Learn Hardcore Polish: Mówi się też, że stary zwyczaj jest lepszy niż nowa moda. - People also say that an old custom is better than a new fashion.

mówi = “(he/she/it) says / speaks”
się is a reflexive particle, but here it does not mean “oneself”. In this pattern, it removes the subject and makes the sentence impersonal.
There is no explicit subject like ktoś (someone) or ludzie (people). The idea is general: people in general say this.

So Mówi się, że… is very close to “It is said that…” or “They say that…” in English.

Why use mówi się instead of something like ludzie mówią or mówią?

All are possible, but they feel different:

Mówi się, że…
– very common, neutral, impersonal, proverb-like
– suggests a general saying, a piece of folk wisdom
Ludzie mówią, że… (People say that…)
– a bit more concrete: people (in general) say this
– still general, but you are mentioning ludzie explicitly
Mówią, że… (They say that…)
– informal, sounds like “They say that…”
– can imply some indefinite group (neighbors, experts, “they” in gossip, etc.)

In this specific sentence, Mówi się, że… fits well because it introduces a kind of proverb or traditional saying.

What exactly does też mean here, and can it go in a different place?

Też means “also / too / as well”.

In Mówi się też, że…, the też says that this is another thing that people say (in addition to something mentioned before in the larger context).

Word order with też is flexible, but not all positions sound equally natural. Some common options:

Mówi się też, że… – very natural, neutral.
Też się mówi, że… – possible; stresses also at the start.
Mówi się, że też… – means “It is said that … also …” (the też then refers to something inside the że-clause, not to the whole act of saying).

So you can move też, but its position slightly changes what exactly is being emphasized as “also”.

What does że do here, and how is it different from żeby?

Że introduces a content clause (a “that”-clause in English):

Mówi się, że… = “It is said that…”

So the structure is:

Mówi się – main clause
że stary zwyczaj jest lepszy niż nowa moda – subordinate clause: “that the old custom is better than the new fashion”

Że vs żeby:

że = “that” (statement):
- Wiem, że on ma rację. – I know that he is right.
żeby = “so that / in order that / for … to”, or introduces wishes, commands, etc.:
- Chcę, żeby on przyszedł. – I want him to come.
- Powiedz mu, żeby zadzwonił. – Tell him to call.

In this sentence we are just reporting something people say (a statement), so że is the correct choice.

What are the forms stary zwyczaj and nowa moda grammatically (gender, case, etc.)?

Both phrases are in the nominative singular, because:

we are stating what is better than what,
and with jest lepszy niż…, the compared items appear in the same case (here, nominative).

Details:

zwyczaj (custom)
- noun gender: masculine
- nominative singular: zwyczaj
- adjective: stary (masculine nominative singular) → stary zwyczaj
moda (fashion)
- noun gender: feminine
- nominative singular: moda
- adjective: nowa (feminine nominative singular) → nowa moda

So:

stary agrees with zwyczaj in gender, number, and case.
nowa agrees with moda in gender, number, and case.

Why isn’t it something like starego zwyczaju or nowej mody? What case does niż take?

With niż, the second element of the comparison takes the same case as the first.

Subject: stary zwyczaj – nominative
After niż: nowa moda – also nominative

So we get:

Stary zwyczaj jest lepszy niż nowa moda.

You will also see another pattern:

Stary zwyczaj jest lepszy od nowej mody.

Here, od is used instead of niż, and od takes the genitive, so:

nowej mody is genitive singular feminine.

Roughly:

lepszy niż nowa moda ≈ better than new fashion
lepszy od nowej mody ≈ better than (from) new fashion

Both are correct; niż + same case and od + genitive are the two standard comparison patterns.

Why is it jest lepszy and not something like jest bardziej dobry?

In Polish, many common adjectives have synthetic comparative forms, not bardziej + adjective:

dobry → lepszy (better)
zły → gorszy (worse)
duży → większy (bigger)
mały → mniejszy (smaller)

Using bardziej dobry is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural in normal speech here, just like “more good” sounds wrong in English compared to “better”.

So:

stary zwyczaj jest lepszy niż nowa moda
= “the old custom is better than the new fashion”

and jest bardziej dobry would be felt as incorrect style.

Why is lepszy masculine, not something else like lepsze or lepsza?

Lepszy must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it describes.

The subject is stary zwyczaj:
- zwyczaj = masculine, singular, nominative
- so stary (old) and lepszy (better) must also be masculine singular nominative.

Hence:

stary zwyczaj jest lepszy…

If the subject were feminine, you’d see:

stara tradycja jest lepsza… (tradition – feminine)
nowa moda jest lepsza… (fashion – feminine, if moda were the subject)

What does niż mean, and how is it different from od in comparisons?

Niż means “than” in comparisons:

lepszy niż… – better than…
większy niż… – bigger than…

The main points:

niż is used with comparatives (lepszy, większy, gorszy, etc.).
The phrase after niż uses the same case as the first element of the comparison.

Od can also be used in comparisons:

lepszy od czegoś – better than something
większy od czegoś – bigger than something

But od governs the genitive case.

So you often have two equivalent options:

Stary zwyczaj jest lepszy niż nowa moda.
Stary zwyczaj jest lepszy od nowej mody.

Both mean essentially the same thing.

Could we omit jest and just say stary zwyczaj lepszy niż nowa moda?

In standard written Polish, you do not normally omit jest here. The correct full form is:

Stary zwyczaj jest lepszy niż nowa moda.

Omitting jest might occur in:

headlines,
very colloquial speech,
or poetic style,

but in everyday neutral language the verb jest (is) should be present in this kind of sentence.

So for a learner, it’s safest to always say X jest lepszy niż Y.

Is this a kind of proverb? How natural is this sentence?

Yes, it has a proverb-like or saying-like character.

The structure Mówi się, że… + some general, moralizing statement is very typical in Polish for introducing folk wisdom, traditional beliefs, or clichés.

Stary zwyczaj jest lepszy niż nowa moda expresses a traditional attitude: old customs are better than new fashionable trends. It’s fully natural and sounds like something an older person, or someone defending tradition, might say—or like a summarized proverb you might find in a book of sayings.