Learn Hardcore Polish: U dziadków jemy śniadanie na tarasie, skąd widać trawę i cały krajobraz wsi. - At my grandparents’ place we eat breakfast on the terrace, from where you can see the grass and the whole countryside landscape.

u = “at / at the place of (someone)”
dziadków is the genitive plural of dziadek (grandfather). Here it effectively means “of the grandparents”.

After u (when it means “at someone’s place”), Polish always uses the genitive case, not a locative. So you get:

u mamy – at (my/the) mum’s
u kolegi – at (my/the) friend’s
u dziadków – at (my/the) grandparents’

Why isn’t it u dziadkach if we are “at” the grandparents’ place? I thought locations use locative.

With u (meaning “at someone’s place”), Polish grammar requires the genitive, not the locative. So:

❌ u dziadkach – ungrammatical in this meaning
✅ u dziadków – correct: “at the grandparents’ (place)”

The locative is used after prepositions like w (“in”) and na (“on/at”) for static location:

w domu – in the house
na tarasie – on the terrace

But u + GENITIVE is simply a fixed pattern: “at someone’s place”.

How is u dziadków different from do dziadków?

u dziadków = at the grandparents’ (place), describing location.
- U dziadków jemy śniadanie. – We eat breakfast at our grandparents’.
do dziadków = to the grandparents’ (place), describing movement towards them.
- Jedziemy do dziadków. – We are going to our grandparents’.

So:

u + GEN → “at someone’s place”
do + GEN → “to someone’s place”

Why is there no word for “we” in jemy śniadanie?

In Polish, subject pronouns (I, you, we, etc.) are usually dropped, because the verb ending shows the person and number.

jemy is 1st person plural → “we eat / we are eating”
- j–emy: -emy is the “we” ending.

So:

Jemy śniadanie. = “We are eating breakfast.”
You can say My jemy śniadanie, but it sounds emphasized (“WE are the ones eating breakfast”) and is not normally needed.

Why is it na tarasie and not na taras?

Polish uses different cases with na depending on whether you talk about:

Location (where?) → locative case
- na tarasie – on the terrace (LOC)
- Jemy śniadanie na tarasie. – We are eating breakfast on the terrace.
Movement (where to?) → accusative case
- na taras – (onto) the terrace (ACC)
- Wychodzimy na taras. – We are going out onto the terrace.

In your sentence it’s a static location (“on the terrace”), so na tarasie (locative) is correct.

What exactly does skąd do in this sentence? Is it like “where” or “from where”?

Here skąd works as a kind of relative word, introducing a subordinate clause that describes the terrace:

na tarasie, skąd widać…
→ “on the terrace, from where you can see…”

So:

skąd literally = “from where”
It connects back to tarasie, giving extra information about that terrace.

Compare:

gdzie – where (location)
skąd – from where (origin point)

In English you could also paraphrase:
“on the terrace, from which you can see the grass and the whole countryside view.”

What is widać? Why not use a normal verb like widzimy?

widać is an impersonal expression that means something like:

“it is visible”
“one can see”
“you can see”

It doesn’t have a subject like “I/you/we”. It just states that something is visible:

Stąd widać góry. – From here you can see the mountains.
Z tarasu widać trawę. – From the terrace you can see the grass.

If you say widzimy, it means “we see”, with an explicit subject:

Z tarasu widzimy trawę. – From the terrace we see the grass.

Both are correct, but:

widać + [object] is more neutral/impersonal.
widzimy + [object] stresses that “we” are actively seeing it.

Why is it trawę and not trawa after widać?

Because trawę is the accusative form of trawa (grass), and widać works like “to see” taking a direct object in the accusative:

widzę trawę – I see grass. (ACC)
widać trawę – grass is visible / you can see grass. (ACC)

So:

nominative (dictionary form): trawa
accusative (after widzieć / widać): trawę

What does krajobraz wsi literally mean, and what is wsi?

Krajobraz wsi literally = “the landscape of the village / the countryside landscape.”

krajobraz – landscape, scenery
wieś – village / countryside (nominative)
wsi – genitive singular of wieś

So krajobraz wsi is a typical noun + noun in genitive structure:

krajobraz miasta – the landscape of the city
krajobraz gór – the landscape of the mountains
krajobraz wsi – the landscape of the village/countryside

Here wsi answers “of what?” → “of the countryside/village”.

Why does wieś become wsi? The change looks irregular.

Wieś belongs to a group of feminine nouns that change the stem in some cases.
Key forms:

Nominative (dictionary form): wieś – village/countryside
Genitive: wsi – of the village
Locative: we wsi – in the village
Dative: wsi – to/for the village
Instrumental: wsią – with the village

So wsi is a regular genitive form for this noun type, even though it looks irregular from an English perspective.

What does cały add in cały krajobraz wsi?

Cały means “whole / entire”.

krajobraz wsi – the landscape of the village/countryside
cały krajobraz wsi – the whole countryside landscape / the entire view of the countryside

It emphasizes that you can see all of it, not just a part.

Why is there a comma before skąd?

In Polish, a clause introduced by words like że, który, gdzie, skąd is usually treated as a subordinate clause and is separated by a comma.

Here:

U dziadków jemy śniadanie na tarasie, → main clause
skąd widać trawę i cały krajobraz wsi. → subordinate clause describing the terrace

So, the comma marks the start of this extra descriptive clause (“from where you can see the grass and the whole countryside view”).