Breakdown of Na łóżku leży miękka poduszka i czysta pościel.
Questions & Answers about Na łóżku leży miękka poduszka i czysta pościel.
In Polish, the preposition na can take two different cases:
- Locative (answering “where?” – static location)
- Accusative (answering “where to?” – movement onto something)
In this sentence we are describing where something is located (no movement), so we use na + locative:
- na łóżku – on the bed (location, static)
- na łóżko – onto the bed (direction, movement), e.g.
Kładę książkę na łóżko. – I’m putting the book onto the bed.
So na łóżku is correct here because we are talking about the place where the pillow and bedding are lying.
Łóżku is in the locative singular.
The basic (dictionary) form is łóżko (neuter noun). In the locative singular many neuter nouns in -o change to -u:
- łóżko → (na) łóżku – on the bed
- miasto → (w) mieście – in the city (this one is irregular)
- okno → (w) oknie – in the window (another common pattern)
The key points:
- The preposition na with the meaning “on (where?)” requires the locative case.
- łóżko in the locative singular becomes łóżku, so we get na łóżku.
Leży is the 3rd person singular of leżeć, which literally means “to lie (be lying in a horizontal position)”.
So:
- Na łóżku leży… – On the bed lies… / On the bed is lying…
You can also say:
- Na łóżku jest miękka poduszka i czysta pościel. – On the bed there is a soft pillow and clean bedding.
The difference:
- leży – emphasizes the physical position (lying down horizontally).
- jest – simply states existence/presence in that place, less visual.
Both are grammatically correct; leży just paints a slightly more “visual” picture.
Formally, there are two subjects (pillow + bedding), so the “schoolbook” agreement would be:
- Na łóżku leżą miękka poduszka i czysta pościel.
(On the bed lie a soft pillow and clean bedding.)
However, in real-life Polish, when:
- the verb comes first, and
- you are introducing what is present in some place,
speakers very often use the singular verb, as in the original sentence:
- Na łóżku leży miękka poduszka i czysta pościel.
This singular leży is very natural and common. It tends to treat the whole phrase “miękka poduszka i czysta pościel” as one “set” of things lying there.
Practical advice:
- In everyday speech and normal writing, Na łóżku leży… here sounds perfectly natural.
- For very strict grammar tests, you might see leżą recommended because there are two items. Both forms are encountered.
Breakdown of the sentence:
- Na łóżku – prepositional phrase, literally “on the bed” (location)
- leży – verb, 3rd person singular of leżeć (to lie)
- miękka poduszka i czysta pościel – compound subject (two noun phrases joined by i = and)
So the subject is:
- miękka poduszka i czysta pościel
and the verb (predicate) is:
- leży.
Both miękka poduszka and czysta pościel are in the nominative singular.
Reason:
- They form the subject of the sentence.
- Subjects in “neutral” statements are usually in the nominative case.
Some learners think everything after na should change case, but the preposition na only governs łóżku. The subject (miękka poduszka i czysta pościel) is independent of that preposition, so it stays in nominative:
- Na łóżku (locative) leży (verb) miękka poduszka i czysta pościel (nominative subjects).
In Polish, adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
Here:
- poduszka – feminine, singular, nominative
→ adjective: miękka – feminine, singular, nominative - pościel – feminine, singular, nominative
→ adjective: czysta – feminine, singular, nominative
So:
- miękka poduszka – soft pillow (feminine singular nominative + feminine singular nominative)
- czysta pościel – clean bedding (feminine singular nominative + feminine singular nominative)
If the nouns changed, the adjectives would change too, for example:
- miękki koc – a soft blanket (koc is masculine: adjective masculine miękki)
- czyste łóżko – a clean bed (łóżko is neuter: adjective neuter czyste)
The base adjective is:
- miękki – soft (masculine form)
Polish adjectives change their ending depending on the noun:
- miękki – masculine singular nominative
- miękka – feminine singular nominative
- miękkie – neuter singular nominative / non-masculine-personal plural, depending on context
Since poduszka is feminine, we must use the feminine form:
- miękka poduszka – soft pillow
So miękki poduszka would be incorrect; the genders wouldn’t match.
Pronunciation (roughly in English terms):
- miękka ≈ “MYEN-kah”, with a nasal ę (like “en”) before k.
Details:
- mię- – sounds like mye- with a nasal vowel (a bit like “myehn-”)
- -kka – a long k sound plus a: kka
The double kk shows that the consonant is geminated (longer). It comes from the base form miękki (soft), where the stem ends in -kk-. When you make it feminine (miękka), the kk stays.
In everyday speech many people don’t audibly lengthen the k very much, but the spelling keeps the double k.
Pościel is a collective noun that usually means “bedding / bed linen” as a set, i.e.:
- duvet/comforter cover
- sheet(s)
- pillowcase(s)
It does not normally mean a single sheet (that would be prześcieradło) or a pillow (poduszka) or the duvet itself (kołdra).
So:
- czysta pościel – clean bedding / clean bed linen
- zmienić pościel – to change the bedding
It is usually treated as uncountable, like English “bedding”: you don’t normally say pościele in everyday speech unless in very specific contexts (e.g. “different types of bed linen”).
na łóżku – on the bed, on top of the bed surface
- Na łóżku leży miękka poduszka. – A soft pillow is lying on the bed.
w łóżku – in bed, usually meaning inside the bed, under the covers or using it for sleeping/resting
- Leżę w łóżku. – I’m in bed.
So the sentence:
- Na łóżku leży miękka poduszka i czysta pościel.
would sound strange with w łóżku, because a pillow and bedding are normally on the bed, not inside it.
Polish simply does not have articles like English “a / an / the”.
- miękka poduszka i czysta pościel can mean:
- “a soft pillow and clean bedding”, or
- “the soft pillow and (the) clean bedding”,
depending entirely on the context, not on any specific word.
Polish uses:
- context,
- word order, and
- sometimes demonstratives (ta, ten, to, etc.)
to express something similar to English “the”:
- Ta miękka poduszka leży na łóżku. – This/That soft pillow is lying on the bed. (often corresponds to “the soft pillow” in a specific context)
Yes, that is perfectly correct, and very natural:
- Miękka poduszka i czysta pościel leżą na łóżku.
Differences:
Original: Na łóżku leży miękka poduszka i czysta pościel.
- Starts with the location (On the bed), then says what is there.
- Uses singular leży, which is common in this “there is… lying” type structure.
Alternative: Miękka poduszka i czysta pościel leżą na łóżku.
- Starts with the things themselves, then says where they are.
- Uses plural leżą, which matches the two-item subject in a very clear, textbook way.
Both sentences are good Polish; they just have slightly different information focus and verb agreement.