Learn Hardcore Polish: Jego plecak stoi przy drzwiach. - His backpack is standing by the door.

In Polish, verbs like stać (to stand), leżeć (to lie), and wisieć (to hang) are very often used instead of być (to be) when you talk about where an object is.

Jego plecak stoi przy drzwiach. – literally: His backpack stands by the door.
This is the natural way to say that a backpack is upright in that location.

You could say Jego plecak jest przy drzwiach, and it’s grammatically correct, but it sounds more neutral or slightly less specific about the position. Stoi paints a clearer picture and is more idiomatic here.

What exactly does stoi mean here? Is it the same as English is?

Literally, stoi is (it) stands – 3rd person singular of stać:

stać – to stand
on / ona / ono stoi – he / she / it stands

In English you usually say “His backpack is by the door”, not “stands”, but Polish commonly uses stoi for objects that are upright (bottles, bags, backpacks, furniture, etc.) and you can understand it as “is standing / is (upright) there.”

So:

Grammatically: it means stands.
Functionally in this sentence: it fills the role that is would have in English, but with extra information about its position (standing).

Why is it przy drzwiach and not something like przy drzwi?

Because of the preposition przy and the special behavior of the noun drzwi.

Przy always requires the locative case (miejscownik).
Drzwi is a plural-only noun (pluralia tantum) – it has no singular form like drzwi vs drzwi; it’s only plural.

The locative plural form of drzwi is drzwiach. So:

przy + locative plural → przy drzwiach = by the door / doors

Przy drzwi is simply the wrong case form and is ungrammatical.

Why does Polish say drzwiach (plural) when English says door (singular)?

The noun drzwi is grammatically plural in Polish, even if it refers to one physical door. It works like English scissors or trousers:

English: the door (singular)
Polish: drzwi (grammatically plural)

So:

przy drzwiach literally: by the doors
But in normal English translation: by the door

This is just a difference between the two languages: Polish treats drzwi as a plural-only noun.

Which case is drzwiach, and why is that case used?

Drzwiach is locative plural (miejscownik liczby mnogiej).

The locative case in Polish is mainly used after a small set of prepositions to talk about location, such as:

w (in) – w domu, w szkole
na (on, at) – na stole, na dworcu
przy (by, next to) – przy oknie, przy drzwiach

Because we have przy, we must put drzwi into locative plural → drzwiach.

Is jego changing form for gender or case here?

No. Jego is invariable – it does not change for gender, number, or case.

masculine: jego plecak – his backpack
feminine: jego książka – his/her book
neuter: jego dziecko – his/her child
plural: jego rzeczy – his/her things
in any case: Nie widzę jego plecaka (genitive), Jestem z jego bratem (instrumental), etc.

So in Jego plecak stoi przy drzwiach, jego is just “his” and it does not change to agree with plecak.

When should I use jego and when swój?

Both can translate as his / her / their / one’s own, but they’re used differently.

jego – refers to some male person already mentioned, not necessarily the subject.
swój – reflexive: refers back to the subject of the sentence (whoever that subject is).

Examples:

On ma swój plecak. – He has his own backpack (the backpack belongs to him, the subject).
On ma jego plecak. – He has his backpack (belonging to some other man already mentioned).

In Jego plecak stoi przy drzwiach, we’re just stating “his backpack is by the door” in a neutral way. Whether jego is “his own” or “another guy’s” depends on the context, and swój isn’t used because we’re not directly tying ownership to the subject of the verb; the subject here is plecak, not the person.

What gender is plecak, and how does it affect stoi?

Plecak (backpack) is masculine inanimate.

Verb agreement in the present tense with a singular noun is straightforward:

plecak stoi – the backpack stands / is standing

So:

masculine (he / it): on stoi
feminine (she / it): ona stoi
neuter (it): ono stoi
a masculine noun like plecak behaves like on here, so you say plecak stoi.

The verb stoi only shows person and number (3rd person singular); it does not change its form for the gender of plecak in the present tense, but by default a masculine noun takes the on pattern.

Can I change the word order? For example: Przy drzwiach stoi jego plecak?

Yes. Polish word order is relatively flexible, and both are correct:

Jego plecak stoi przy drzwiach.
Przy drzwiach stoi jego plecak.

The difference is one of emphasis and information flow:

Jego plecak stoi przy drzwiach. – neutral, starting from “his backpack” as the topic.
Przy drzwiach stoi jego plecak. – puts more emphasis on the location “by the door”; good if you’re answering “Where is his backpack?”

Meaning-wise, they are essentially the same.

How would the sentence change if there were several backpacks?

You’d make both the noun and the verb plural:

Jego plecaki stoją przy drzwiach.
– His backpacks are (standing) by the door.

Changes:

plecak → plecaki (plural nominative)
stoi (3rd person singular) → stoją (3rd person plural)
przy drzwiach stays the same, because drzwi is already plural-only and in the correct case.

Is there a difference between przy drzwiach, obok drzwi, and koło drzwi?

All three can often be translated as “by the door” or “next to the door”, but there are small nuances:

przy drzwiach – very common; “at / by the door,” close to it. Neutral and widely used.
obok drzwi – “beside the door,” slightly more clearly side-by-side.
koło drzwi – literally “around/by the door”; in practice often used like obok, also “by the door.”

In many contexts, they’re interchangeable, and przy drzwiach is a very natural choice in this sentence.

How is drzwiach pronounced?

Pronunciation can be tricky:

drzwi – roughly: [dʐ-vee]
drzwiach – roughly: [dʐ-vyaḥ] (with a soft -iach ending)

Breakdown:

drz – like Polish dż (English “j” in jam) plus a light r, pronounced together: something like “dzh” with the tongue near the r position.
w – like English v.
ia – similar to ya in yard.
ch – like the German ch in Bach, a voiceless, harsh h sound at the back of the throat.

It often flows quickly as one cluster: drz-wiach.