Lekarz powiedział, że maść pomoże na tę małą ranę.

Powiedział is the past tense, masculine singular form of powiedzieć (to say / to tell).

It agrees with lekarz (doctor), so this sentence tells you the doctor is male.

• lekarz powiedział = the male doctor said
• if it were a female doctor, you would usually expect lekarka powiedziała or sometimes lekarz powiedziała, depending on context and style

So the -ał ending is a very useful clue: it marks masculine singular in the past.

Że means that and introduces a subordinate clause.

So:

• Lekarz powiedział = The doctor said
• że maść pomoże... = that the ointment will help...

This works very much like English that in a sentence like:

• The doctor said that the ointment will help.

In Polish, że is extremely common after verbs like:

• mówić / powiedzieć = to say
• myśleć = to think
• wiedzieć = to know

Pomoże comes from pomóc (to help), which is a perfective verb.

In Polish, perfective verbs do not have a normal present tense. Their present-looking forms usually refer to the future.

So:

• pomóc = perfective, completed help / successful help
• pomoże = will help

That is why maść pomoże means:

• the ointment will help

not

• the ointment helps

If you wanted a more general, ongoing idea like helps, you would often use the imperfective verb pomagać:

• Maść pomaga. = The ointment helps / is helping.

Yes, it is somewhat irregular from an English learner’s point of view.

The infinitive is:

• pomóc

But one future/present-form is:

• pomoże = he/she/it will help

This kind of stem change happens in some Polish verbs and is something you mostly have to learn with the verb.

A few useful forms are:

• pomogę = I will help
• pomożesz = you will help
• pomoże = he/she/it will help
• pomogą = they will help

So although the infinitive is pomóc, the finite forms often use pomog-/pomoż-.

Because after na in this meaning, Polish uses the accusative case, and all the words in the noun phrase must match.

The basic dictionary forms are:

• ta = this
• mała = small
• rana = wound

But in the accusative singular feminine, they become:

• tę
• małą
• ranę

So:

• na tę małą ranę

This is normal Polish case agreement: the demonstrative, adjective, and noun all change together.

Because ta is the nominative form, while here we need the accusative.

Compare:

• Ta mała rana jest groźna.
  = This small wound is dangerous.
  Here ta mała rana is the subject, so it is nominative.

• Maść pomoże na tę małą ranę.
  = The ointment will help for/with this small wound.
  Here the phrase comes after na in a context requiring accusative, so it becomes tę małą ranę.

A useful note: in everyday speech, many Poles say tą instead of standard tę in some contexts, but tę is the standard written form here.

For the same reason: rana is the dictionary form, but after na here you need the accusative singular.

So:

• rana = nominative
• ranę = accusative

This is a very common feminine noun pattern:

• książka → książkę
• kobieta → kobietę
• rana → ranę

So if you see a feminine noun ending in -a, the accusative singular is often -ę.

Yes, na often means on, but it has several meanings.

With medicines, treatments, or remedies, na can mean something like:

• for
• against
• for dealing with

So:

• maść na ranę = ointment for a wound
• tabletki na ból głowy = tablets for a headache
• coś na przeziębienie = something for a cold

In this sentence, pomoże na tę małą ranę means the ointment will help with / for that wound.

This is a very natural Polish pattern.

In że maść pomoże..., the noun maść is in the nominative, so it is the subject:

• maść = the ointment
• pomoże = will help

So literally:

• that the ointment will help...

Even though English sometimes uses dummy subjects or slightly different phrasing, Polish simply makes maść the thing doing the helping.

Yes. Polish word order is more flexible than English because cases show the grammatical relationships.

The neutral, straightforward version is:

• Lekarz powiedział, że maść pomoże na tę małą ranę.

But other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

• Lekarz powiedział, że na tę małą ranę pomoże maść.

This might emphasize na tę małą ranę or place focus later on maść.

Even so, the original order is very natural and probably the best one for a learner to model.

Polish has no articles, so there is no separate word for a/an/the.

That means:

• lekarz can mean a doctor or the doctor
• maść can mean an ointment or the ointment

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, English would probably use:

• The doctor said that the ointment would help...

But Polish does not need words like the.

Because adjectives must match the noun in gender, number, and case.

The noun is:

• rana → accusative singular feminine: ranę

So the adjective must also be accusative singular feminine:

• mała → małą

That gives:

• małą ranę = small wound in the accusative

This kind of agreement is one of the most important patterns in Polish grammar.

Mostly said.

• powiedzieć usually means to say
• powiedzieć komuś coś can sometimes be translated as to tell someone something

In this sentence there is no person receiving the information, so the most natural English equivalent is:

• The doctor said that...

If you had:

• Lekarz powiedział mi, że...

then it could be:

• The doctor told me that...

So the Polish verb can overlap with both English verbs, depending on structure.

The dictionary forms are:

• tę → ta = this
• małą → mały / mała = small
• ranę → rana = wound

So the whole phrase is built from:

• ta mała rana = this small wound

and then changed into the accusative after na:

• na tę małą ranę

That is a very good way to study Polish: learn the base form, then notice how it changes in a real sentence.