Zdrowie jest ważne.

A rough pronunciation is:

• Zdrowie ≈ ZDROH-vyeh
• jest ≈ yest
• ważne ≈ VAZH-neh

A few helpful sound notes:

• zdr at the start of zdrowie is a real consonant cluster, so Polish does not insert a vowel there.
• w in Polish sounds like English v.
• j in Polish sounds like English y in yes.
• ż sounds like the s in measure or the g in genre.
• ą is not in this sentence, but ż and w are often new for learners.

So the whole sentence sounds roughly like: ZDRO-vyeh yest VAZH-neh.

Zdrowie is a noun meaning health.

In this sentence, it is the subject:

• Zdrowie = health
• jest = is
• ważne = important

So grammatically, the structure is very close to English: Health is important.

Jest is the 3rd person singular form of the verb być (to be).

So:

• jest = is

In Polish, when you make a normal present-tense sentence like this, you usually use jest:

• To jest dobre. = This is good.
• Pogoda jest ładna. = The weather is nice.
• Zdrowie jest ważne. = Health is important.

Unlike in some languages, you normally do not leave out is in a sentence like this.

Because ważne has to agree with zdrowie.

In Polish, adjectives change their form depending on the noun’s:

• gender
• number
• sometimes case

The noun zdrowie is neuter singular, so the adjective must also be neuter singular:

• ważny = masculine
• ważna = feminine
• ważne = neuter

Examples:

• Dobry film = a good film (film is masculine)
• Dobra książka = a good book (książka is feminine)
• Dobre zdrowie = good health (zdrowie is neuter)

That is why the sentence says ważne.

A very common clue is the ending.

Many Polish neuter nouns in the singular end in:

• -o
• -e
• -ę
• sometimes -ie

Zdrowie ends in -ie, and it is a neuter noun.

This matters because other words must agree with it:

• to zdrowie
• dobre zdrowie
• zdrowie jest ważne

It is useful to learn nouns together with their gender from the beginning.

Yes. Polish word order is more flexible than English because grammatical relationships are often shown by endings rather than position.

The most neutral order is:

• Zdrowie jest ważne.

But you may also hear:

• Ważne jest zdrowie.

This can sound more emphatic, like What is important is health or Health is what matters depending on context.

For a learner, the best default is to use:

• Zdrowie jest ważne.

Normally, no in standard Polish if you mean a complete, neutral sentence.

You usually need the verb:

• Zdrowie jest ważne.

Leaving out jest may appear in:

• headlines
• slogans
• poetic language
• very informal elliptical speech

But as a learner, you should treat jest as necessary here.

No. Ważne is an adjective, not an adverb.

It describes the noun zdrowie and agrees with it in gender and number.

Compare:

• Zdrowie jest ważne. = Health is important.
  Here ważne is an adjective.

But the adverb is:

• ważnie = importantly / in an important way

That adverb would not work in this sentence.

Polish has no articles like English a / an / the.

So:

• Zdrowie jest ważne.

can mean simply:

• Health is important.

The exact interpretation comes from context, not from an article.

This is very normal in Polish, so learners should not try to insert a separate word for the.

It is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence.

Base form:

• zdrowie = nominative singular

Since the sentence says what health is, the subject stays in the nominative:

• Zdrowie jest ważne.

This is a useful pattern:

• X jest Y = X is Y/adjective

For beginners, the key point is: the thing doing the being is in the nominative.

Yes. This is a very basic and useful Polish sentence pattern:

• [noun] + jest + [adjective]

Examples:

• Życie jest krótkie. = Life is short.
• Jedzenie jest dobre. = Food is good.
• Praca jest trudna. = Work is difficult.
• Dom jest duży. = The house is big.

Just remember that the adjective must match the noun’s gender and number. That is exactly why we have:

• zdrowie → neuter
• ważne → neuter form of important