Ratownik powiedział, że chłopiec nie jest nieprzytomny, tylko bardzo zmęczony.

Ratownik is someone who gives rescue or emergency help. Depending on context, it can mean:

• lifeguard
• rescuer
• paramedic / emergency responder

In this sentence, without extra context, rescuer or emergency worker is the safest general interpretation.

Powiedział is the past tense, masculine singular form of powiedzieć (to say).

In Polish, past tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number:

• powiedział = he said
• powiedziała = she said
• powiedzieli = they said (mixed group or all-male group)
• powiedziały = they said (all-female group)

Because ratownik is grammatically masculine singular, Polish uses powiedział.

Że introduces a subordinate clause and usually corresponds to English that.

So:

• Ratownik powiedział, że... = The rescuer said that...

In English, that is often optional. In Polish, że is normally expressed much more often, especially after verbs like:

• powiedzieć = to say
• myśleć = to think
• wiedzieć = to know
• uważać = to believe / think

Because chłopiec is the subject of the clause że chłopiec nie jest..., so it stays in the nominative case.

Compare:

• chłopiec = the boy (subject form)
• chłopca = the boy (object form, often accusative or genitive depending on structure)

Here, the boy is the one who is not unconscious, so nominative is required.

This is a very common question for English speakers.

Polish does not follow English-style tense backshifting as strictly as English does. After a past reporting verb like powiedział, Polish often keeps the tense that matches the situation being described.

So:

• powiedział, że chłopiec nie jest nieprzytomny
  = he said the boy is not unconscious

This sounds natural if the rescuer is describing the boy’s condition as current/relevant at that moment.

If you wanted to focus only on the boy’s state at some past moment, you could say:

• powiedział, że chłopiec nie był nieprzytomny
  = he said the boy was not unconscious

So both can be possible, but they express slightly different time perspective.

Not in the way English learners often worry about.

Here:

• the first nie negates the verb jest = is not
• nieprzytomny is a single adjective meaning unconscious

So the phrase means:

• nie jest nieprzytomny = he is not unconscious

It may look like two negatives, but grammatically it is simply:

• not
  • unconscious

Also, the adjective nieprzytomny is built from:

• przytomny = conscious, aware
• nieprzytomny = unconscious

In this sentence, tylko means something like but rather or just in a correcting sense.

The pattern is:

• nie X, tylko Y = not X, but Y / rather Y

So:

• nie jest nieprzytomny, tylko bardzo zmęczony
  = he isn’t unconscious, just very tired

This structure corrects the first idea and replaces it with the second one.

Ale is different. It usually means plain but and is less specifically corrective.

Compare:

• Nie jest nieprzytomny, tylko bardzo zmęczony.
  = Not unconscious, just very tired.

• Nie jest nieprzytomny, ale jest bardzo zmęczony.
  = He isn’t unconscious, but he is very tired.

The second version is possible, but it feels more like adding a contrasting fact. The version with tylko is the more natural choice when correcting a mistaken assumption.

They are adjectives describing chłopiec, so they agree with it in:

• gender: masculine
• number: singular
• case: nominative

Because chłopiec is masculine singular, you get:

• nieprzytomny
• zmęczony

If the subject were feminine, the forms would change:

• Dziewczynka nie jest nieprzytomna, tylko bardzo zmęczona.

If it were plural:

• Chłopcy nie są nieprzytomni, tylko bardzo zmęczeni.

Polish often omits repeated words when they are easy to understand from context.

So this:

• nie jest nieprzytomny, tylko bardzo zmęczony

is a shorter version of:

• nie jest nieprzytomny, tylko jest bardzo zmęczony

The second jest is grammatically possible, but leaving it out sounds more natural and less repetitive.

English does something similar sometimes:

• He’s not unconscious, just very tired.

The word order in this sentence is natural and neutral, but Polish word order is more flexible than English word order.

This version:

• Ratownik powiedział, że chłopiec nie jest nieprzytomny, tylko bardzo zmęczony.

is the most straightforward way to say it.

Polish can move elements around for emphasis, but that changes what sounds most prominent. For a learner, the best takeaway is:

• this word order is standard
• it sounds natural
• it is a good model to copy

So even though Polish is flexible, this sentence is built in a very normal, learner-friendly way.