Uczeń podnosi rękę podczas lekcji, bo ma pytanie.

Uczeń usually means pupil or school student—someone in primary or secondary school.

It is not usually the same as English student in the university sense. In Polish:

• uczeń = school pupil
• student = university student

So in this sentence, uczeń suggests a learner in a school-classroom context.

Podnosi is the 3rd person singular present tense form of podnosić (to raise, to lift).

It matches uczeń, which is a singular noun:

• ja podnoszę = I raise
• ty podnosisz = you raise
• on / ona / uczeń podnosi = he / she / the student raises

No subject pronoun is needed because the subject is already stated as uczeń.

Because ręka is the direct object of the verb podnosić, so it goes into the accusative case.

The pattern is:

• nominative: ręka = hand
• accusative: rękę = hand (as the object)

So:

• Uczeń podnosi rękę = The student raises a/the hand

This is one of the most common case changes in Polish.

Yes. Podnosi rękę literally means raises a hand / the hand, but in context it naturally means raises his hand.

Polish often does not use possessive words like his or her when the owner is obvious from context, especially with body parts.

So Polish prefers:

• Uczeń podnosi rękę = The student raises his hand

Instead of something more explicit like:

• Uczeń podnosi swoją rękę

The version with swoją is grammatical, but here it sounds unnecessary.

Because the preposition podczas requires the genitive case.

So:

• nominative: lekcja = lesson / class
• genitive: lekcji

That is why we say:

• podczas lekcji = during the lesson / during class

Many Polish prepositions require a specific case, and podczas always takes the genitive.

In this sentence, lekcja can be understood as lesson or class period.

So podczas lekcji means:

• during the lesson
• during class

In natural English, during class is often the most idiomatic translation, but grammatically lekcja is literally lesson.

Bo means because.

It is very common in everyday spoken and written Polish. Compared with ponieważ:

• bo = more common, more conversational, very natural
• ponieważ = also means because, but sounds a bit more formal or bookish in many contexts

So:

• Uczeń podnosi rękę, bo ma pytanie. = very natural
• Uczeń podnosi rękę, ponieważ ma pytanie. = also correct, just slightly more formal

In Polish, if someone has a question, you normally say ma pytanie—literally has a question.

So:

• ma pytanie = has a question

You would not use jest pytanie here to mean that the student has one. Jest pytanie means something more like there is a question.

Compare:

• Uczeń ma pytanie. = The student has a question.
• Jest pytanie. = There is a question.

It can be understood either way, depending on context.

Because podnosi is present tense imperfective, it can describe:

• something happening now: The student is raising his hand
• a general or repeated action: The student raises his hand

With podczas lekcji and bo ma pytanie, the sentence often feels like a general classroom situation, but it could also describe a specific moment.

Podnosić is the imperfective verb, and it is the normal choice for present tense statements like this.

In Polish:

• imperfective verbs have a true present tense
• perfective verbs do not normally describe the present; their present-looking forms usually refer to the future

So:

• podnosi = raises / is raising
• a perfective form such as podniesie would mean will raise

That is why podnosi is correct here.

Yes. Polish word order is more flexible than English, although the original version is very natural.

The neutral sentence is:

• Uczeń podnosi rękę podczas lekcji, bo ma pytanie.

But you could also say:

• Podczas lekcji uczeń podnosi rękę, bo ma pytanie.
• Uczeń podczas lekcji podnosi rękę, bo ma pytanie.

These versions all mean basically the same thing, but the emphasis changes slightly. Polish often uses word order to highlight what is most important or what is already known.

A few parts may be difficult for English speakers:

• uczeń
  The ń is a soft n sound, a bit like the ny in canyon.

• rękę
  The ę is a nasal vowel. In normal speech, its pronunciation can vary depending on the sounds around it.

• lekcji
  The cj combination sounds roughly like kts-yi or ktsy, not like English see-jay.

• bo
  Simple: like bo in bore but shorter.

A rough approximation of the whole sentence is:

• OOT-shehn pod-NO-see REN-keh POD-chas LEK-tsyi, bo ma pi-TA-nye

That is only approximate, but it can help as a starting point.