Learn Hardcore Polish: Podoba mi się widok na trawę i ławki, który widać z naszego przytulnego balkonu. - I like the view of the grass and benches that you can see from our cozy balcony.

lubić + accusative – to like something in general, as a preference or habit:
- Lubię kawę. – I like coffee (in general).
podobać się + dative (person) – something is pleasing/appealing to someone, usually visually or aesthetically in a particular situation:
- Podoba mi się ten widok. – I like this view / I find this view pleasing.

In your sentence, you’re talking about how the view looks from the balcony right now, as something aesthetically pleasing. That’s a perfect context for podoba mi się, not lubię.

You could say Lubię ten widok, but it sounds more like “I generally like this view (as one of my likes),” whereas Podoba mi się widok… focuses on the immediate visual impression.

Why is it mi, and what’s the difference between mi and mnie?

Both mi and mnie are forms of ja (I) in the dative case and can both mean “to me”.

The verb podobać się needs the dative for the person who experiences the liking:
- Komu? – to whom?
- Podoba mi się… – It is pleasing to me.

Difference:

mi – shorter, unstressed form; used in normal, neutral sentences:
- Podoba mi się widok.
mnie – longer, stressed form; used for emphasis or contrast, often spoken more strongly:
- Podoba mi się ten widok, a tobie nie?
- Mi się podoba, a tobie? / Mnie się podoba, a tobie?

Both are grammatically correct here; mi is simply the default unstressed form.

Can I change the word order? For example, is Widok na trawę i ławki podoba mi się also correct?

Yes, Polish word order is quite flexible. These are all correct:

Podoba mi się widok na trawę i ławki.
Widok na trawę i ławki podoba mi się.
Bardzo podoba mi się widok na trawę i ławki.

The differences are in emphasis:

Starting with Podoba mi się… focuses on the state “I like (it)”.
Starting with Widok na trawę i ławki… emphasizes what you like.

In neutral spoken Polish, Podoba mi się widok… and Widok… podoba mi się are both very natural.

Why are trawę and ławki in those forms? What case are they in?

Both trawę and ławki are in the accusative case because they follow widok na + accusative.

trawa (grass):
- nominative singular: trawa
- accusative singular: trawę
ławka (bench):
- nominative plural: ławki
- accusative plural: ławki (same form as nominative plural)

The phrase widok na coś (view of/onto something) always takes the accusative:

widok na morze – a view of the sea
widok na las – a view of the forest
widok na trawę i ławki – a view of the grass and benches

Why is it widok na trawę i ławki instead of something like widok trawy i ławek?

Both structures exist, but they have slightly different uses:

widok na + accusative = “a view of / onto X” (as seen from somewhere)
- widok na trawę i ławki – the view that looks out onto the grass and benches
- widok na morze z okna – a view of the sea from the window
widok + genitive (less common in this context) = often more descriptive, “the sight of X,” sometimes as a scene or image:
- widok trawy i ławek – the sight of grass and benches (more like what you see as a scene, not specifically “view from a place”)

For “a view from our balcony,” Polish naturally prefers widok na trawę i ławki.

Why is it który and not która or które? It looks like it might refer to ławki.

Który must agree with its antecedent, the noun it refers back to. Here it refers to widok.

widok – masculine singular
So the relative pronoun is który (masculine singular nominative).

Grammatical agreement:

widok, który widać… – the view which is visible…
not ławki, even though ławki is closer in the sentence. The relative clause is describing the view, not the benches themselves.

If the head noun were different, the pronoun would change:

trawa, którą widać z balkonu – the grass which can be seen from the balcony
ławki, które widać z balkonu – the benches which can be seen from the balcony

What exactly does widać mean, and why isn’t there an explicit subject like “one can see” or “we see”?

Widać is an impersonal form that roughly means:

“is visible”
“can be seen”

In your sentence:

widok, który widać z naszego przytulnego balkonu
≈ “the view which is visible from our cosy balcony” / “the view you can see from our cosy balcony”

There is no explicit subject; it’s like saying “it is seen”:

Widać góry. – The mountains can be seen / The mountains are visible.
Z balkonu widać trawę i ławki. – From the balcony, you can see the grass and benches.

If you want an explicit subject, you could use widzieć:

Z naszego balkonu widzimy trawę i ławki. – From our balcony, we see the grass and benches.

But the version with widać focuses on the visibility of the scene itself, not on who is seeing it.

Why is it z naszego przytulnego balkonu and not some other case? What case is balkonu here?

After the preposition z meaning “from”, Polish normally uses the genitive case.

balkon (balcony):
- nominative: balkon
- genitive: balkonu

So:

z balkonu – from the balcony
z naszego balkonu – from our balcony
z naszego przytulnego balkonu – from our cosy balcony

The adjectives agree in gender, number, and case with balkonu:

masculine singular genitive:
- naszego (our)
- przytulnego (cosy)
- balkonu

Note that z can also mean “with”, but then it takes the instrumental, e.g.:

z kolegą – with a (male) friend (instrumental)

Here, it clearly means from, so we use the genitive.

Why is there a comma before który? Is that always required?

In Polish, subordinate clauses introduced by relative pronouns like który, która, które are normally separated by a comma.

So you write:

…widok na trawę i ławki, który widać z naszego przytulnego balkonu.

This is considered one complex sentence, where the który-clause is a dependent (relative) clause describing widok.

In practice:
Almost every time you have a clause beginning with który that functions like “which / that” in English, you put a comma before it.

What’s the nuance of przytulnego? Could I just say naszego balkonu without it?

Przytulny means cosy, snug, homely, i.e. pleasant, comfortable in a warm, intimate way.

przytulny pokój – a cosy room
przytulne mieszkanie – a cosy flat

So naszego przytulnego balkonu is “our cosy balcony”, adding an emotional and descriptive nuance: it’s not just any balcony; it’s one you find pleasant and homely.

Grammatically, you can absolutely drop it:

z naszego balkonu – from our balcony

You just lose that extra cosy feeling.

Could I say Podoba mi się widok trawy i ławek z naszego przytulnego balkonu (without na and without który widać) and still be correct?

Yes, that sentence is grammatically correct and understandable:

Podoba mi się widok trawy i ławek z naszego przytulnego balkonu.

However, the nuances are slightly different:

Original:
- Podoba mi się widok na trawę i ławki, który widać z naszego przytulnego balkonu.
- Feels like: “I like the view *onto the grass and benches that you can see from our cosy balcony.”*
- The pattern widok na… clearly encodes “view (from here) onto that.”
Your version:
- Podoba mi się widok trawy i ławek z naszego przytulnego balkonu.
- Feels more like: “I like the sight/view of the grass and benches from our cosy balcony.”
- Still natural, just slightly less focused on the “view onto X as a specific type of view.”

Both are good Polish; the original highlights the “view onto X” construction a bit more strongly with widok na… and the relative clause.