Październik bywa zimny, ale nadal lubię spacerować po parku.

October can be cold, but I still like walking in the park.

Breakdown of Październik bywa zimny, ale nadal lubię spacerować po parku.

• ja: I
• lubić: to like
• zimny: cold
• ale: but

Questions & Answers about Październik bywa zimny, ale nadal lubię spacerować po parku.

Why is Październik capitalized? Aren’t months usually lowercase in Polish?

Yes—months are normally written with a lowercase letter in Polish: styczeń, luty, październik.

Here it is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence. So inside a sentence, you would normally write:

Lubię październik.

not

Lubię Październik.

What does bywa mean here? Why not just use jest?

Bywa is a very useful word in Polish. It often means something like:

• can be
• is sometimes
• tends to be from time to time

So:

• Październik jest zimny = October is cold
  This sounds more direct and general.
• Październik bywa zimny = October can be cold / October is sometimes cold
  This sounds less absolute.

So bywa suggests that October is not always cold, but it often is, or it can be.

What form is bywa exactly?

Bywa is the 3rd person singular present tense of bywać.

The verb bywać is related to być (to be), but it has a more habitual/repeated/occasional sense.

So:

• jest = is
• bywa = is sometimes / tends to be / can be

Because październik is singular, we use bywa, not a plural form.