Rano boli mnie gardło, więc piję ciepłą herbatę z mlekiem.

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Breakdown of Rano boli mnie gardło, więc piję ciepłą herbatę z mlekiem.

• herbata: the tea
• rano: in the morning
• więc: so

Questions & Answers about Rano boli mnie gardło, więc piję ciepłą herbatę z mlekiem.

Why is it boli mnie gardło and not my throat hurts me or mam ból gardła?

Polish structures pain differently from English.

• 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 (“to hurt”), the experiencer is always in the :