Learn Hardcore Polish: Wieczorem gardło boli mniej, ale wciąż muszę odpoczywać. - In the evening my throat hurts less, but I still have to rest.

Context and verb endings usually make the owner clear. You can say moje gardło boli for emphasis (e.g. contrasting with someone else’s throat), but the neutral, everyday version usually omits moje.

What is the subject in gardło boli? Is it like English “It hurts my throat”?

Here the grammatical subject is gardło:

gardło – nominative singular (subject)
boli – 3rd person singular form of boleć (to hurt / ache)

So structurally it’s like “The throat hurts”, not “It hurts my throat”.

Other common patterns with boleć:

Gardło mnie boli. – My throat hurts (literally: The throat hurts me.)
Boli mnie gardło. – same meaning, different word order.

All of these are natural. Your sentence chooses the simplest structure: Gardło boli (mniej).

What does wieczorem literally mean and why isn’t there a preposition like w?

Wieczorem comes from wieczór (evening) in the instrumental case, used adverbially to mean “in the evening”.

wieczór – evening (basic form)
wieczorem – (in the) evening

Polish often uses bare time adverbials without a preposition:

Rano – in the morning
Wieczorem – in the evening
Nocą – at night

Using w wieczór is not standard for “in the evening” in modern Polish; you just say wieczorem.

Could I move wieczorem to another place in the sentence, like in English?

Yes. Polish word order is fairly flexible. These are all correct:

Wieczorem gardło boli mniej…
Gardło wieczorem boli mniej…
Gardło boli mniej wieczorem…

They all mean “In the evening my throat hurts less…”, but the emphasis shifts slightly:

Starting with Wieczorem highlights the time.
Ending with wieczorem sounds more like you’re adding the time as an afterthought or contrast.

The original Wieczorem gardło boli mniej is very natural and neutral.

Why do we use mniej and not an adjective like mniejszy?

Mniej is an adverbial comparative, used to modify how much the throat hurts (the verb boli):

gardło boli mniej – the throat hurts less (less intensely)

If you used mniejszy, that’s an adjective and would have to modify a noun, e.g.:

Mam mniejszy ból gardła. – I have less (a smaller) throat pain.

So:

mniej – less (adverb/“how much?”): boli mniej – hurts less
mniejszy – smaller/less (adjective/“what kind of?”): mniejszy ból – smaller pain

What exactly does wciąż mean here, and how is it different from nadal or ciągle?

In this sentence wciąż means “still”, in the sense of despite that, the situation continues:

…ale wciąż muszę odpoczywać.
…but I still have to rest.

Similar words:

nadal – very close to “still”, quite neutral:
…ale nadal muszę odpoczywać.
wciąż – often “still”, sometimes also “all the time / continuously” depending on context.
ciągle – often “constantly / all the time”, can sound like complaining if overused.

Here you could safely replace wciąż with nadal without much change in meaning.

Why is there a comma before ale?

In Polish, you always put a comma before ale when it connects two clauses:

Wieczorem gardło boli mniej, ale wciąż muszę odpoczywać.
(clause 1) , ale (clause 2)

This matches your English intuition (“…, but …”), but in Polish it’s a strict rule: comma + ale between clauses.

How does muszę work here? Is there some extra word like “to” or “that” missing?

Muszę is the 1st person singular of musieć (must / have to). The normal pattern is:

musieć + infinitive

So:

Muszę odpoczywać. – I must rest / I have to rest.

There is no extra word like “to” or “that” in Polish:

Not: muszę żeby odpoczywać
Just: muszę odpoczywać

Other examples:

Musisz iść. – You must go.
Musimy pracować. – We have to work.

Why is it odpoczywać (imperfective) and not odpocząć (perfective)? Are both possible?

Polish distinguishes imperfective and perfective verbs:

odpoczywać – imperfective: to rest (general / ongoing / repeated action)
odpocząć – perfective: to rest (once, to get some rest, reach the “rested” result)

Your sentence:

…wciąż muszę odpoczywać.
…I still need to rest (in general / keep resting, ongoing need).

If you said:

…wciąż muszę odpocząć.

it would mean roughly: I still need to get (some) rest / I still need to rest (once, to achieve that state). It’s more about needing one proper rest than about an ongoing requirement to rest a lot or regularly.

Both are grammatically correct, but they express slightly different nuances.

Shouldn’t odpoczywać be reflexive, like odpoczywać się (“rest myself”)?

No. Odpoczywać is not reflexive in Polish.

You simply say:

Muszę odpoczywać. – I must rest.
Chcę odpocząć. – I want to rest / get some rest.

There is no form like odpoczywać się in standard Polish.

Why is there no ja in muszę odpoczywać?

Polish is a pro‑drop language: the verb ending already shows the person, so the subject pronoun is often omitted when it’s obvious:

Muszę odpoczywać. – I must rest. (ending -ę = “I”)
Musisz odpoczywać. – You must rest. (ending -isz = “you (sg.)”)

You can add ja for emphasis or contrast:

Ja muszę odpoczywać, a ty możesz pracować.
I must rest, and you can work.

But in a neutral sentence, just Muszę odpoczywać is more natural.

Is boli present simple or present continuous? Does Polish have a separate form for “is hurting”?

Boli is simply present tense of boleć. Polish does not have a special continuous form like “is hurting”.

So boli can correspond to both:

“hurts”
“is hurting”

Context decides which is the best translation:

Gardło boli. – My throat hurts / is hurting.
Od rana gardło boli. – My throat has been hurting since the morning. (still using plain present in Polish)

In your sentence, Wieczorem gardło boli mniej is naturally understood as In the evening my throat hurts less / is less painful.