Learn Hardcore Polish: Po powrocie z gór długo wspominamy zachód słońca nad doliną. - After coming back from the mountains we remember the sunset over the valley for a long time.

po + locative = after (in time)
- po powrocie – after (the) return
- po obiedzie – after lunch
po + accusative (much rarer, mostly in spoken language) can mean “for” or “in search of”:
- iść po chleb – to go for bread

In this sentence, po clearly expresses time (“after”), so it requires the locative case: po powrocie.

Why is it z gór and not something like z góry or od gór?

Each option would mean something different:

z gór
- z + genitive = “from (inside/away from a place)”
- gór is genitive plural of góra (mountain)
- So z gór = from the mountains (you were in the mountains, and you came back from there).
z góry
- usually means “from above” or “in advance” (as an idiom: z góry dziękuję – thanks in advance)
- not used here for physical mountains as a place you visited.
od gór
- od usually means “from” a person, source, or boundary: prezent od mamy – a present from mum, od miasta do wsi – from the town to the village.
- od gór would sound strange here; it suggests “from the mountains” as a source in an abstract sense, not “returning from a trip to the mountains”.

So for “coming back from the mountains (as a place)”, z gór is the natural choice.

What is the role of długo in the sentence, and where can it appear?

długo is an adverb meaning “for a long time”.

In Po powrocie z gór długo wspominamy…, it modifies wspominamy (“we remember/recall”), telling us how long we do it.

Word-order wise, you have some flexibility:

Po powrocie z gór długo wspominamy zachód słońca nad doliną. (neutral)
Po powrocie z gór wspominamy długo zachód słońca nad doliną. (slightly more emphasis on the duration)

Typically, adverbs of manner/time like długo stand just before or just after the verb. Putting it at the very end is possible but can sound a bit heavier or more emphatic:

Po powrocie z gór wspominamy zachód słońca nad doliną długo. (uncommon, more poetic/emphatic)

What tense and aspect is wspominamy, and what nuance does it have?

wspominamy is:

present tense
1st person plural (“we”)
imperfective aspect of the verb wspominać (“to recall / to remember (by talking or thinking about it)”).

Imperfective here suggests:

an ongoing or repeated action,
or a habitual action.

So the sentence can mean either:

“After we come back from the mountains, we (now) remember for a long time the sunset over the valley,”
or
“After coming back from the mountains, we (always) remember for a long time the sunset over the valley” (habitual, every time we return).

If you used the perfective wspomnieć in the future (e.g. wspomnimy), it would be more like “we will mention it once / at some point”, not a long-lasting recalling.

Could we say wspominaliśmy instead of wspominamy? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, wspominaliśmy is also correct, but it changes the time frame:

wspominamy – present tense: “we are recalling / we recall (now or habitually)”
wspominaliśmy – past tense, imperfective: “we were recalling / we used to recall”

So:

Po powrocie z gór długo wspominamy…
→ “After coming back from the mountains, we (now/usually) remember the sunset for a long time.”
Po powrocie z gór długo wspominaliśmy…
→ “After we came back from the mountains, we remembered the sunset for a long time.”
(The whole remembering is placed in the past.)

Both are grammatically fine; you just choose based on whether the remembering is present/habitual or entirely in the past.

Why is it zachód słońca instead of just zachód, and what case is słońca?

zachód słońca literally is “sun’s setting” → “sunset”.

zachód alone can mean “sunset” or “the West”, but adding słońca clarifies it as sunset (not “the West” as a region or direction).
słońce = the sun (nominative)
słońca = genitive singular of słońce

In Polish, a noun + another noun in genitive often expresses a close relationship similar to “of the …” in English:

zachód słońca – the setting of the sun → sunset
szczyt góry – top of the mountain
brzeg rzeki – bank of the river

So słońca is genitive, dependent on zachód, forming the fixed expression zachód słońca.

Is nad doliną locative or instrumental, and why is that case used?

doliną is instrumental singular of dolina (valley).

The preposition nad can take instrumental or accusative:

nad + instrumental → static location: over/above something
- Nad doliną – over the valley (as a place where the sunset is located)
nad + accusative → movement towards/over something
- Lecimy nad dolinę – we’re flying (to a position) over the valley

In this sentence, the sunset is simply located over the valley, not moving there, so nad uses instrumental: nad doliną.

Can the word order be changed? For example, is Długo wspominamy zachód słońca nad doliną po powrocie z gór correct?

Yes, Polish word order is relatively flexible, and your version is grammatically correct:

Po powrocie z gór długo wspominamy zachód słońca nad doliną. (original)
Długo wspominamy zachód słońca nad doliną po powrocie z gór. (possible)

Differences:

The original order is more natural and neutral: time expression at the start (Po powrocie z gór), then adverb, verb, object.
Putting po powrocie z gór at the end emphasizes it more, as if adding it as an important condition or background:
“We remember the sunset over the valley for a long time — after coming back from the mountains.”

In general, common patterns are:

Time expression first: Po powrocie z gór długo wspominamy…
Or adverb first for emphasis: Długo wspominamy po powrocie z gór…

All these are understandable; the main change is focus/emphasis, not basic meaning.

Could we say Po wróceniu z gór instead of Po powrocie z gór?

You can say Po wróceniu z gór, and people will understand you, but:

It sounds less natural and more “bookish” or clumsy in everyday speech.
Polish strongly prefers the pattern po + noun (locative) rather than po + verbal noun (gerund) when talking about time.

Compare:

More natural:
- po powrocie z gór – after (the) return from the mountains
- po kolacji – after dinner
- po pracy – after work
Possible but less common:
- po wróceniu z gór – after having returned from the mountains

So Po powrocie z gór is the idiomatic and stylistically best choice.

What is the difference between z gór and w górach?

They use different prepositions and cases and express different relations:

z gór
- z + genitive (“from”) → from the mountains
- Focus on coming from that place.
w górach
- w + locative (“in”) → in the mountains
- Focus on being located in the mountains.

Examples:

Byliśmy w górach. – We were in the mountains.
Wracamy z gór. – We’re coming back from the mountains.

In your sentence, the idea is “after coming back from the mountains”, so z gór is correct.

Could we use pamiętamy instead of wspominamy? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, grammatically you could say:

Po powrocie z gór długo pamiętamy zachód słońca nad doliną.

Both verbs deal with memory, but they differ in nuance:

pamiętać = “to remember (have in one’s memory)”
- pamiętamy – “we remember / we don’t forget”
- Focus on the fact that it stays in your memory.
wspominać = “to recall, bring up memories, talk/think about something from the past”
- wspominamy – “we recall, we talk about it, we reminisce”
- Implies active remembering, often emotionally or by telling stories.

So:

długo pamiętamy – we don’t forget it for a long time.
długo wspominamy – for a long time we keep reminiscing about it, perhaps talking about it together.

In this context, wspominamy paints a more vivid picture of people sharing memories of that sunset.

Why is there no word like “the” in front of “sunset” or “valley” in Polish?

Polish simply does not have articles (“a”, “an”, “the”).

Definiteness or indefiniteness is usually understood from:

context (shared knowledge, previous mention),
word order and stress,
pronouns or demonstratives, if needed (e.g., ten zachód słońca – this/the sunset).

So zachód słońca nad doliną can mean:

“the sunset over the valley”, if it’s clear which one you mean (as in your sentence),
or “a sunset over a valley”, in a more generic description.

Polish doesn’t need an explicit article; the listener infers it from the context.

Who is the subject of the sentence? There is no my (“we”) written.

The subject is “we”, even though the pronoun my is not written.

Polish usually drops subject pronouns, because the verb ending already shows the person and number:

wspominam – I remember
wspominasz – you (sg) remember
wspomina – he/she/it remembers
wspominamy – we remember
wspominacie – you (pl) remember
wspominają – they remember

In wspominamy, the ending -my clearly marks 1st person plural (“we”), so my would be redundant unless you want to emphasize it:

My długo wspominamy… – We (as opposed to someone else) remember for a long time…

How would this sentence look in the first person singular (“I” instead of “we”)?

You only need to change the verb form:

Po powrocie z gór długo wspominamy zachód słońca nad doliną. – we remember
→ Po powrocie z gór długo wspominam zachód słońca nad doliną. – I remember

Everything else stays the same:

Po powrocie z gór – after returning from the mountains
długo – for a long time
wspominam – I remember / I recall
zachód słońca nad doliną – the sunset over the valley