Learn Hardcore Polish: Rano boli mnie gardło, więc piję ciepłą herbatę z mlekiem. - In the morning my throat hurts, so I drink warm tea with milk.

Boli mnie gardło literally means “the throat hurts me”.
- gardło = the subject (what is doing the hurting)
- mnie = the person who feels the pain (in the dative case: “to me”)
English focuses on the person: “My throat hurts.”
Polish focuses on the body part as the subject: “The throat hurts me.”

Other natural options:

Boli mnie gardło. – neutral, very common.
Gardło mnie boli. – same meaning, but puts more emphasis on gardło.
Mam ból gardła. – literally “I have a pain of the throat”; more medical/formal.

“My throat hurts me” is not idiomatic in English, but it’s the most literal reflection of the Polish structure.

What case is mnie here, and why not mi?

Grammatically, mnie is in the dative case, expressing “to me / for me” – the experiencer of the pain.

For the pronoun ja (“I”):

Nominative: ja
Genitive: mnie
Dative: mnie / mi (two forms)
Accusative: mnie
Instrumental: mną
Locative: mnie

In this sentence, with boleć (“to hurt”), the experiencer is always in the dative:

Boli mnie głowa. – My head hurts.
Boli cię ząb. – Your tooth hurts.
Bolą mu nogi. – His legs hurt.

mnie vs mi:

mnie – full form, neutral/standard, can be stressed:
Boli mnie gardło, nie jego. – I have the sore throat, not him.
mi – short, clitic form, used when not stressed, mostly in the middle of a sentence.

With boleć, traditional grammar recommends mnie, and “Boli mi gardło” is often felt as regional/colloquial or incorrect in careful speech. Safest choice as a learner: Boli mnie gardło.

What case is gardło, and why isn’t it in some kind of “object” case?

gardło is in the nominative singular – it’s the subject of the sentence.

Polish boleć works like this:

Co kogo boli? – What hurts whom?

So in Boli mnie gardło:

gardło (what?) = subject → nominative
mnie (whom?) = experiencer → dative

Compare:

Boli mnie głowa. – My head hurts.
Bolą mnie oczy. – My eyes hurt. (verb agrees: bolą with plural oczy)

Even though English feels like “I have a sore throat”, in Polish the body part is the grammatical subject.

Why is it Rano and not w rano for “in the morning”?

Rano here is an adverb of time, not a bare noun, so it doesn’t take a preposition.

rano – in the morning
wieczorem – in the evening
w nocy – at night (this does use a preposition + case form)

Examples:

Rano piję kawę. – I drink coffee in the morning.
Wieczorem czytam książki. – I read books in the evening.
Jutro pracuję. – I work tomorrow.

You do not say w rano in standard Polish. Just rano by itself.

Why is there a comma before więc?

Because więc is a coordinating conjunction (“so, therefore”) joining two clauses:

Rano boli mnie gardło, więc piję ciepłą herbatę z mlekiem.
= [Clause 1], więc [Clause 2].

In Polish, when więc connects two full clauses (each with its own verb), you normally separate them with a comma.

Other similar conjunctions that usually take a comma:

bo – because
ale – but
dlatego że – because (lit. “for that reason that”)
chociaż – although

So:

Boli mnie gardło, więc piję herbatę.
Boli mnie gardło, bo krzyczałem.

What’s the difference between więc and bo / dlatego? Could I replace więc here?

They express different logical relations:

bo – because – introduces a cause:
- Piję ciepłą herbatę z mlekiem, bo boli mnie gardło.
  I drink warm tea with milk because my throat hurts.
więc – so / therefore – introduces a result:
- Boli mnie gardło, więc piję ciepłą herbatę z mlekiem.
  My throat hurts, so I drink warm tea with milk.
dlatego (often dlatego że) – closer to “for that reason / that’s why / because”:
- Boli mnie gardło, dlatego piję ciepłą herbatę. – My throat hurts, that’s why I drink warm tea.
- Piję herbatę, dlatego że boli mnie gardło. – …because my throat hurts.

You can switch between them, but you’ll be changing the direction of the explanation:

Reason → Result:
Boli mnie gardło, więc piję herbatę.
Result ← Reason:
Piję herbatę, bo boli mnie gardło.

Why is piję (present tense) used for something habitual like “when my throat hurts, I drink tea”?

Polish present tense covers both English present simple and present continuous:

piję can mean:
- I drink (habitually, generally)
- I am drinking (right now) – from context

In this sentence, with Rano… więc piję…, the natural reading is habitual:

Rano boli mnie gardło, więc piję ciepłą herbatę…
= In the mornings, my throat hurts, so I (usually) drink warm tea…

Other examples:

Codziennie piję kawę. – I drink coffee every day.
Teraz piję kawę. – I’m drinking coffee now. (same form piję; context decides)

Why isn’t there ja before piję? Can I say Ja piję ciepłą herbatę?

Polish verb endings already show the subject, so the personal pronoun is usually omitted, unless you want to emphasize it.

piję – I drink
pijesz – you drink
pije – he/she/it drinks

So all of these are grammatically correct:

Piję ciepłą herbatę z mlekiem. – normal, neutral.
Ja piję ciepłą herbatę z mlekiem. – I drink warm tea (maybe in contrast to someone else).
To ja piję ciepłą herbatę. – It’s me who drinks warm tea.

In the given sentence, ja is not needed and would sound slightly more emphatic than the neutral version.

Why is it ciepłą herbatę, not ciepła herbata?

Because ciepłą herbatę is in the accusative case as the direct object of piję.

herbata is a feminine noun:
- Nominative (subject): herbata
- Accusative (direct object): herbatę
The adjective ciepły (“warm”) must agree with the noun in gender, number and case.
- Feminine singular:
  - Nominative: ciepła (ciepła herbata – warm tea, as subject)
  - Accusative: ciepłą (ciepłą herbatę – warm tea, as object)

Since we are drinking the tea (it’s the object):

Piję ciepłą herbatę. – I drink warm tea.

If herbata were the subject, we’d use nominative:

Ciepła herbata stoi na stole. – Warm tea is standing on the table.

What case is z mlekiem, and why is it mlekiem and not mleko?

After the preposition z in the sense of “with (together with / containing)”, Polish uses the instrumental case.

The noun mleko (milk) in singular:

Nominative: mleko (subject)
Instrumental: mlekiem

So:

z mlekiem = “with milk”
herbata z mlekiem = tea with milk

More examples with z + instrumental:

chleb z masłem – bread with butter
kawa z cukrem – coffee with sugar
kanapka z serem – sandwich with cheese

Could I say gorącą herbatę instead of ciepłą herbatę? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can, but there is a nuance:

ciepła herbata – warm tea (pleasantly warm, not necessarily very hot)
gorąca herbata – hot tea (really hot)

Both are grammatically correct:

Piję ciepłą herbatę z mlekiem.
Piję gorącą herbatę z mlekiem.

For a sore throat, ciepła herbata can sound a bit more gentle/soothing, but in everyday use many speakers would just say gorąca herbata for “hot tea” as a remedy too.

Can I change the word order, for example Rano gardło mnie boli or Gardło boli mnie rano? Do they sound natural?

Yes, Polish allows quite flexible word order, but it changes emphasis slightly.

All of these are possible:

Rano boli mnie gardło. – neutral, very natural.
Rano gardło mnie boli.
- Slightly more emphasis on gardło as the problem.
Gardło mnie boli rano.
- Emphasizes that it’s in the morning that it hurts.
Mnie rano boli gardło.
- Emphasizes me (in contrast to others).

The safest, most neutral for a learner are:

Rano boli mnie gardło.
Rano mnie boli gardło.

They’re both common and sound very natural.

Why is herbatę spelled with ę at the end, if I don’t really hear an “n” sound?

ę is a nasal vowel in Polish. At the end of a word, especially in everyday speech, it often sounds close to a plain “e”, with very weak nasalization.

So:

herbatę is the accusative form of herbata.
In careful pronunciation: [her-BA-tɛ̃] (slight nasal “e”)
In casual speech it often sounds almost like “herbate”.

This is normal; the spelling ę still marks the grammatical form (accusative singular feminine) even if the nasal quality is subtle in actual speech.

Is Rano boli mnie gardło the only natural way to say “I have a sore throat in the morning”?

It’s very natural, but not the only option. Common alternatives:

Rano boli mnie gardło. – In the morning my throat hurts.
Rano mam ból gardła. – In the morning I have a throat pain. (more clinical/formal)
Rano mam chore gardło. – In the morning my throat is ill/sore.
Rano czuję ból w gardle. – In the morning I feel pain in my throat. (more descriptive)

For everyday, conversational Polish, Boli mnie gardło is by far the most typical way to say “I have a sore throat.”