Learn Hardcore Polish: Mówi się, że dobra atmosfera w domu jest ważniejsza niż drogi prezent. - People say that a good atmosphere at home is more important than an expensive present.

“Mówi się” literally is “(it) speaks itself”, but that’s not how you should understand it. In Polish, this is a very common impersonal expression meaning:

“People say…”
“It is said that…”

The word “się” here makes the verb impersonal: there is no clear subject like “I”, “you”, or “they”. So:

Mówi się, że… = People say that… / It is said that…

This pattern appears in many similar expressions:

Mówi się, że… – People say that…
Uważa się, że… – It is considered that…
Sądzi się, że… – It is thought that…

So “się” in this sentence doesn’t mean “oneself” (like “myself/yourself”), but rather creates a general, impersonal statement.

Could you explain the role of “że” and why there is a comma before it?

“Że” means “that” as a conjunction introducing a subordinate clause:

Mówi się, że… = People say that…

The part after “że” (“dobra atmosfera w domu jest ważniejsza niż drogi prezent”) is a full clause: that a good atmosphere at home is more important than an expensive present.

In Polish punctuation, you almost always put a comma before “że” when it introduces a subordinate clause:

Wiem, że masz rację. – I know that you’re right.
Myślę, że będzie padać. – I think that it will rain.
Mówi się, że… – It is said that…

So the comma is not optional here; it follows a standard rule.

Why is it “dobra atmosfera” and not “dobry atmosfera”?

In Polish, adjectives agree with the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe.

atmosfera is a feminine noun.
In the nominative singular (the basic “dictionary form”), a typical feminine adjective ends in -a.

So:

dobra atmosfera – good atmosphere
- dobra – feminine, nominative singular
- atmosfera – feminine, nominative singular

By contrast:

dobry is masculine (nominative singular), used with masculine nouns like:
- dobry film – a good film
- dobry prezent – a good present

Since atmosfera is feminine, the correct form is dobra atmosfera.

What does “jest ważniejsza niż” mean, and how is the comparison formed?

“Jest ważniejsza niż” means “is more important than”.

Here’s the breakdown:

ważny – important (basic adjective)
ważniejszy / ważniejsza / ważniejsze – more important (comparative form)

The comparative is formed by adding -szy / -iejszy to the stem. Then it still has to agree with the noun:

ważniejszy – masculine
ważniejsza – feminine
ważniejsze – neuter

In our sentence:

atmosfera is feminine ⇒ ważniejsza

The word “niż” is the standard conjunction for comparisons, corresponding to “than”:

ważniejsza niż drogi prezent – more important than an expensive present

Could you also say “bardziej ważna” instead of “ważniejsza”?

Grammatically, “bardziej ważna” (more important) is possible, but in practice “ważniejsza” is strongly preferred and sounds much more natural.

Polish typically uses:

single-word comparative forms like większy (bigger), lepszy (better), ważniejszy (more important),

rather than constructions with “bardziej + adjective”, unless the adjective is long or doesn’t have a natural one-word comparative.

So in this sentence:

dobra atmosfera w domu jest ważniejsza niż drogi prezent
sounds natural,
dobra atmosfera w domu jest bardziej ważna niż drogi prezent
sounds clumsy or overly “translated” from English.

Why is it “ważniejsza” and not “ważniejszy”?

Because “ważniejsza” must agree with “atmosfera”:

atmosfera – feminine noun, nominative singular
adjective in comparative: ważniejsza – feminine, nominative singular

If the subject were masculine, you’d see ważniejszy:

Ten prezent jest ważniejszy niż tamten. – This present is more important than that one.

But here the subject is:

dobra atmosfera (w domu) – feminine ⇒ jest ważniejsza

What case is “w domu”, and why is it “domu” and not “dom”?

“W domu” is in the locative case (miejscownik).

The preposition “w” (in) usually requires:

locative when it means location:
- w domu – in the house
- w szkole – at school
- w pracy – at work

The noun dom changes in the locative singular:

nominative: dom – a house
locative: w domu – in the house/at home

So “w dom” is incorrect in this meaning; the preposition forces the locative form “domu”.

Why is “drogi prezent” in the same form as the dictionary entry?

“Drogi prezent” is in the nominative singular masculine form because it is part of the comparison structure after “niż”.

In Polish, when you say “X jest ważniejszy niż Y”, both X and Y appear in the nominative case, as if you had two subjects being compared:

Ten film jest lepszy niż tamten film. – This movie is better than that movie.
Dobra atmosfera w domu jest ważniejsza niż drogi prezent.
A good atmosphere at home is more important than an expensive present.

So “prezent” stays in nominative, and the adjective “drogi” matches it:

drogi prezent – masculine nominative singular

Does “drogi” here mean “dear” (emotionally) or “expensive”? How do I know?

“Drogi” can mean both:

expensive – when describing the price of an object:
- drogi prezent – an expensive present
- drogie mieszkanie – an expensive flat
dear / beloved – mostly in vocative or more emotional contexts:
- Drogi Piotrze, … – Dear Peter, … (in a letter)
- Droga mamo… – Dear Mom…

In your sentence:

dobra atmosfera w domu jest ważniejsza niż drogi prezent

the contrast is clearly between:

good home atmosphere
and
an expensive gift

So “drogi” here naturally means “expensive”, not emotionally “dear”.

Why is there no word for “a” or “the” before “dobra atmosfera” or “drogi prezent”?

Polish does not have articles (a, an, the). Whether something is definite or indefinite is understood from context, not from a separate word.

So:

dobra atmosfera w domu can be:
- a good atmosphere at home
- the good atmosphere at home
  depending on the wider context.
drogi prezent can be:
- an expensive present
- the expensive present

In typical English translation of such a general statement, we say:

A good atmosphere at home is more important than an expensive present.

The “a/an/the” is added only when translating to English; Polish does not mark it.

Can I change the word order to “Że dobra atmosfera w domu jest ważniejsza niż drogi prezent, mówi się”?

This word order is technically possible and could appear in some stylistic or literary contexts, but it sounds unusual and a bit heavy in everyday speech.

The most natural, neutral order is:

Mówi się, że dobra atmosfera w domu jest ważniejsza niż drogi prezent.

Polish allows relatively flexible word order, but in impersonal expressions like this, the pattern:

[Expression] + , że + [clause]
(e.g. Mówi się, że…, Uważa się, że…, Sądzi się, że…)

is by far the most common and idiomatic.

Could I omit “że” and just say “Mówi się dobra atmosfera w domu jest ważniejsza niż drogi prezent”?

No. In Polish, you cannot drop “że” the way you sometimes drop “that” in English.

In English you can say:

People say (that) a good atmosphere at home is more important…

In Polish, “że” is required here:

Mówi się, że dobra atmosfera w domu jest ważniejsza niż drogi prezent. ✔
Mówi się dobra atmosfera w domu jest ważniejsza niż drogi prezent. ✘ (incorrect)

So in structures like “Mówi się, że…”, “Myślę, że…”, “Wiem, że…”, you should keep “że”.

How do you pronounce “ó” in “mówi”, and where is the stress in this sentence?

In modern Polish:

“ó” is pronounced exactly like “u” (as in “lud”).
So “mówi” sounds like “muvi” (similar to “movie”, but with Polish consonants and shorter vowels).

Stress in Polish is almost always on the second-to-last syllable of each word, so:

MÓ-wi się, że DO-bra at-mo-SFE-ra w DO-mu jest waż-NIEJ-sza niż DRO-gi pre-ZENT.

Every word has its own stress; there is no single “main stress” for the whole sentence like in English.