W kuchni znowu spaliła się żarówka.

Because the preposition w meaning in usually requires the locative case when it refers to location.

• dictionary form: kuchnia = kitchen
• locative singular: kuchni

So:

• w kuchni = in the kitchen

This is a very common pattern in Polish:

• w domu = in the house
• w szkole = at school / in the school
• w pokoju = in the room

Znowu means again.

In this sentence it comes after w kuchni:

• W kuchni znowu spaliła się żarówka.

This is a natural placement in Polish. It modifies the whole event: the bulb burned out again.

Polish word order is more flexible than English, so znowu could appear in other places too, for example:

• Znowu w kuchni spaliła się żarówka.
• W kuchni spaliła się znowu żarówka.

But the original version sounds very natural and neutral.

Because this is past tense, and the verb agrees in gender and number with the subject.

The subject is żarówka, which is a feminine singular noun. So the past tense form must also be feminine singular:

• masculine singular: spalił się
• feminine singular: spaliła się
• neuter singular: spaliło się
• plural (non-masculine personal): spaliły się

So spaliła is used because żarówka is feminine.

Here się helps create the meaning burned out rather than burned something.

Compare:

• spalić coś = to burn something / destroy something by fire
• spalić się = to burn, get burnt, burn out

With żarówka, spalić się is the normal expression for a bulb burning out.

So:

• Spaliła się żarówka = The light bulb burned out

It does not mean the bulb literally set itself on fire. In Polish, się is often used in verbs that describe something happening on its own or happening to the subject.

This is mainly a question of aspect.

• spalić się = perfective → a completed event
• palić się = imperfective → an ongoing process, repeated action, or general situation

In this sentence, the bulb has already burned out, so Polish uses the perfective verb:

• spaliła się żarówka = the bulb burned out

If you used paliła się, it would usually mean something like was burning, not burned out.

So for a completed one-time failure of a bulb, spalić się is the right choice.

Because żarówka is the subject of the sentence.

In Spaliła się żarówka, the thing that underwent the event is the subject, so it appears in the nominative case:

• żarówka = nominative singular

Polish often allows the subject to come after the verb, but it is still the subject grammatically.

So even though the order is not Żarówka spaliła się, the noun is still nominative.

Polish word order is flexible, and the end of the sentence often carries important or new information.

Compare:

• Żarówka znowu spaliła się w kuchni.
• W kuchni znowu spaliła się żarówka.

The version you have sounds natural if the speaker is setting the scene first (in the kitchen) and then introducing the main piece of news (the bulb burned out again).

Placing żarówka at the end can make it feel like the most informative element, especially in everyday speech.

Yes, that is grammatically possible, but it may suggest a slightly different emphasis.

• W kuchni znowu spaliła się żarówka.
  Focuses first on the place, then the event.

• Żarówka znowu spaliła się w kuchni.
  Starts with the bulb as the topic.

Native speakers choose word order based on what is already known, what is new, and what they want to emphasize. So several versions are possible, but the original sentence is very natural.

No. Very often it does not mean literal fire.

With appliances, electronics, and bulbs, spalić się often means:

• to burn out
• to fail due to overheating or electrical damage

Examples:

• Spaliła się żarówka. = The bulb burned out.
• Spalił się silnik. = The engine burned out / got ruined.
• Spalił się bezpiecznik. = The fuse blew.

So this is a very common everyday usage.

Yes. Żarówka means light bulb, especially the ordinary everyday word for a bulb.

It comes from żar relating to heat/glow, but for a learner the important thing is simply:

• żarówka = light bulb

So this sentence is talking about a bulb in the kitchen, not some other kind of lamp in general.

Word-for-word, something like that is possible, but it is not good English.

A more natural English rendering is:

• The light bulb in the kitchen burned out again.
• Again, the light bulb in the kitchen burned out.
• The bulb burned out again in the kitchen.

This is a good example of why Polish should not be translated mechanically word by word. The structure with się and the flexible word order work naturally in Polish but need to be reshaped in English.

Not with the same meaning.

• żarówka = bulb
• lampa = lamp / light fixture

So:

• Spaliła się żarówka. = The bulb burned out.
• Spaliła się lampa. would suggest the whole lamp or fixture was damaged, which is a different idea.

If you specifically mean the replaceable bulb, żarówka is the right word.