Learn Hardcore Polish: Babcia spokojnie pije herbatę w kuchni. - Grandma calmly drinks tea in the kitchen.

Babcia – nominative (who is doing something? grandma is drinking)
Babcię – accusative (we would use this for a direct object: Widzę babcię – I see grandma)
Babci – could be genitive, dative, or locative, depending on context (nie ma babci, pomagam babci, o babci)

So here we need the basic, dictionary form Babcia as the subject.

Does Babcia mean the same as English grandmother, or is it more like grandma?

Babcia is closer to grandma / granny / nana – it’s warm and informal.

For a more formal, neutral word you can say babcia as well, but in official documents you’ll see phrases like matka ojca (father’s mother) rather than a special “grandmother” word.

Other related forms:

babka – can mean grandmother but also “old woman”, sometimes rude or joking
babunia – very affectionate, like “granny dear”

In everyday family talk, Babcia = “Grandma” is the most natural translation.

Why is it spokojnie and not spokojna in this sentence?

Spokojnie is an adverb, and spokojna is an adjective.

Adverbs describe how someone does something (how she drinks).
Adjectives describe what someone/something is like (what she is).

Here, spokojnie tells us how she is drinking: she drinks calmly.

If you said:

Babcia jest spokojna. – Grandma is calm. (adjective after jest)
Babcia spokojnie pije herbatę. – Grandma calmly drinks tea. (adverb modifying pije)

Can spokojnie go in a different position, like Babcia pije spokojnie herbatę?

Yes. Polish word order is quite flexible. All of these are grammatical:

Babcia spokojnie pije herbatę w kuchni. (neutral, fairly standard)
Babcia pije spokojnie herbatę w kuchni.
Babcia pije herbatę spokojnie w kuchni.
W kuchni babcia spokojnie pije herbatę.

The differences are mostly about emphasis and rhythm, not about grammar.
Usually the most important or new information tends to be closer to the end of the sentence.

Why is it pije and not piję?

This is a person/number difference in verb conjugation.

The verb is pić (to drink). Present tense:

ja piję – I drink
ty pijesz – you (sg.) drink
on / ona / ono pije – he / she / it drinks
my pijemy – we drink
wy pijecie – you (pl.) drink
oni / one piją – they drink

Since the subject is Babcia (she), we must use pije (3rd person singular), not piję (1st person singular).

What is the difference between pije and forms like pija or wypija?

All three come from pić but differ in nuance:

pije – simple present, neutral:
- Babcia pije herbatę. – Grandma is drinking / drinks tea.
pija – habitual, somewhat literary:
- Babcia pija herbatę wieczorami. – Grandma tends to drink tea in the evenings.
wypija – perfective, focused on finishing the drink:
- Babcia wypija herbatę. – Grandma drinks (and finishes) the tea.

In your sentence, pije is the normal, neutral choice for describing what is happening.

Why is it herbatę and not herbata?

Herbatę is the accusative case of herbata (tea).

We use the accusative for direct objects (the thing directly affected by the verb):

Kto? Co? (subject, nominative): Herbata jest gorąca. – The tea is hot.
Kogo? Co? (direct object, accusative): Babcia pije herbatę. – Grandma drinks the tea.

For feminine nouns ending in -a, the accusative form usually ends in -ę:

kawa → kawę
zupa → zupę
herbata → herbatę

How do you say her tea in Polish here? Should it be swoją herbatę?

You can say:

Babcia spokojnie pije swoją herbatę w kuchni.

That literally means “Grandma is calmly drinking her own tea in the kitchen.”

However, in Polish we often omit possessive pronouns (mój, twój, swój, etc.) when the owner is obvious from context. Since it’s natural that she’s drinking her own tea, herbatę alone is enough.

You only really need swoją if you want to emphasize that it’s specifically her tea (not someone else’s).

Why is it w kuchni and not w kuchnię or just kuchnia?

Preposition w (“in”) can take different cases, but:

For location (“in the kitchen”), w uses the locative case: w kuchni.
For movement into something, w can use the accusative: w kuchnię, e.g. Wbiegła w kuchnię – She ran into the kitchen.

Here we describe a static location (where she is drinking), so we need locative:

kuchnia (nominative) → w kuchni (locative)

We can’t just say kuchnia on its own, because we need a preposition to express “in the kitchen.”

Can the word order be W kuchni babcia spokojnie pije herbatę or Babcia w kuchni spokojnie pije herbatę?

Yes, both versions are correct:

W kuchni babcia spokojnie pije herbatę.
Babcia w kuchni spokojnie pije herbatę.

Main points:

Polish allows many word orders as long as the case endings are correct.
The basic information (who does what to what, where) doesn’t change.
The order slightly changes what feels emphasized: starting with W kuchni highlights the location first.

All of these are natural; context and style decide which sounds best.

Why isn’t there a verb like jest (“is”) in this sentence, like Babcia jest pijąca herbatę?

Polish does not use “to be” + a -ing form the way English does.

Instead of:

“Grandma is drinking tea in the kitchen.”

Polish simply uses the present tense:

Babcia pije herbatę w kuchni.

A form like jest pijąca is grammatically possible but sounds very odd and unnatural in this context. For ongoing actions, just use the present tense verb on its own.

Can we omit Babcia and just say Spokojnie pije herbatę w kuchni?

Grammatically, yes, you can drop the subject if it’s clear from context, because the verb ending -e tells us it’s he/she/it:

Spokojnie pije herbatę w kuchni. – (He/She) is calmly drinking tea in the kitchen.

However:

Without context, we don’t know who is drinking.
If you want to make it clear that it’s Grandma, you should keep Babcia in the sentence.