Learn Hardcore Polish: W zdrowym małżeństwie jest więcej dumy niż zazdrości. - In a healthy marriage there is more pride than jealousy.

Polish doesn’t use a special “there is / there are” construction. Instead, it just uses jest / są (“is / are”) with the thing that “exists” in a place:

W pokoju jest stół. – There is a table in the room.
W zdrowym małżeństwie jest więcej dumy niż zazdrości. – In a healthy marriage there is more pride than jealousy.

Why is it w zdrowym małżeństwie and not something like w zdrowe małżeństwo?

The preposition w (“in”) can take two different cases in Polish:

Locative (miejscownik) – for being inside a place / state (static location)
- w zdrowym małżeństwie – in a healthy marriage
- w domu – in the house
Accusative (biernik) – for movement into something
- wchodzę w dom – I go into the house
- wchodzi w małżeństwo – he/she enters into (a) marriage

Your sentence describes a state inside a healthy marriage, not movement into it, so we need locative:

w zdrowym małżeństwie (locative), not w zdrowe małżeństwo (accusative).

What case is małżeństwie, and why does it have that ending?

Małżeństwie is in the locative singular case.

The base form is:

małżeństwo – marriage (neuter noun)

Neuter nouns in the locative singular typically have the ending -e:

małżeństwo → (w) małżeństwie
miasto → (w) mieście – in the city
morze → (na) morzu – on the sea (note the irregularity here)

We use the locative because of the preposition w with a static meaning (“in”): w małżeństwie – in (a) marriage.

So:

małżeństwie = “in (the / a) marriage” in the grammatical sense.

Why does zdrowym end with -ym here?

Zdrowym is the adjective zdrowy (healthy) declined to agree with małżeństwie in case, number, and gender:

małżeństwie – neuter, singular, locative
zdrowym – neuter, singular, locative

For hard-stem adjectives like zdrowy, the neuter singular locative form is:

zdrowy → (w) zdrowym
(just like masculine singular locative: w dobrym chłopcu, w nowym domu)

So the pattern is:

zdrowe małżeństwo – a healthy marriage (nominative)
w zdrowym małżeństwie – in a healthy marriage (locative)

Why is it jest więcej and not są więcej?

In Polish, when you use quantity words like więcej (more), mniej (less), dużo (a lot), the verb is usually in the neuter singular, even if logically you’re talking about “a lot of things.”

So:

Jest więcej dumy. – There is more pride.
Jest mniej wody. – There is less water.
Jest dużo ludzi. – There are many people. (literally: is many people)

Using są więcej is incorrect in standard Polish. Więcej behaves grammatically like a singular neuter “amount,” so it takes jest, not są:

W zdrowym małżeństwie jest więcej dumy niż zazdrości.
In a healthy marriage there is more pride than jealousy.

What case are dumy and zazdrości, and why do they have these endings?

Both dumy (of pride) and zazdrości (of jealousy) are in the genitive singular.

Genitive after quantity words:
Words like więcej (more), mniej (less), dużo (a lot), mało (little, few) normally require the genitive:
- więcej wody – more water
- mniej czasu – less time
- dużo pracy – a lot of work
So we get:
- więcej dumy – more (of) pride
- niż zazdrości – than (of) jealousy (also genitive, to match the pattern)
Declension:
- duma (feminine) → gen.sg. dumy
- zazdrość (feminine) → gen.sg. zazdrości

So the pattern is:
więcej + [GENITIVE] + niż + [GENITIVE]
→ więcej dumy niż zazdrości.

Why is it więcej dumy and not bardziej duma?

Polish uses two different words for “more,” depending on what is being compared:

więcej – for nouns / quantities
- więcej dumy – more pride
- więcej wody – more water
- więcej książek – more books
bardziej – for adjectives and adverbs (qualities)
- bardziej dumny – more proud
- bardziej zazdrosny – more jealous
- bardziej szczęśliwie – more happily

In your sentence, you’re comparing amounts of things (pride vs jealousy as substances), so you must use więcej:

więcej dumy niż zazdrości – more pride than jealousy

If you wanted to compare people’s qualities, you’d use bardziej:

Ona jest bardziej dumna niż zazdrosna. – She is more proud than jealous.

Why is the comparison więcej X niż Y and not więcej X od Y?

Both niż and od can be used in comparisons, but they are not fully interchangeable in all structures.

Typical patterns:

With adjectives/adverbs (bigger, faster, etc.):
- większy od brata – bigger than (his) brother
- szybszy niż myślałem – faster than I thought
  Here, both od and niż are common, though od is especially frequent with a simple noun.
With quantities like więcej, mniej, tyle, tyle samo:
- więcej dumy niż zazdrości (natural)
- mniej wody niż mleka (natural)
  Od here can sound clumsy or even wrong; niż is the normal choice in standard Polish.

So for więcej X… the default is:

więcej dumy niż zazdrości (correct, idiomatic)
Using więcej dumy od zazdrości would sound off to most native speakers.

Can I change the word order, for example: Więcej dumy niż zazdrości jest w zdrowym małżeństwie?

Yes, Polish word order is flexible, and your version is grammatically correct, though the emphasis changes slightly.

Original:
- W zdrowym małżeństwie jest więcej dumy niż zazdrości.
  Neutral, topic = in a healthy marriage; we then learn what is in it.
Your version:
- Więcej dumy niż zazdrości jest w zdrowym małżeństwie.
  Here, “more pride than jealousy” is put in focus at the start; it can sound a bit more emphatic or slightly stylistic.

Other acceptable variants (with subtle shifts in emphasis):

W zdrowym małżeństwie więcej jest dumy niż zazdrości.
W zdrowym małżeństwie więcej dumy jest niż zazdrości. (less common, but possible in speech)

All keep the same basic meaning: In a healthy marriage there is more pride than jealousy.

How do I know whether małżeństwo here means “marriage” as an institution or “a married couple”?

Małżeństwo in Polish can mean both:

The state / institution of marriage
- małżeństwo jako instytucja – marriage as an institution
  In your sentence, this is clearly the meaning:
  W zdrowym małżeństwie – In a healthy marriage (as a relationship/state)
A married couple (two people)
- Szczęśliwe małżeństwo spaceruje po parku.
  A happy married couple is walking in the park.

Context usually makes it clear:

Here the abstract idea of a relationship is described (“more pride than jealousy”), so it’s the institution/relationship meaning, not the two people as individuals.

If Polish doesn’t have articles, how do I know if w zdrowym małżeństwie means “in a healthy marriage,” “in the healthy marriage,” or “in healthy marriage” in general?

Polish has no articles, so w zdrowym małżeństwie can correspond to “in a/the healthy marriage” or even “in a healthy marriage (in general)”, depending on context.

Possible English readings:

In a healthy marriage – general rule about any healthy marriage
In the healthy marriage – if earlier in the text you already specified a particular marriage
In healthy marriage (as a concept) – more abstract, like a proverb or saying

Your sentence sounds like a general statement about relationships, so the most natural English version is:

In a healthy marriage, there is more pride than jealousy.

Polish relies on context and word order, not articles, to convey specificity or generality.

Does duma in Polish mean positive pride (self-respect) or negative pride (arrogance)?

Duma can mean both, depending on context, but it’s often neutral or positive:

Positive / neutral pride:
- Jestem z ciebie dumny. – I’m proud of you.
- Czuła dumę ze swoich osiągnięć. – She felt pride in her achievements.
Negative pride / arrogance is more often expressed by:
- pycha – hubris, sinful pride
- zarozumiałość – conceit, arrogance

In your sentence:

więcej dumy niż zazdrości is clearly positive:
the idea is that in a healthy marriage people feel healthy pride in each other / in the relationship, rather than jealousy.

Why is it w zdrowym małżeństwie and not we zdrowym małżeństwie?

Polish has two forms of the preposition w:

w – the normal form
we – used mainly:
- before words starting with w or f plus another consonant, to ease pronunciation
- in some fixed expressions

Examples:

we Wrocławiu (not w Wrocławiu)
we Francji (not w Francji)
we wtorek (old-fashioned/literary for we wtorek, usually we wtorek is actually we wtorek vs. w wtorek, but “we wtorek” is still more natural)

In w zdrowym małżeństwie, the next word starts with z, not with w or f, and w zdrowym is easy to pronounce, so the normal w is used.

So:

w zdrowym małżeństwie – correct and natural
Using we zdrowym małżeństwie would sound strange and non-standard.