Wieczorem sala jest pusta.

In the evening the hall is empty.

Breakdown of Wieczorem sala jest pusta.

• być: to be
• wieczorem: in the evening
• pusty: empty
• sala: the room

Questions & Answers about Wieczorem sala jest pusta.

Why is there no word for “the” in “sala jest pusta”?

Polish doesn’t use articles (“a, an, the”) at all.

The bare noun sala can mean:

• “a room / a hall is empty”
• “the room / the hall is empty”

Context decides whether English should use “a” or “the”. Grammatically, Polish just has sala, without any extra word.

What does the -em ending in “wieczorem” mean? Why isn’t there “w wieczór”?

Wieczorem is the instrumental case of wieczór (“evening”) used as a time expression.

Polish often uses the instrumental (without a preposition) to say “in/at [time]”:

• wieczorem – in the evening
• rankiem – in the morning
• nocą – at night

So instead of “w wieczór”, Polish prefers the single word wieczorem.
Literally, it’s something like: “(in) the evening, the room is empty.”

Can I move “wieczorem” to another position in the sentence?

Yes. Polish word order is relatively flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:

• Wieczorem sala jest pusta.
• Sala jest pusta wieczorem.
• Sala wieczorem jest pusta.

They all mean roughly “In the evening the room is empty.”

The default Wieczorem sala jest pusta puts a bit more emphasis on when (in the evening).
Sala jest pusta wieczorem might feel slightly more neutral to an English speaker: “The room is empty (when?) in the evening.”

Does this sentence mean every evening, or just one particular evening?

On its own, Wieczorem sala jest pusta is usually understood as a general/habitual statement:

• “In the evenings, the room tends to be empty.”

If you want to clearly talk about just this evening, you’d usually add a word like dziś (“today”):

• Dzisiaj wieczorem sala jest pusta. – This evening the room is empty.

Context decides whether it’s clearly habitual, but the bare sentence leans toward a general fact.

Why is it “pusta” and not “pusty”, “puste”, or “pustą”?

In Polish, adjectives must agree with the noun in:

• gender
• number
• case

Sala is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative (it’s the subject)

So the adjective pusty (“empty”) must also be feminine, singular, nominative → pusta.

Other forms would be used with different nouns or in different grammatical roles:

• pusty – masculine singular nominative
• puste – neuter or non-masculine plural nominative
• pustą – feminine singular accusative or instrumental

Here, subject = sala → pusta is the only correct choice.

What gender is “sala”, and how can I tell?

Sala is feminine.

A common clue: many nouns ending in -a are feminine (though there are exceptions).

Examples:

• sala – feminine → pusta sala (empty hall)
• ulica (street) – feminine → szeroka ulica (wide street)
• kawa (coffee) – feminine → gorąca kawa (hot coffee)

Because sala is feminine, the adjective must also be feminine → pusta.

Can I drop “jest” and say “Wieczorem sala pusta”?

Yes, in informal spoken Polish the verb “jest” (is) is often dropped in the present tense in such sentences:

• Wieczorem sala jest pusta. – full, standard sentence
• Wieczorem sala pusta. – very natural in casual speech

In writing (especially formal writing or for learners), it’s safer to keep jest, because that’s the fully correct, neutral form.

What exactly does “sala” mean? Is it any room?

Sala is usually:

• a hall, lecture room, classroom, or large room used for some specific purpose

Examples:

• sala lekcyjna – classroom
• sala koncertowa – concert hall
• sala gimnastyczna – gym / sports hall

For an ordinary room in a flat or house, Polish more often uses pokój (“room”):

• Wieczorem pokój jest pusty. – In the evening the room is empty.

How do you pronounce “Wieczorem”?

Key points:

• Stress is always on the second-to-last syllable: wie‑CZO‑rem
• w – like English v
• ie – roughly like “ye” in “yes”
• cz – like English “ch” in “church”
• o – a pure “o” as in Italian/Spanish, not like English “ow”
• r – rolled or tapped, like Spanish r
• em – ‘em’, with clear e

So it sounds something like: vye-CHO-rem (with the main stress on CHO).

Why is it “wieczorem” and not simply “wieczór”?

Wieczór is the basic noun form (“evening”).
Wieczorem is the instrumental form, used adverbially to say “in the evening”.

Compare:

• Lubię wieczór. – I like the evening. (direct object, basic noun)
• Wieczorem sala jest pusta. – In the evening the room is empty. (time expression)

So wieczór = “evening” as a thing; wieczorem = “in the evening” (when?).

How would I say “In the evenings the room is empty” (more clearly habitual)?

You can make the time expression clearly plural/habitual:

• Wieczorami sala jest pusta.

Wieczorami = “in the evenings / on evenings (in general)”.
This strongly emphasizes a repeated, habitual situation.

How do I make this sentence negative?

You add nie in front of jest:

• Wieczorem sala nie jest pusta.
  – In the evening the room is not empty.

In Polish, nie (not) usually comes right before the verb in such sentences.