W zeszycie przeczytałam osiemnaście krótkich zdań po polsku.

W zeszycie means in the notebook or in the exercise book.

The basic form is zeszyt. After the preposition w when it means in, Polish normally uses the locative case, so:

• zeszyt = notebook
• w zeszycie = in the notebook

This is why the ending changes.

Przeczytałam means I read / I finished reading.

It contains several pieces of information at once:

• prze- → a prefix that often suggests completion
• czytać / przeczytać → to read / to read through, finish reading
• -łam → past tense, 1st person singular feminine (I, spoken by a woman)

So przeczytałam tells you all of this:

• the subject is I
• the action happened in the past
• the speaker is female
• the action is completed

A male speaker would say przeczytałem.

In Polish, the subject is often left out because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

Here, przeczytałam already means I read / I have read and also shows that the speaker is feminine. So adding ja is usually unnecessary unless you want emphasis:

• Przeczytałam... = I read...
• Ja przeczytałam... = I read... / It was I who read...

After numbers 5 and above, Polish usually uses the genitive plural for the counted noun.

So:

• jedno zdanie = one sentence
• dwa / trzy / cztery zdania = two / three / four sentences
• pięć zdań, osiemnaście zdań = five sentences, eighteen sentences

Because osiemnaście is 18, the noun must be in the genitive plural:

• zdań = genitive plural of zdanie

The adjective must match too, so:

• krótkich zdań = of short sentences / short sentences (after 18)

That is why you get:

• osiemnaście krótkich zdań

The dictionary form is zdanie, meaning sentence.

Its forms here are:

• zdanie = singular
• zdania = plural in some contexts, and also singular genitive
• zdań = genitive plural

In this sentence, zdań is required because it follows osiemnaście.

Because the adjective has to agree with zdań.

The noun zdań is:

• plural
• genitive

So the adjective krótki (short) must also be in the genitive plural:

• krótki = short
• krótkich = short (genitive plural)

This agreement is a basic rule in Polish: adjectives match the noun in gender, number, and case.

Po polsku means in Polish.

This is a fixed and very common Polish pattern for languages:

• po polsku = in Polish
• po angielsku = in English
• po niemiecku = in German

It does not use the plain adjective polski here. You should learn po + language form as a set expression.

In this sentence, zdania po polsku means sentences in Polish.

This is about aspect, which is very important in Polish.

• czytałam = I was reading / I used to read / I read (imperfective, focuses on the process or repeated action)
• przeczytałam = I read through / I finished reading (perfective, focuses on completion)

So in this sentence, przeczytałam suggests that the speaker completed reading all eighteen sentences.

Most naturally, w zeszycie means the sentences were in the notebook, and the speaker read them there.

So the idea is:

In the notebook, I read eighteen short sentences in Polish.

It points to where the sentences were found rather than necessarily where the person was physically located.

Yes, Polish word order is fairly flexible because endings show grammatical relationships.

The sentence:

W zeszycie przeczytałam osiemnaście krótkich zdań po polsku.

is natural and puts early emphasis on where: in the notebook.

Other possible orders include:

• Przeczytałam w zeszycie osiemnaście krótkich zdań po polsku.
• Osiemnaście krótkich zdań po polsku przeczytałam w zeszycie.

These versions are grammatically possible, but the emphasis changes. English relies much more on fixed word order than Polish does.

Zeszyt usually means a notebook or exercise book, especially the kind used for schoolwork.

Depending on context, English translations may vary:

• notebook
• exercise book
• copybook (less common in modern everyday English)

So w zeszycie could be translated in different ways depending on the situation.

A man would say:

W zeszycie przeczytałem osiemnaście krótkich zdań po polsku.

The only change is:

• przeczytałam → feminine
• przeczytałem → masculine

Everything else stays the same.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

v ze-SHCHI-tye pshe-chi-TA-wam o-shyem-NA-shchye KROOT-kikh zdaNYE po POL-skoo

A few useful notes:

• w is pronounced like English v
• cz sounds like ch in chop
• sz sounds like sh
• rz often sounds like zh (like the s in measure)
• ń is a soft n, like ny

If pronunciation is a priority, it is especially worth listening to native audio for:

• przeczytałam
• osiemnaście
• zdań

These contain sound combinations that are tricky for English speakers.