Gdyby nie mgła, mielibyśmy większą szansę zobaczyć jezioro z góry.

Gdyby nie means something like if it weren’t for or were it not for.

So:

• Gdyby nie mgła... = If it weren’t for the fog...

This is different from jeśli nie, which usually means if not in a more ordinary, literal condition:

• Jeśli nie pada, idziemy = If it isn’t raining, we’re going
• Gdyby nie deszcz, poszlibyśmy = If it weren’t for the rain, we would go / would have gone

So gdyby nie often introduces a hypothetical obstacle that is preventing something.

In this expression, gdyby nie + noun, the noun is normally in the nominative:

• Gdyby nie mgła...
• Gdyby nie deszcz...
• Gdyby nie wiatr...

So mgła stays in its basic dictionary form.

This can feel surprising because learners often associate nie with other case effects, but here gdyby nie works as a fixed expression meaning if it weren’t for.

Mielibyśmy means we would have.

It is built from:

• mieli- = the past stem of mieć (to have)
• -by- = the conditional marker
• -śmy = the ending for we

So:

• miałbym = I would have
• miałbyś = you would have
• mielibyśmy = we would have
• mielibyście = you all would have

This is the normal Polish conditional pattern.

Because the whole situation is hypothetical.

The sentence is saying that the fog is currently preventing a better possibility. So Polish uses a conditional structure:

• Gdyby nie mgła... = If it weren’t for the fog...
• mielibyśmy... = we would have...

This is similar to English:

• If it weren’t for the fog, we would have a better chance...

So the speaker is not describing reality directly; they are describing an unreal or blocked possibility.

Because mieć (to have) takes a direct object, and here that object is szansę.

So:

• mieć szansę = to have a chance

Since szansa is a feminine noun, its accusative singular form is szansę. The adjective must match it:

• większa szansa = nominative
• większą szansę = accusative

That is why we get:

• mielibyśmy większą szansę

Yes, szanse is also possible in Polish, but większą szansę is completely natural.

Compare:

• mieć większą szansę coś zrobić = to have a better chance of doing something
• mieć większe szanse coś zrobić = to have better chances of doing something

The singular often sounds a bit like a better chance, while the plural can sound a bit broader or more general. In this sentence, the singular is very normal and idiomatic.

Because zobaczyć is perfective, and here it means to manage to see / to catch sight of / to see successfully.

With szansa (chance), Polish very often uses a perfective verb, because the idea is about the successful occurrence of an event:

• mieć szansę zobaczyć jezioro = to have a chance to see the lake

By contrast, widzieć is imperfective and often refers more to the state or ability of seeing in general.

So in this sentence, zobaczyć is the more natural choice.

Jezioro is the direct object of zobaczyć, so it is in the accusative.

However, for many neuter nouns in Polish, the nominative and accusative look the same. So:

• nominative: jezioro
• accusative: jezioro

That is why there is no visible change.

If it were a different noun, the change might be clearer. For example:

• pies = nominative
• psa = accusative

But with jezioro, the form stays the same.

Here z góry means from above or from a higher point.

The noun góra is in the genitive singular:

• góra = nominative
• góry = genitive

That happens because the preposition z in the sense of from / off / out of takes the genitive.

So literally:

• z góry = from the mountain/top/high place
• in context: from above

A useful note: z góry can also mean in advance in other contexts, but not here.

Yes. Polish word order is relatively flexible.

For example, you could also say:

• Mielibyśmy większą szansę zobaczyć jezioro z góry, gdyby nie mgła.

That would still be correct.

The original order puts Gdyby nie mgła first, which gives early emphasis to the obstacle: the fog.

So the original sentence sounds very natural, but it is not the only possible word order.

Because Gdyby nie mgła is a subordinate conditional clause, and Polish normally separates subordinate clauses with commas.

So:

• Gdyby nie mgła, mielibyśmy...

This is standard Polish punctuation.

In general, Polish uses commas before or after subordinate clauses more consistently than English does, so learners often need to pay special attention to that.