Z kuchni słychać śmiech dzieci.

You can hear children's laughter from the kitchen.

Breakdown of Z kuchni słychać śmiech dzieci.

• dziecko: the child
• kuchnia: the kitchen
• z: from
• śmiech: the laughter

Questions & Answers about Z kuchni słychać śmiech dzieci.

Why does the sentence start with z kuchni instead of w kuchni?

Because z kuchni means from the kitchen, which shows the source of the sound.

• z kuchni = from the kitchen
• w kuchni = in the kitchen

So:

• Z kuchni słychać śmiech dzieci. = The laughter of children can be heard coming from the kitchen.
• W kuchni... would mean something is happening inside the kitchen, not necessarily coming out of it.

Also, after the preposition z, Polish uses the genitive case, so kuchnia becomes kuchni.

What exactly does słychać mean here?

Słychać means something like:

• one can hear
• it can be heard
• you can hear

It is an impersonal form. That means the sentence does not say who is hearing the sound. The focus is just on the fact that the sound is audible.

So Z kuchni słychać śmiech dzieci is very natural Polish for saying that the sound of children laughing is audible from the kitchen.

How is słychać different from słyszeć?