Learn Hardcore Polish: Ona pyta, czy mikrofon działa, bo nas wcale nie słychać. - She asks whether the microphone is working, because we can’t be heard at all.

czy is used for:
- direct yes/no questions: Czy mikrofon działa? (Is the microphone working?)
- indirect yes/no questions: Ona pyta, czy mikrofon działa.

You cannot drop czy here.
You cannot replace it with że or leave just mikrofon działa after pyta, because that would sound ungrammatical or change the meaning.

Could I omit ona and just say Pyta, czy mikrofon działa…?

Yes, you often can.

Polish is a “pro‑drop” language: subject pronouns (ja, ty, on, ona, my, wy, oni, one) are frequently omitted when the subject is clear from context or verb ending.

Ona pyta, czy mikrofon działa… – neutral, explicit: She is asking…
Pyta, czy mikrofon działa… – also natural, a bit more compact; She (or he) is asking, understood from context.

You’d keep ona if:

you want to emphasize she (not someone else)
it’s the first mention and you want to introduce the subject clearly.

What is the difference between pyta, pyta się, pytała, zapytała, and spytała?

All relate to asking, but differ in aspect, time, and style.

pyta – imperfective, present
- She asks / she is asking.
- Ongoing, repeated, or current action.
- Ona pyta, czy mikrofon działa.
pyta się – reflexive variant
- Colloquial, very common in speech.
- Meaning is practically the same as pyta here.
- Ona pyta się, czy mikrofon działa.
pytała – imperfective, past
- She was asking / used to ask / asked (focusing on the process or repetition).
- Wczoraj pytała, czy mikrofon działa.
zapytała / spytała – perfective, past
- She asked (single, complete act).
- Wczoraj zapytała / spytała, czy mikrofon działa.
- zapytać is a bit more neutral/common; spytać is also correct.

In your sentence, pyta fits because she is currently asking about the microphone.

Why is it mikrofon działa and not something like mikrofon jest działa?

Polish uses the verb działać to mean to work / to function (properly):

Mikrofon działa. – The microphone works / is working.
Mikrofon nie działa. – The microphone doesn’t work.

You never say jest działa.
jest (is) and działa (works) are both verbs; you don’t combine them like that.

Other natural options:

Mikrofon jest włączony? – Is the microphone switched on?
Mikrofon działa dobrze? – Does the microphone work well?

But mikrofon działa is the standard way to say “the microphone is working”.

What does bo do here, and how does it differ from ponieważ?

bo means because and introduces a reason:

…bo nas wcale nie słychać.
= …because you can’t hear us at all.

Nuances:

bo – very common, neutral, slightly more informal, used constantly in speech.
ponieważ – also because, feels a bit more formal/bookish.
dlatego że – because, often used for stronger/clearer logical linking.

All of these work here:

Ona pyta, czy mikrofon działa, bo nas wcale nie słychać.
Ona pyta, czy mikrofon działa, ponieważ nas wcale nie słychać.
Ona pyta, czy mikrofon działa, dlatego że nas wcale nie słychać.

In everyday speech, bo is the most natural.

In nas wcale nie słychać, what is the subject? Why is it nas?

This is an impersonal construction. There is no grammatical subject like we or they.

słychać here works like “one can hear” / “it is possible to hear”.
nas is the direct object (accusative plural of my – we/us).

So nas wcale nie słychać literally is:

[it is] not at all hearable – us
→ You can’t hear us at all.

There is no pronoun like ono or to acting as subject.
Polish often uses such impersonal patterns with verbs like słychać, widać, czuć:

Nie słychać mnie. – You can’t hear me.
Nie widać ich. – You can’t see them.
Nie czuć dymu. – You can’t smell smoke.

Why is it nas, not my or nam?

Because of case:

my – nominative (we) – used for the subject.
nas – accusative or genitive (us) – used for direct objects or after some prepositions.
nam – dative (to us/for us).

In nas wcale nie słychać:

We are being heard (or rather not heard), so we are the object.
Therefore nas (accusative) is required, not my or nam.

Compare:

My mówimy, ale nas nie słychać.
– We are speaking, but you can’t hear us.

What exactly does wcale mean here, and how is it different from w ogóle or zupełnie?

In negative sentences, wcale strengthens the negation and means roughly:

wcale nie = not at all, absolutely not

So:

nas wcale nie słychać – you can’t hear us at all.

Similar expressions:

w ogóle nie – not at all / not in any way / not at all, generally
zupełnie nie – completely not, totally not

In this sentence, you could also say:

bo nas w ogóle nie słychać.
bo nas zupełnie nie słychać.

All three are possible.
wcale and w ogóle are very common intensifiers with nie.

Note: in positive sentences, wcale can mean actually / in fact, but then the structure is different, e.g.:

To wcale nie jest trudne. – This isn’t difficult at all.
To wcale jest trudne (rare, somewhat marked) – It actually is difficult.

Can the word order in nas wcale nie słychać be changed?

Yes. Polish word order is relatively flexible; it mainly affects emphasis.

All of these are grammatically correct:

Nas wcale nie słychać.
Wcale nas nie słychać.
Nie słychać nas wcale.

They all mean You can’t hear us at all, but:

Nas wcale nie słychać. – emphasizes nas (us in contrast to others).
Wcale nas nie słychać. – strong emphasis on wcale (not at all).
Nie słychać nas wcale. – more neutral, typical pattern: negation + verb + object + intensifier.

In your sentence, nas wcale nie słychać is natural and perfectly idiomatic.

Why is there a comma before bo in this sentence?

In Polish, bo introduces a subordinate clause of reason (a “because”-clause).
Such subordinate clauses are usually separated by a comma.

So:

Ona pyta, czy mikrofon działa, bo nas wcale nie słychać.

Structure:

Ona pyta, – main clause 1
czy mikrofon działa, – subordinate clause (indirect question)
bo nas wcale nie słychać. – subordinate clause of reason

Polish punctuation rules are stricter than English regarding commas before conjunctions like bo, że, gdy, kiedy, ponieważ: they almost always require a comma when joining full clauses.

Why is it pyta (present) and not pytała or zapytała (past)?

Polish uses the simple present tense (pyta) for:

actions happening right now
sometimes for near-future or general/habitual actions.

In your sentence, the situation is “live” (for example, during a call), so:

Ona pyta, czy mikrofon działa… – She is asking whether the microphone is working…

If you were telling a story about the past:

Wczoraj pytała, czy mikrofon działa, bo nas wcale nie było słychać.
– Yesterday she was asking / she asked whether the microphone was working, because we couldn’t be heard at all.

Or focusing on a single completed act:

Wczoraj zapytała / spytała, czy mikrofon działa… – Yesterday she asked whether the microphone was working…

So pyta is correct and natural for a current, ongoing situation.