Learn Hardcore Polish: Jest mi trudno mówić po polsku, kiedy jestem zmęczony. - It is hard for me to speak Polish when I am tired.

Jest mi trudno is a very natural, everyday way to say It’s hard for me.
Literally: It is to‑me hard.
This structure is impersonal (no clear grammatical subject) and focuses on how you feel.
To jest trudne dla mnie also means This/that is difficult for me, but it sounds a bit more formal or heavier, like you are evaluating a specific task or situation as difficult.

In conversation, for talking about how hard something feels to you, Jest mi trudno [coś zrobić] is extremely common and idiomatic.

Why is the pronoun mi and not mnie?

Both mi and mnie are forms of ja in the dative case (to me), but:

mi is the unstressed form, usually used in the middle of a sentence when you’re not emphasizing it.
mnie is the stressed form, used:
- for emphasis: Mnie jest trudno mówić po polsku (It’s me who finds it hard),
- or after prepositions: dla mnie, do mnie, ode mnie, etc.

In Jest mi trudno mówić po polsku, there’s no preposition and no special emphasis, so the natural choice is mi.

Why is it trudno and not trudne?

Trudno is an adverb (like hard / difficultly), and here it functions as an impersonal predicate, similar to English It is hard (to do something).

Jest mi trudno mówić po polsku ≈ It is hard for me to speak Polish.

If you wanted to use trudne (adjective), you’d need a neuter noun as the subject, for example:

Mówienie po polsku jest dla mnie trudne.
(Speaking Polish is difficult for me.)

So:

With an infinitive and no explicit subject: use trudno.
With a specific neuter noun (like mówienie, zadanie, to): use trudne.

Why is mówić in the infinitive and not conjugated, like mówię?

After this kind of impersonal structure (Jest mi trudno), Polish normally uses the infinitive:

Jest mi trudno mówić po polsku.
Literally: It is to me hard to speak in Polish.

If you said Jest mi trudno mówię po polsku, it would be ungrammatical: the infinitive is required because you are talking about the action in general, not describing what you are currently doing.

Other examples with the same pattern:

Łatwo jest mi to zrozumieć. – It’s easy for me to understand this.
Było mu ciężko pracować nocą. – It was hard for him to work at night.

Why do we say mówić po polsku and not mówić w polskim or mówić po polski?

For languages, Polish has a very fixed idiom:

mówić po polsku – to speak Polish
mówić po angielsku – to speak English
mówić po niemiecku – to speak German

The pattern is mówić po + [language] in locative case (here: polsku).
Mówić w polskim sounds wrong unless you say w języku polskim:

mówić w języku polskim – to speak in the Polish language (more formal / written style)

Po polski is just incorrect: the ending -i is not the right case for this construction. You need po + locative, which gives po polsku.

What case is polsku in, and why does it look like that?

Polsku is in the locative case (miejscownik).

Here’s what is going on:

The basic adjective is polski (Polish).
When an adjective is used as a noun (meaning the Polish language), it declines like a noun.
The locative singular form of polski used this way is polskim, but in the fixed expression po polsku the historical shortened form polsku is used.

So po polsku is a set expression: po + locative. You just memorize the language forms in this pattern:

po polsku, po angielsku, po francusku, po rosyjsku, po hiszpańsku etc.

Can I change the word order? For example, say Mi jest trudno mówić po polsku or Kiedy jestem zmęczony, jest mi trudno mówić po polsku?

Yes, Polish word order is fairly flexible, and all of these are possible with slightly different emphasis:

Jest mi trudno mówić po polsku, kiedy jestem zmęczony.
Neutral, natural order.
Mi jest trudno mówić po polsku, kiedy jestem zmęczony.
Emphasizes mi (to me it is hard), often in speech, especially if you contrast with someone else.
Kiedy jestem zmęczony, jest mi trudno mówić po polsku.
Also very natural; you simply place the when‑clause at the beginning.

What you can’t do is split the impersonal predicate in strange ways, like:
Trudno mi jest mówić po polsku, jestem zmęczony kiedy. – This is wrong.
But Trudno mi jest mówić po polsku, kiedy jestem zmęczony is fine (just a different emphasis with trudno at the start).

Why is there a comma before kiedy?

In Polish, you must separate a subordinate clause (introduced by words like kiedy, że, bo, jeśli, gdy etc.) with a comma.

So:

Jest mi trudno mówić po polsku, kiedy jestem zmęczony.
main clause: Jest mi trudno mówić po polsku
subordinate clause: kiedy jestem zmęczony

If you put the kiedy‑clause first, you also use a comma:

Kiedy jestem zmęczony, jest mi trudno mówić po polsku.

This comma rule is much stricter in Polish than in English. Even if English could omit the comma, Polish generally keeps it.

What is the difference between kiedy and gdy here? Can I use gdy?

You can use gdy:

Jest mi trudno mówić po polsku, gdy jestem zmęczony.

In everyday conversation, kiedy is more common and neutral. Gdy is often a bit more formal or literary, but in a simple sentence like this the meaning is effectively the same: when / whenever.

So:

kiedy – very common, neutral when.
gdy – often slightly more formal or stylistic choice, but correct here.

Why is it jestem zmęczony? What changes if a woman is speaking, or if there are more people?

Zmęczony is an adjective meaning tired. It must agree with the speaker’s gender and number:

Male speaker: Jestem zmęczony. – I am tired.
Female speaker: Jestem zmęczona.
Group with at least one man: Jesteśmy zmęczeni.
All‑female or non‑masculine group (e.g. things, children): Jesteśmy zmęczone.

So a woman would normally say:

Jest mi trudno mówić po polsku, kiedy jestem zmęczona.

Could I say Było mi trudno mówić po polsku, kiedy byłem zmęczony instead? What changes?

Yes, that’s correct; you’re just changing the time reference:

Jest mi trudno mówić po polsku, kiedy jestem zmęczony.
It is hard for me (now / generally) to speak Polish when I am tired.
Było mi trudno mówić po polsku, kiedy byłem zmęczony.
It was hard for me to speak Polish when I was tired (in the past).

Notice how the verb być (to be) and the adverb phrase both shift to past:

jest → było
jestem → byłem / byłam (depending on your gender)

Aspect of mówić doesn’t change here; mówić is imperfective and is the right choice for the general activity of speaking.

Can I say Jest mi ciężko mówić po polsku instead of trudno?

Yes, Jest mi ciężko mówić po polsku is very natural and common in speech.

trudno – literally difficultly, slightly more neutral.
ciężko – literally heavily, in this context very close to hard, often a bit more emotional / colloquial.

In many everyday contexts they are interchangeable:

Jest mi trudno / ciężko pracować wieczorami.
It’s hard for me to work in the evenings.

For learners, trudno is a bit more neutral and “textbook‑safe”, but ciężko is extremely frequent in real conversation.

Is there another way to say the same idea, for example with a noun like trudności?

Yes, you can rephrase it with a noun:

Mam trudności z mówieniem po polsku, kiedy jestem zmęczony.
I have difficulties with speaking Polish when I am tired.

Differences in feel:

Jest mi trudno mówić po polsku...
Focuses on how hard the action feels to you.
Mam trudności z mówieniem po polsku...
Focuses more on the existence of difficulties as an object or problem.

Both are correct; Jest mi trudno... is shorter and more colloquial.

Can I add ja in kiedy jestem zmęczony? For example, kiedy ja jestem zmęczony?

You can say kiedy ja jestem zmęczony, but normally you don’t need ja at all:

kiedy jestem zmęczony already means when I am tired, because the -em ending on jestem tells you the subject is I.

Adding ja gives emphasis or contrast, for example:

Kiedy ja jestem zmęczony, jest mi trudno mówić po polsku, ale kiedy ty jesteś zmęczony, to nie masz problemu.
When I am tired, it’s hard for me to speak Polish, but when you are tired, you have no problem.

So grammatically it’s fine, but in a simple, neutral sentence you would usually omit ja.