Nauczycielka pisze nowe słowo na tablicy, a my zapisujemy je w zeszytach.

Nauczycielka means female teacher, while nauczyciel means male teacher.

Polish often marks the gender of professions more clearly than English does. So this sentence tells you that the teacher is a woman.

• nauczyciel = male teacher
• nauczycielka = female teacher

Because the subject is nauczycielka, the verb is also in the correct form for she: pisze = she writes / is writing.

They are related, but they are not exactly the same.

• pisać = to write
• zapisywać / zapisać = to write down, to note down, to record

So:

• Nauczycielka pisze nowe słowo na tablicy = The teacher is writing a new word on the board.
• my zapisujemy je w zeszytach = we are writing it down in our notebooks.

This difference is very natural in Polish:

• the teacher writes it on the board
• the students write it down in their notebooks

Also, pisze is from pisać, and zapisujemy is from zapisywać.

Because adjectives in Polish must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

Here, słowo (word) is:

• neuter
• singular
• in the accusative, which for this noun looks the same as the nominative

So the adjective must also be neuter singular:

• nowy = masculine singular
• nowa = feminine singular
• nowe = neuter singular

That is why you get:

• nowe słowo = new word

Je is the pronoun it here, referring back to słowo.

Since słowo is a neuter singular noun, the correct accusative pronoun is je.

So:

• słowo = word
• zapisujemy je = we write it down

A useful note: je can also mean them in some contexts, so learners sometimes find it confusing. Here it clearly means it, because it refers to nowe słowo.

Because na can take different cases depending on the meaning.

Here the idea is location: the teacher is writing on the board. With location, na takes the locative.

• na tablicy = on the board

If you were talking about movement toward something, you would often use the accusative instead:

• położyć książkę na stół = to put a book onto the table

But in this sentence, the writing is happening on the surface of the board, so na tablicy is correct.

Because after na in the sense of on (location), the noun goes into the locative case.

The noun is:

• tablica = board

In the locative singular, it becomes:

• na tablicy = on the board

This is a common pattern for many feminine nouns ending in -a:

• książka → w książce
• szkoła → w szkole
• tablica → na tablicy

So tablicy is simply the locative form of tablica.

Because zeszytach is plural.

• w zeszycie = in the notebook
• w zeszytach = in the notebooks

The sentence says we are writing it down, so the plural makes sense: each of us is writing in our own notebook, so Polish often uses the plural:

• my zapisujemy je w zeszytach = we write it down in our notebooks

This sounds natural in Polish. English also often uses the plural in this kind of sentence.

Because after w meaning in, Polish uses the locative case.

The basic noun is:

• zeszyt = notebook

Its locative plural form is:

• w zeszytach = in notebooks / in the notebooks

So:

• singular: w zeszycie
• plural: w zeszytach

This is a very common case pattern after w when it means in.

Both can often be translated as and, but they are not always used in the same way.

Here, a links two parts while also lightly contrasting or separating them:

• The teacher writes on the board, and we write it down in our notebooks.

So a feels a bit like:

• and meanwhile
• while
• whereas (though not strongly contrasting here)

By contrast, i is a more neutral, simple and.

In this sentence, a sounds very natural because it sets up two parallel actions:

• the teacher does one thing
• we do another thing

Yes, it could.

Polish often drops subject pronouns, because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

• zapisujemy already means we write / we are writing

So this would also be correct:

• Nauczycielka pisze nowe słowo na tablicy, a zapisujemy je w zeszytach.

However, my is included here for clarity or emphasis. It helps underline the contrast:

• the teacher writes it on the board
• we write it down in our notebooks

So my is not required, but it is perfectly natural.

It can be either, depending on context.

Polish present-tense forms often cover both English meanings:

• pisze can mean writes
• or is writing

Likewise:

• zapisujemy can mean we write down
• or we are writing down

In this sentence, the most natural English meaning is probably the continuous one, because it describes actions happening right now in class:

• The teacher is writing a new word on the board, and we are writing it down in our notebooks.

But grammatically, Polish does not need a separate form for is writing.

Yes, but not in the sense of a strict English-style rule.

The neutral order here is very natural:

• Nauczycielka pisze nowe słowo na tablicy, a my zapisujemy je w zeszytach.

Polish word order is more flexible than English because cases show the grammatical relationships. You could move parts around for emphasis, for example:

• Na tablicy nauczycielka pisze nowe słowo...
• Je zapisujemy w zeszytach...

But the original sentence sounds normal and straightforward.

A learner should notice that Polish often uses word order to change focus or emphasis, not basic grammatical meaning.

Both are imperfective forms.

• pisze comes from pisać (imperfective)
• zapisujemy comes from zapisywać (imperfective)

That makes sense because the sentence describes an ongoing classroom activity, not a single completed result.

Very roughly:

• imperfective = ongoing, repeated, or viewed as a process
• perfective = completed, viewed as a whole

For comparison:

• pisać = to be writing / to write
• napisać = to write and finish
• zapisywać = to be writing down
• zapisać = to write down and finish

So in this sentence, the imperfective forms fit the scene very well.