Skoro autobus odjeżdża za pięć minut, musimy wyjść teraz.

Here skoro means something like since, as, or given that.

So Skoro autobus odjeżdża za pięć minut... means:

• Since the bus leaves in five minutes...
• Given that the bus leaves in five minutes...

It introduces a reason or an obvious premise that leads to the conclusion in the main clause.

A rough pattern is:

• Skoro X, to Y. = Since X, then Y.

In everyday speech, the to is often omitted, as in your sentence.

Polish often uses the present tense to talk about scheduled future events, just like English does in sentences such as The bus leaves in five minutes.

So:

• autobus odjeżdża za pięć minut = the bus leaves in five minutes

This is very natural with timetables, plans, and scheduled departures.

If you used a future form here, it would sound less like a scheduled fact and more like a one-time future event.

Both can relate to leaving, but they are used a bit differently.

• odjeżdżać / odjechać = to depart, to pull away, especially for vehicles
• wyjeżdżać / wyjechać = to leave, to go away, to travel out from somewhere

With autobus, odjeżdża is the most natural choice because it focuses on the vehicle’s departure.

Examples:

• Autobus odjeżdża o szóstej. = The bus leaves at six.
• Wyjeżdżam jutro do Krakowa. = I’m leaving for Kraków tomorrow.

So in this sentence, odjeżdża is used because it is specifically the bus departing.

Za + time expression means in ... when talking about how much time remains before something happens.

So:

• za pięć minut = in five minutes
• za godzinę = in an hour
• za dwa dni = in two days

This is different from talking about duration:

• przez pięć minut = for five minutes

So:

• Autobus odjeżdża za pięć minut. = The bus leaves in five minutes.
• Czekałem przez pięć minut. = I waited for five minutes.

Here za takes the accusative when it means in with a future time point.

So the structure is:

• za + accusative = in (after a certain amount of time)

Examples:

• za minutę
• za godzinę
• za dzień
• za pięć minut

With numerals, the form can be tricky, because Polish number phrases do not always look exactly like simple singular nouns. But for a learner, the important rule is:

• after za meaning in (time), use the accusative expression

Because wyjść is perfective, and here Polish wants the idea of a single completed action: we need to leave now.

• wychodzić = imperfective, ongoing/repeated/habitual leaving
• wyjść = perfective, to leave once, successfully go out

So:

• musimy wyjść teraz = we need to leave now

This sounds natural because the speaker means one concrete action that must happen.

If you said musimy wychodzić, it could sound more like:

• we need to be leaving
• we need to start heading out
• we ought to be on our way

So wyjść is the clearer and more standard choice here.

Because musieć works like a modal verb, similar to must in English.

Structure:

• musieć + infinitive

Examples:

• Muszę iść. = I have to go.
• Musimy wyjść. = We have to leave.
• Muszą czekać. = They must wait.

So musimy wyjść literally follows the same pattern as we must leave.

Yes, but the meaning shifts slightly.

• musimy wyjść teraz = we have to leave now
• trzeba wyjść teraz = it’s necessary to leave now / one needs to leave now

Musimy is more personal and direct: we are the ones who must do it.

Trzeba is more impersonal and general. It can sound slightly less direct.

In this sentence, musimy fits very well because the speaker includes themself and the other person or group.

Yes, Polish word order is quite flexible.

The sentence:

• Skoro autobus odjeżdża za pięć minut, musimy wyjść teraz.

could also be:

• Skoro autobus odjeżdża za pięć minut, teraz musimy wyjść.
• Musimy teraz wyjść, skoro autobus odjeżdża za pięć minut.

The version with teraz at the end sounds natural and gives a bit of emphasis to now.

In Polish, changing word order often changes focus or emphasis, not the basic meaning.

Because Skoro autobus odjeżdża za pięć minut is a subordinate clause, and in Polish subordinate clauses are normally separated by a comma.

So the sentence has two parts:

1. Skoro autobus odjeżdża za pięć minut
2. musimy wyjść teraz

Polish punctuation is stricter than English in this area. Even when English might sometimes feel less comma-heavy, Polish usually requires the comma before the main clause or before the conjunction introducing the subordinate clause.

Yes, in some contexts skoro can feel close to if, but usually with the sense of if it is true that... or since that is the case...

For example:

• Skoro nie chcesz, to nie musisz. = If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. = more literally: Since you don’t want to, you don’t have to.

So skoro often implies that the first part is treated as an established fact or an accepted premise.

That is a bit different from neutral jeśli / jeżeli, which simply mean if.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

• od-yezh-jah

But that is only approximate.

A few useful points:

• je sounds like ye
• żdż is a consonant cluster that can be hard for English speakers
• ą/ę are not in this word, but ż is like the s in measure
• stress in Polish is usually on the second-to-last syllable

So odjeżdża is stressed roughly like:

• od-JEŻ-dża

The most important thing is not to pronounce every letter separately in an English way. Listening and repeating is especially helpful for words like this.