To lekarstwo pomaga na kaszel i katar.

Here to works like this: To lekarstwo = This medicine / This remedy.

In Polish, to is very common and can point to something in a general way. In this sentence, it introduces the noun phrase lekarstwo and makes it sound like you are referring to a particular medicine.

Without to, Lekarstwo pomaga na kaszel i katar would sound more like Medicine helps with cough and a runny nose or The medicine helps..., depending on context.

Lekarstwo means medicine, remedy, or medication.

A learner should also know that Polish often uses both lek and lekarstwo:

• lek = a medicine, drug, medicinal product
• lekarstwo = medicine/remedy, often a bit more everyday or general

In many situations they overlap, but lekarstwo can feel a little more like something you take to help an illness.

Pomaga is the 3rd person singular form of the verb pomagać = to help.

The subject is to lekarstwo, which is singular, so the verb must also be singular:

• ja pomagam = I help
• ty pomagasz = you help
• on/ona/ono pomaga = he/she/it helps

Since lekarstwo is grammatically neuter singular, Polish uses the same verb form as for ono:

• To lekarstwo pomaga = This medicine helps

Yes, na often means on, but in Polish prepositions have several uses.

With illnesses and symptoms, pomaga na + accusative often means:

• helps with
• helps against
• is good for

So:

• pomaga na kaszel = helps with/against cough
• pomaga na katar = helps with/against a runny nose

This is a very natural pattern in Polish. It is not a literal English-style help on.

They are in the accusative because of the preposition na in this meaning.

So the structure is:

pomaga na + accusative

In this sentence:

• kaszel = accusative singular
• katar = accusative singular

For these particular nouns, the accusative looks the same as the nominative, which is why the forms do not change visibly.

Because both nouns are masculine inanimate, and in the singular, masculine inanimate nouns usually have:

• nominative = accusative

So:

• kaszel stays kaszel
• katar stays katar

This can be confusing because the case really does change grammatically, even if the spelling does not.

Not exactly.

Katar usually means runny nose or nasal congestion, not the whole illness a cold.

So:

• mam katar = I have a runny nose
• mam przeziębienie = I have a cold

English speakers often over-translate katar as cold, but it is more specific than that.

Yes.

That would still be correct, but the nuance changes slightly:

• To lekarstwo pomaga... = This medicine helps...
• Lekarstwo pomaga... = Medicine helps... / The medicine helps..., depending on context

So to makes it more specific and more like you are pointing to a particular medicine.

Because Polish has no articles.

English needs:

• a medicine
• the medicine
• this medicine

Polish does not use separate words like a or the. Instead, definiteness is understood from context, and words like to, ten, ta, to can add more specificity when needed.

So lekarstwo by itself could mean:

• a medicine
• the medicine depending on context.

Yes. Polish word order is more flexible than English.

The sentence:

• To lekarstwo pomaga na kaszel i katar

is neutral and natural.

But you may also hear variations like:

• Na kaszel i katar pomaga to lekarstwo
• To lekarstwo na kaszel i katar pomaga

Those versions may sound more marked or emphasize different information. For a learner, the original version is the safest and most natural basic order.

Yes, and it means something slightly different.

• To lekarstwo pomaga na kaszel i katar = This medicine helps with cough and a runny nose.
• To lekarstwo jest na kaszel i katar = This medicine is for cough and a runny nose.

So:

• jest na focuses on what the medicine is intended for
• pomaga na focuses on the fact that it helps

Both are very common.

A rough pronunciation for an English speaker is:

to leh-kar-STFO po-MA-ga na KA-shel ee KA-tar

A few useful notes:

• rz is not in this sentence, so nothing tricky there.
• w in Polish sounds like English v, but there is no w here either.
• In lekarstwo, the stw cluster is pronounced tightly, roughly stf.
• kaszel sounds roughly like KAH-shel
• i is pronounced like ee

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

• le-kar-stwo
• po-ma-ga

Yes, here i simply means and.

It connects the two nouns:

• kaszel i katar = cough and runny nose

It is pronounced like ee.

Yes, pomagać is imperfective.

Its perfective partner is usually pomóc = to help in the sense of a completed act.

In this sentence, the imperfective is the natural choice because it describes a general property or repeated effect:

• To lekarstwo pomaga na kaszel i katar = This medicine helps with cough and a runny nose.

You are not talking about one single completed act of helping, but about what the medicine generally does.