Babcia czyta gazetę przy oknie.

Because gazeta is the direct object of the verb czyta (reads), so it has to go into the accusative case.

• dictionary form: gazeta
• accusative singular: gazetę

This is very common with feminine nouns ending in -a:

• książka → książkę
• herbata → herbatę
• gazeta → gazetę

So Babcia czyta gazetę means Grandma is reading a newspaper, with gazetę showing what is being read.

Because the preposition przy requires the locative case.

The noun okno changes like this:

• nominative: okno
• locative: oknie

So:

• przy oknie = by/at the window

Many Polish prepositions force a specific case, and przy is one of them.

Here przy means something like by, near, or at.

So przy oknie suggests that Grandma is positioned near the window, probably reading there.

It does not necessarily mean she is physically touching the window. It usually just gives location.

Polish often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed.

The verb form czyta already tells you it is third person singular:

• I read → czytam
• you read → czytasz
• he/she/it reads → czyta

Since the subject Babcia is already present, adding ona (she) would be unnecessary in a neutral sentence.

Czyta is:

• present tense
• third person singular
• from the verb czytać (to read)

So it means:

• reads
• or, depending on context, is reading

Polish present tense often covers both the simple present and the present continuous sense that English separates.

Czytać is imperfective.

That matters because in Polish:

• imperfective verbs are used for ongoing, repeated, or general actions
• perfective verbs are used for completed actions and do not normally have a present tense meaning like English present

So czyta fits naturally for is reading / reads.

A common perfective partner is przeczytać, which means something more like to read through / finish reading.

In this sentence, Babcia is the subject and is in the nominative case.

It means grandmother / grandma.

It could also be used when addressing someone directly, but then the context would be different. In everyday Polish, people often use Babcia! when speaking to Grandma, even though formally the vocative would be less common here than with some other nouns.

In Babcia czyta gazetę przy oknie, it is clearly the subject: Grandma is the one doing the reading.

Yes. Polish word order is more flexible than English because case endings show the grammatical roles.

The neutral order here is:

• Babcia czyta gazetę przy oknie.

But other orders are possible, for example:

• Przy oknie babcia czyta gazetę.
• Gazetę babcia czyta przy oknie.

These versions may sound more marked or place emphasis on a different part of the sentence, but they can still be correct.

English relies heavily on word order; Polish relies more on endings and context.

Roughly:

• czyta ≈ CHIH-ta

A few useful details:

• cz sounds like English ch in chair
• y is a Polish vowel that does not exist exactly in English; it is a bit like a short, central i
• stress in Polish usually falls on the second-to-last syllable, so here: CZY-ta

So the stress is on the first syllable.

Roughly:

• przy ≈ pshih or pshy
• oknie ≈ OK-nye

A few details:

• prz is a difficult cluster for English speakers; it sounds somewhat like psh with a rolled or tapped r influence in careful pronunciation
• oknie has kn followed by ie, which gives a nye-like ending

You do not need a perfect English approximation at first; the main thing is to recognize the sounds and stress:

• przy OK-nie

This is a normal Polish noun change caused by the locative singular ending and a stem alternation.

The noun is:

• nominative: okno

After przy, it becomes:

• locative: oknie

The o changes in the stem and the ending changes too. This kind of alternation is common in Polish and usually just has to be learned with case patterns.

You will see similar changes in other nouns as well, so it is not something unusual or random in this sentence.

Polish has no articles like a or the.

So gazetę by itself can mean:

• a newspaper
• the newspaper

Which one sounds best depends on context.

That is very normal in Polish. Learners have to get used to understanding definiteness from the situation rather than from a separate word.