Przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowany, ale po nim czuję dumę.

Before an exam I am nervous, but afterwards I feel proud.

Breakdown of Przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowany, ale po nim czuję dumę.

• ja: I
• być: to be
• ale: but
• przed: before
• po: after
• czuć: to feel
• duma: the pride
• egzamin: the exam
• zdenerwowany: nervous
• nim: it

Questions & Answers about Przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowany, ale po nim czuję dumę.

Why is it przed egzaminem and not przed egzamin?

In Polish, many prepositions require a specific grammatical case.

• The preposition przed (“before / in front of”) normally takes the instrumental case.
• The instrumental singular of egzamin is egzaminem.

So:

• przed egzaminem = before the exam (correct)
• przed egzamin = incorrect, because egzamin is nominative/accusative, not instrumental.

You have to memorize which preposition goes with which case. For time and place, przed + instrumental is the standard pattern:
przed pracą, przed ślubem, przed wyjazdem, etc.

Why is it po nim and not po niego or po nimie?

The preposition po (“after” in the temporal sense) takes the locative case.

• The noun egzamin in the locative singular is egzaminie:
  po egzaminie = after the exam.
• When you replace egzamin with the pronoun on (“he / it”), you must also put the pronoun into the locative.
  The locative (and instrumental) form of on is nim.

So:

• po nim = after it / after him (locative, correct)
• po niego uses the genitive/accusative form (niego), which is wrong after po in this meaning.
• po nimie does not exist; nim is already the correct locative form.

In short: po + locative → po egzaminie / po nim.

Could I say po egzaminie instead of po nim? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

• Przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowany, ale po egzaminie czuję dumę.

This is fully correct and natural.

The only difference:

• po egzaminie repeats the noun exam.
• po nim avoids repetition and refers back to egzamin using a pronoun (“after it”).

In context, both are equally clear; po nim is just slightly more stylistically varied because it avoids repeating egzamin in the same short sentence.

Why is it jestem zdenerwowany? How would a woman say this?

Zdenerwowany is an adjective (originally a participle) that must agree with the gender of the subject:

• A man says:
  Jestem zdenerwowany.
• A woman says:
  Jestem zdenerwowana.

So the full sentence for a woman would be:

• Przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowana, ale po nim czuję dumę.

Only the adjective changes; the verb jestem (“I am”) and czuję dumę stay the same, because duma is a noun and does not depend on the speaker’s gender.

Is zdenerwowany an adjective or a verb form? Can it change?

Zdenerwowany is used here as an adjective meaning “nervous / upset”. It is derived from a verb but behaves like a regular adjective:

• masculine singular: zdenerwowany
• feminine singular: zdenerwowana
• neuter singular: zdenerwowane
• masculine personal plural: zdenerwowani
• non-masculine-personal plural: zdenerwowane

It also changes for case in longer phrases, e.g.:

• z powodu zdenerwowanego studenta – because of the nervous student (genitive masculine).

In your sentence, it’s nominative singular, agreeing with the implied subject ja (“I”).

Why is the present tense used: jestem zdenerwowany, czuję dumę? Could this also mean past?

The present tense in Polish is often used for:

1. General, repeated situations (like English I get nervous before exams):
   Przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowany, ale po nim czuję dumę.
   = Before an exam I’m nervous, but after it I feel pride (in general).

2. A specific, current situation (if context makes it clear you’re talking about this exam right now).

If you want to talk clearly about a single, past exam, you normally use the past tense:

• (man) Przed egzaminem byłem zdenerwowany, ale po nim czułem dumę.
• (woman) Przed egzaminem byłam zdenerwowana, ale po nim czułam dumę.

Why is the word order Przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowany, not Jestem zdenerwowany przed egzaminem? Are both correct?

Both are grammatically correct:

• Przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowany…
• Jestem zdenerwowany przed egzaminem…

Polish word order is relatively flexible. Differences are mainly in emphasis and style:

• Starting with Przed egzaminem puts a bit more focus on the time (“as for the time before the exam, I am nervous…”).
• Jestem zdenerwowany przed egzaminem sounds more like a neutral statement about your state, with the time phrase added at the end.

For everyday speech, both versions are natural. The version in your sentence is slightly more “topic–comment”: as for before the exam → I am nervous.

What is the difference between jestem zdenerwowany and denerwuję się?

Both relate to being nervous, but they feel a bit different:

• Jestem zdenerwowany / zdenerwowana
  = I am nervous / upset.
  Describes a state.

• Denerwuję się przed egzaminem
  = I get nervous / I am getting nervous before the exam.
  Describes more of a process / reaction (literally “I am nerving myself”).

You could say, for example:

• Przed egzaminem denerwuję się i jestem zdenerwowany.
  Before the exam, I get nervous and I am nervous.

In many contexts they are close in meaning, but denerwuję się tends to sound a bit more dynamic.

Why is it czuję dumę and not czuję się dumę?

There are two different constructions:

1. czuć + noun (object) = to feel (something)

   • Czuję dumę. = I feel pride.
     Here dumę is a direct object in the accusative.

2. czuć się + adjective/adverb = to feel (a certain way)

   • Czuję się dumny. (man) / Czuję się dumna. (woman)
     = I feel proud.

So:

• czuję dumę – correct.
• czuję się dumę – incorrect (you can’t use się when your complement is a noun like duma).

You could also say instead:

• Po nim jestem dumny / dumna. = After it, I am proud.

What’s the difference between czuję dumę, jestem dumny and czuję się dumny?

All three express a similar idea, but with slightly different focus:

• Czuję dumę.
  Literally: I feel pride.
  Emphasizes the feeling as a noun.

• Jestem dumny / dumna.
  Literally: I am proud.
  Emphasizes your state / quality.

• Czuję się dumny / dumna.
  Literally: I feel proud.
  Very close to jestem dumny, but a bit more subjective (“I experience myself as proud”).

All are correct. In your sentence, czuję dumę nicely mirrors jestem zdenerwowany: nervousness before, pride after.

Why is dumę spelled with -ę at the end? What case is that?

The base form is duma (“pride”). It is a feminine noun.

In czuję dumę, the noun is the direct object of czuję, so it must be in the accusative case. For most feminine nouns ending in -a, the accusative singular ends in -ę:

• duma → dumę
• kawa → kawę (coffee → I drink coffee: piję kawę)
• mapa → mapę (map → I see the map: widzę mapę)

So dumę is simply the accusative singular of duma.

Why is there no ja (“I”) in the sentence? Can I say Ja przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowany…?

Polish is a “pro-drop” language: the subject pronoun (ja, “I”) is usually omitted, because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is:

• jestem → 1st person singular → “I am”
• czuję → 1st person singular → “I feel”

So:

• Przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowany, ale po nim czuję dumę.
  is perfectly complete without ja.

You can add ja for emphasis or contrast:

• Ja przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowany, ale ona jest spokojna.
  I am nervous before the exam, but she is calm.

In neutral statements without contrast, dropping ja is more natural.

Why is there a comma before ale?

In Polish, you almost always put a comma before ale when it introduces a new clause:

• …, ale po nim czuję dumę.

This is similar to English usage (“I’m nervous, but I feel pride afterwards”), but in Polish the rule is stricter and more consistent.

Your sentence has two clauses:

1. Przed egzaminem jestem zdenerwowany
2. po nim czuję dumę

They are joined by ale (“but”), so a comma is required before ale.