Learn Hardcore Polish: Śpiewające ptaki budzą nas w namiocie wcześniej niż budzik. - The singing birds wake us up in the tent earlier than the alarm clock.

It is formed from the verb śpiewać (to sing).
It behaves like an adjective: it agrees with the noun in gender, number, and case.
Here it describes ptaki (birds): śpiewające ptaki = singing birds.

So grammatically it is an adjective-like form built from a verb, describing something that is doing the action.

Why does the sentence start with Śpiewające ptaki instead of Ptaki śpiewające? Are both correct?

Both Śpiewające ptaki and Ptaki śpiewające are correct.

Śpiewające ptaki budzą nas... – slightly stronger focus on the type of birds, the singing ones (descriptive, literary feel).
Ptaki śpiewające budzą nas... – a bit more neutral, just “the birds that are singing”.

In many real-life contexts, the difference is minimal; Polish allows both orders. Starting with Śpiewające also simply sounds nice stylistically in this sentence.

Why is śpiewające in this exact form? Why not śpiewający or śpiewają?

Because it has to agree with ptaki:

ptaki – plural, non‑masculine‑personal (birds are grammatically “not people”)
The correct adjectival ending for this group in nominative plural is ‑ące.

So:

śpiewający – masculine personal plural (for groups of people: śpiewający chłopcy – singing boys)
śpiewające – non‑masculine‑personal plural (for things/animals: śpiewające ptaki)

Śpiewają is a finite verb form (they sing), not a form that can stand before a noun like an adjective.

Why is it budzą and not budzi?

The verb must agree with the subject:

Subject: śpiewające ptaki – 3rd person plural
Verb: budzą – 3rd person plural of budzić (to wake).

If there was only one bird:

Śpiewający ptak budzi nas... – A singing bird wakes us...

So:

on / ona budzi – he / she wakes
oni / one budzą – they wake

What is nas and why do we use it here instead of my?

Nas is the object form of my (we).

Polish personal pronouns change form depending on case:

my – nominative (subject): My śpimy w namiocie. – We sleep in the tent.
nas – accusative / genitive (object or “of us”):
Ptaki budzą nas. – The birds wake us.

Here budzą (they wake) takes a direct object, so we need the accusative form nas, not the subject form my.

Other forms for comparison:

nam – dative (to/for us): Daj nam... – give us...
nami – instrumental: z nami – with us

Why is it w namiocie and not w namiot?

Because w (in) with a static location takes the locative case.

namiot – basic (nominative) form
w namiocie – locative singular after w meaning in the tent (location)

If you express motion into something, w can take the accusative:

Wchodzimy w namiot. – We are going into the tent. (accusative: w
- namiot)

But in the sentence you gave, it’s about where we are (we are in the tent), so w namiocie (locative) is required.

Why does namiot change to namiocie in the locative?

This is a regular consonant change in Polish declension:

Base: namiot (tent)
Locative singular (after w, o, na, etc.): namiocie

Pattern: ‑t often changes to ‑c in certain cases (softening the consonant), then adds ‑ie:

kot → o kocie (about the cat)
lot → w locie (in flight)
namiot → w namiocie (in the tent)

So namiocie is simply the correct locative form of namiot.

What does wcześniej mean exactly, and what form is it?

Wcześniej means earlier / sooner.

It is an adverb, the comparative form of wcześnie (early).
Roughly: wcześnie = early, wcześniej = earlier.

In the sentence:

wcześniej niż budzik = earlier than the alarm (clock)

So it modifies the time of budzą (they wake).

Why is it wcześniej niż budzik and not wcześniej od budzika?

Both are possible in Polish, but they have slightly different constructions:

wcześniej niż budzik
- niż works like than in English.
- After niż, you typically use the same case as in the clause you are implicitly comparing to.
  Understood comparison:
  Ptaki budzą nas wcześniej niż (budzi nas) budzik.
  The understood subject budzik is nominative.
wcześniej od budzika
- od is a preposition requiring genitive: budzika.
- This is also used in comparisons, but a bit less “neutral” in many modern contexts; in this exact sentence niż sounds more natural.

So wcześniej niż budzik is the most straightforward, natural way here.

Why is it budzik after niż, not budzika?

Because with niż you normally keep the same case as in the part you compare to.

The underlying full structure is something like:

Śpiewające ptaki budzą nas wcześniej niż budzik budzi nas.

In budzik budzi nas, budzik is the subject → nominative.
When we shorten it to just niż budzik, we keep budzik in nominative.

With od, the situation is different because od is a preposition that always requires genitive:

od budzika – genitive

Can I move wcześniej niż budzik to another place in the sentence?

Yes. Polish word order is flexible. For example, all of these are acceptable:

Śpiewające ptaki budzą nas w namiocie wcześniej niż budzik. (original)
Śpiewające ptaki wcześniej niż budzik budzą nas w namiocie.
W namiocie śpiewające ptaki budzą nas wcześniej niż budzik.

The default is usually:

[Subject] [Verb] [Object] [Adverbials]

So the original order sounds the most neutral and natural, but others are possible, often with a change in emphasis or rhythm.

Is budzą present simple or present continuous? Does Polish distinguish that?

Polish does not grammatically distinguish present simple vs present continuous like English does.

budzą can mean:
- they wake (us) (regularly, habitually)
- they are waking (us) (now)

The difference is understood from context or additional words (e.g. zwykle – usually, teraz – now). In your sentence, it naturally suggests a habit: on camping trips, birds wake us in the tent earlier than the alarm.

How would I say things like “wake me / him / her / us up” in Polish using budzić?

Using budzić (imperfective, present) in similar constructions:

Ptaki budzą mnie. – The birds wake me.
Ptaki budzą cię. – The birds wake you (sg., informal).
Ptaki budzą go. – The birds wake him.
Ptaki budzą ją. – The birds wake her.
Ptaki budzą nas. – The birds wake us.
Ptaki budzą was. – The birds wake you (pl.).
Ptaki budzą ich / je. – The birds wake them (masc. personal / non-masc-personal).

The “up” in “wake up” is not translated; budzić (kogoś) already means to wake (someone) up.