actually does / did, not whether he likes it

If the person were a woman or a group, how would the sentence change?

Only the subject pronoun (and possibly context) changes; the rest stays the same.

Feminine singular:

Ona lubi zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie.
– She likes to write down new words in a notebook.
(Pronoun can also be dropped: Lubi zapisywać… if context is clear.)

Masculine or mixed-gender plural:

Oni lubią zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie.
– They like to write down new words in a notebook.
(lubią – 3rd person plural of lubić.)

Feminine-only plural:

One lubią zapisywać nowe słowa w zeszycie.
– They (all female) like to write down new words in a notebook.

The verb zapisywać stays in the infinitive in all cases; nowe słowa w zeszycie also does not change here.