Przed wyjazdem sprawdzam, czy mamy jeszcze paliwo.

Because przed normally takes the instrumental case when it means before in a time expression.

So:

• wyjazd = departure / leaving / trip away
• przed wyjazdem = before the departure / before leaving

The ending -em shows the instrumental singular of wyjazd.

A few similar examples:

• przed obiadem = before lunch
• przed lekcją = before the lesson
• przed snem = before sleep / before going to sleep

So this is a standard case pattern, not something special about this one sentence.

Wyjazd is a noun meaning departure, leaving, or a trip away.

It comes from the verb wyjechać = to leave / go away by vehicle, often with the idea of going somewhere away from your usual place.

In this sentence, przed wyjazdem is best understood as:

• before leaving
• before the trip
• before departure

It does not have to sound as formal as English departure. In everyday Polish, wyjazd is very common.

Sprawdzam is the imperfective form, and here it most naturally suggests a habitual or routine action:

• Przed wyjazdem sprawdzam... = Before leaving, I check... / I check before leaving...

That sounds like something you normally do before a trip.

If you said sprawdzę, that would be perfective future:

• Przed wyjazdem sprawdzę... = Before leaving, I’ll check...

So:

• sprawdzam = I check / I am checking
• sprawdzę = I will check

In this sentence, sprawdzam fits very well if the speaker is describing a usual practice.

Because Polish usually doesn’t need subject pronouns if the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

Here:

• sprawdzam = I check
• mamy = we have

The endings tell you the subject:

• -am in sprawdzam = I
• -my in mamy = we

So adding ja or my would usually only be for emphasis, contrast, or clarity.

For example:

• Ja sprawdzam, czy mamy jeszcze paliwo. = I’m the one who checks whether we still have fuel.

But in a neutral sentence, leaving the pronouns out is normal.

Here, czy introduces an indirect yes/no question, so it means something like whether or if.

So:

• sprawdzam, czy mamy jeszcze paliwo = I check whether we still have fuel

This is different from using czy at the beginning of a direct yes/no question:

• Czy mamy jeszcze paliwo? = Do we still have fuel?

So the same word can be used in two related ways:

1. Direct question
   Czy mamy jeszcze paliwo?

2. Indirect question / embedded clause
   Sprawdzam, czy mamy jeszcze paliwo.

Polish often expresses this idea with mieć = to have, especially when talking about whether a group still has something available.

So:

• czy mamy jeszcze paliwo = whether we still have fuel

That is very natural Polish.

You could express a similar idea in other ways, for example:

• czy zostało jeszcze paliwo = whether there is any fuel left

But that shifts the perspective slightly:

• mamy focuses on our situation / what we have
• zostało focuses on what remains

Both can work, but mamy is very normal and straightforward here.

Here jeszcze means still or any ... left, depending on how you translate it into natural English.

So:

• czy mamy jeszcze paliwo can be understood as
  whether we still have fuel
  or
  whether we have any fuel left

This is a very common use of jeszcze. It does not mean one more here.

Compare:

• Mamy jeszcze czas. = We still have time.
• Jest jeszcze kawa? = Is there any coffee left?

So in this sentence, jeszcze suggests that the fuel may be running low, and the speaker wants to confirm whether some remains.

Yes, paliwo is in the accusative, because mieć takes a direct object.

However, for many neuter singular nouns, the nominative and accusative forms are identical.

So:

• nominative: paliwo
• accusative: paliwo

That’s why you don’t see any visible change.

This is very common in Polish. For example:

• wino → mam wino
• auto → mam auto
• miejsce → mam miejsce

So the case is there grammatically, even though the form stays the same.

No, Polish word order is fairly flexible, but the version given is a very natural, neutral one:

• Przed wyjazdem sprawdzam, czy mamy jeszcze paliwo.

You can move parts around for emphasis, for example:

• Sprawdzam przed wyjazdem, czy mamy jeszcze paliwo.
• Czy mamy jeszcze paliwo, sprawdzam przed wyjazdem.
  This is much less neutral and would sound marked or literary.

A few useful points:

• czy usually stands at the beginning of the subordinate clause it introduces.
• jeszcze can sometimes shift position, but its placement can slightly affect emphasis.
• The original sentence sounds natural and standard.

So the word order is not completely fixed, but the given version is probably the best default one for learners.

You probably could form something like that, but it would sound much less natural here.

Polish usually prefers:

• przed wyjazdem = before departure / before leaving

rather than a heavier verbal noun like:

• przed wyjechaniem

That second form is grammatically possible in some contexts, but it often feels clunky or overly mechanical.

If you want another natural alternative, you could say:

• zanim wyjadę, sprawdzam... = before I leave, I check...

So for everyday Polish, przed wyjazdem is the most idiomatic choice here.

Because Polish does not have articles like the or a, and it often leaves out possessive words like our when the meaning is obvious from context.

So:

• przed wyjazdem can mean
  before the trip,
  before departure,
  before our departure,
  or simply
  before leaving

The exact English wording depends on context.

This is very normal in Polish. The language often relies on the situation rather than spelling everything out with articles and possessives.

A rough English-friendly guide would be:

• Przed wyjazdem sprawdzam, czy mamy jeszcze paliwo.
• approximately: pshet vy-YAZ-dem SPRAV-dzam, chi MA-mi YESH-che pa-LEE-vo

A few important sound notes:

• przed: the rz here sounds like a Polish zh sound, but because of the surrounding consonants, the whole word may sound closer to pshet to English ears.
• wyjazdem: stress is on YAZ
• sprawdzam: the w sounds like English v
• czy: sounds roughly like chi, but with a Polish vowel that isn’t exactly English i
• jeszcze: roughly YESH-che
• paliwo: stress on LI

Also remember that Polish stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable:

• wy-JAZ-dem
• spraw-DZAM
• MA-my
• jesz-CZE
• pa-LI-wo

That stress pattern is very helpful when reading aloud.