Learn Hardcore Polish: Jest mi wesoło, jak biegamy razem w parku. - I feel happy when we run together in the park.

Impersonal “to-me” pattern
- Jest mi wesoło.
  Literally: It is cheerful to me.
  Meaning: I feel happy / I’m in a cheerful mood (right now).
- This is very common for temporary states and feelings, especially:
  - Jest mi zimno. – I feel cold.
  - Jest mi smutno. – I feel sad.
  - Jest mi przykro. – I’m sorry / I feel bad about it.
Personal “I am X” pattern
- Jestem wesoły (male) / Jestem wesoła (female).
  This sounds more like:
  - “I am a cheerful (jolly) person”, or
  - “I am in a cheerful mood” (more descriptive, less about inner feeling).
- In some contexts wesoły can also mean a bit tipsy/jolly (after drinking).

So Jest mi wesoło focuses on the internal feeling at the moment, and it’s gender‑neutral. That’s why it’s more natural here than Jestem wesoły / wesoła.

What exactly does mi mean in Jest mi wesoło?

Mi is the dative form of ja (I).

ja – nominative (subject form): I
mi / mnie – dative (to/for me): to me, for me

In this sentence, mi marks the experiencer of the feeling:

Jest mi wesoło. – It is cheerful *to me → I feel cheerful.*

Other common examples with dative:

Jest mi zimno. – I feel cold.
Jest ci gorąco. – You feel hot.
Było nam smutno. – We felt sad.

So you can think of it as “to me” built into the grammar.

Can I move mi around? Are forms like Mi jest wesoło or Mnie jest wesoło possible?

The most natural and neutral is:

Jest mi wesoło.

Other options:

Mnie jest wesoło.
- Correct and used for strong emphasis on me:
  Mnie jest wesoło, a jemu jest smutno. – I feel happy, and he feels sad.
Mi jest wesoło. (with mi at the start)
- Very common in everyday speech, but many teachers and grammar books consider starting a sentence with mi as non‑standard.
- In careful / formal Polish, prefer Mnie jest wesoło if you want to start with the pronoun.
Wesoło mi (jest).
- Also possible, a bit more colloquial/expressive: Wesoło mi, jak biegamy razem w parku.

So: for learners, stick with Jest mi wesoło as your default.

What is wesoło grammatically? Why not wesoły?

Wesoły is an adjective: cheerful, merry.
- wesoły chłopak – a cheerful boy
- wesoła dziewczyna – a cheerful girl
Wesoło is the adverb (or adverb‑like predicative form) from wesoły.

In the construction Jest mi + [feeling], Polish normally uses the adverb‑like form:

Jest mi wesoło. – I feel happy.
Jest mi smutno. – I feel sad.
Jest mi zimno. – I feel cold.
Jest mi gorąco. – I feel hot.
Jest mi głupio. – I feel stupid/embarrassed.

You cannot say Jest mi wesoły, because that would try to combine dative mi with an adjective that expects a nominative subject. The pattern here is impersonal: It is [adverb] to me, not I am [adjective].

Does wesoło mean exactly “happy”? How is it different from words like szczęśliwy or śmieszny?

Wesoło overlaps with “happy”, but it has its own flavor:

wesoło / wesoły – cheerful, merry, light‑hearted, jolly
- Often about a cheerful mood or atmosphere.
- Jest mi wesoło. – I feel cheerful / It’s a cheerful, pleasant feeling.
szczęśliwy – happy in a deeper, more serious sense (fortunate, content in life)
- Jestem szczęśliwy / szczęśliwa. – I’m (truly) happy.
śmieszny / śmiesznie – funny (also “ridiculous”)
- To jest śmieszne. – That’s funny/ridiculous.
- Czuję się śmiesznie. – I feel ridiculous / silly.

Don’t translate wesoło as “funny”.
For “funny” as in “causing laughter”, use śmieszny or zabawny.

In jak biegamy, what does jak mean here? Is it “how” or “when”?

In this sentence, jak means “when / whenever”, not “how”:

Jest mi wesoło, jak biegamy razem w parku.
≈ I feel happy when(ever) we run together in the park.

So:

jak = when / whenever (here)
jak can also mean “how” in other contexts:
- Jak to robisz? – How do you do that?

In the meaning “when”, jak is quite colloquial and emotional, often used in spoken Polish. More neutral alternatives are:

kiedy biegamy razem w parku – when we run together in the park
gdy biegamy razem w parku – when we run together in the park (a bit more formal/literary)

All three (jak / kiedy / gdy) are correct here; jak just sounds more conversational.

Could I say kiedy biegamy razem w parku instead of jak biegamy razem w parku?

Yes.

The following are all correct and natural:

Jest mi wesoło, jak biegamy razem w parku.
Jest mi wesoło, kiedy biegamy razem w parku.
Jest mi wesoło, gdy biegamy razem w parku.

Nuances:

jak – most colloquial, often a bit more emotional.
kiedy – very neutral, common in both speech and writing.
gdy – slightly more formal/literary.

Meaning is essentially the same: I feel happy when(ever) we run together in the park.

Why is it biegamy (“we run”) and not “we are running” or some other tense/aspect?

Polish present tense biegamy covers:

habitual / repeated actions:
- We (usually) run together in the park.
actions happening now:
- We are (now) running together in the park.

In this sentence with jak/kiedy/gdy, the present tense often implies a general or habitual situation:

Jest mi wesoło, jak biegamy razem w parku.
≈ I feel happy whenever we run together in the park.

If you wanted to stress a single, ongoing situation, you might hear:

Jest mi wesoło, kiedy teraz biegniemy razem w parku. – I feel happy as we are (now) running together in the park.

But for a general statement about what makes you feel happy, biegamy is exactly right.

Why is there no my (“we”) before biegamy?

In Polish, the subject pronoun is usually dropped because the verb ending already shows the person and number:

biegam – I run
biegasz – you run
biegamy – we run
biegacie – you (pl.) run
biegną / biegają – they run

So:

Biegamy razem w parku. – We run together in the park.

You only add my for emphasis or contrast:

To my biegamy razem w parku, a oni siedzą w domu.
– It’s us who run together in the park, and they sit at home.

In your sentence, my would sound a bit heavy and unnecessary.

Why is there a comma before jak in Polish: Jest mi wesoło, jak biegamy razem w parku?

Polish comma rules are stricter than English.

As a rule, you separate a main clause and a subordinate clause with a comma, regardless of the order:

Jest mi wesoło, jak biegamy razem w parku.
Jak biegamy razem w parku, jest mi wesoło.

The jak biegamy razem w parku part is a subordinate clause (it tells you when you feel happy), so it must be preceded (or followed) by a comma.

Even if in English you might sometimes skip a comma, in Polish this comma is required.

Why is it w parku and not something like w park or na parku?

Two points: preposition choice and case ending.

Preposition: w
- w roughly corresponds to “in/inside”:
  - w domu – in the house
  - w sklepie – in the shop
  - w parku – in the park (inside the park area)
For park, Poles naturally say w parku, not na parku.
Case: locative (miejscownik)
After w (with location), you use the locative case.
- park (dictionary form, nominative)
- w parku (locative singular masculine)

Many masculine nouns take -u or -e / -ie in the locative. Here, the correct form is parku, which you just need to memorize with the noun.

So: w parku = “in the park”.

Can I change the word order, e.g. Jak biegamy razem w parku, jest mi wesoło? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can change the word order:

Jest mi wesoło, jak biegamy razem w parku.
Jak biegamy razem w parku, jest mi wesoło.

Both are correct and mean the same: I feel happy when we run together in the park.

Subtle nuance:

Starting with Jak biegamy razem w parku… slightly emphasizes the condition/situation first (the running), then the result (you feel happy).
Starting with Jest mi wesoło… slightly emphasizes the feeling first.

Word order in Polish is quite flexible; here both versions are very natural.

Can I use this “Jest mi …” pattern with other feelings too?

Yes. This is a very productive and useful pattern:

Jest mi + [adverb‑like feeling word]

Common examples:

Jest mi zimno. – I feel cold.
Jest mi gorąco. – I feel hot.
Jest mi smutno. – I feel sad.
Jest mi przykro. – I feel sorry / I feel bad about it.
Jest mi nudno. – I’m bored.
Jest mi głupio. – I feel stupid/embarrassed.
Jest mi miło, jak do mnie piszesz. – I’m pleased when you write to me.

You can also change tense:

Było mi wesoło, jak biegaliśmy razem w parku. – I felt happy when we were running together in the park.
Będzie mi wesoło, jak znowu pobiegamy razem w parku. – I’ll feel happy when we run together in the park again.

This pattern is very natural and sounds idiomatic in Polish.