Nie chcę ci przeszkadzać.

Chcę is the 1st person singular form of chcieć (to want), so it means I want.

• chcę = I want
• chcesz = you want
• chce = he/she/it wants

So in Nie chcę ci przeszkadzać, the speaker is saying I don’t want..., which is why chcę is needed.

Also notice the letter ę at the end. It is not optional spelling; it is part of the correct verb form.

Here, ci means to you.

It is the unstressed dative form of ty (you, singular, informal).

Compare:

• ci = short, unstressed to you
• tobie = fuller, stressed to you
• ciebie = you in different cases, not the one used here

The verb przeszkadzać takes the dative case, so Polish uses the equivalent of to you:

• przeszkadzać komuś = to disturb/bother someone

That is why we get:

• ci przeszkadzać = to bother/disturb you

You could also say Nie chcę tobie przeszkadzać, but ci sounds more natural in a neutral sentence.

Because in normal Polish spelling, pronouns such as ci, tobie, mu, jej, and so on are written in lowercase.

Polish sometimes uses a capital letter in direct, polite written communication to show respect:

• Ci
• Tobie
• Ciebie

But that is a stylistic choice, mostly in letters, emails, messages, or formal/polite writing. It is not required in an ordinary example sentence.

So Nie chcę ci przeszkadzać is perfectly normal.

Because after chcę (I want), Polish commonly uses an infinitive.

This is the same basic idea as English:

• I want to help
• I want to go
• I want to sleep

In Polish:

• Chcę pomóc = I want to help
• Chcę iść = I want to go
• Chcę spać = I want to sleep

So:

• Nie chcę ci przeszkadzać = literally I do not want to disturb you

The conjugated verb is chcę; przeszkadzać stays in the infinitive.

In Polish, nie is usually written as a separate word before a verb:

• nie chcę = I don’t want
• nie wiem = I don’t know
• nie mogę = I can’t

So Nie chcę is the normal spelling.

This is different from some other parts of speech, where nie may be written together, but with verbs, learners should generally expect it to be separate.

It can often be translated as disturb, bother, or sometimes be in the way / interfere depending on context.

A useful pattern is:

• przeszkadzać komuś = to bother/disturb someone
• przeszkadzać w czymś = to interfere with something

In your sentence, the idea is usually something like:

• I don’t want to bother you
• I don’t want to disturb you

It does not always mean a dramatic interruption. It can be very polite and mild, like saying you do not want to impose on someone.

This is an aspect question.

Polish verbs often come in imperfective/perfective pairs:

• przeszkadzać = imperfective
• przeszkodzić = perfective

Very roughly:

• imperfective focuses on the process, repetition, or general action
• perfective focuses on a completed single result

After chcieć (to want), Polish very often uses the imperfective when talking about not wanting to do something in a general sense:

• Nie chcę ci przeszkadzać = I don’t want to bother/disturb you

This sounds natural and idiomatic.

A version with przeszkodzić could exist in some contexts, but it would sound more like not wanting to cause a specific completed interference. In this everyday polite sentence, przeszkadzać is the normal choice.

Yes, Polish word order is more flexible than English, although some versions sound more natural than others.

The neutral order here is:

• Nie chcę ci przeszkadzać.

You may also hear:

• Nie chcę przeszkadzać ci.
• Ci nie chcę przeszkadzać. — possible, but marked for emphasis
• Przeszkadzać ci nie chcę. — strongly marked, poetic, or contrastive

For a learner, the safest default is the original sentence:

• Nie chcę ci przeszkadzać.

That sounds natural and standard.

Ci here is singular informal.

It is used with ty, meaning you when speaking to one person informally.

So this sentence is addressed to:

• one person
• someone you would call ty

If you want to say it formally, Polish changes the pronoun:

• Nie chcę panu przeszkadzać. = to one man, formal
• Nie chcę pani przeszkadzać. = to one woman, formal
• Nie chcę państwu przeszkadzać. = to more than one person, formal

If you want informal plural:

• Nie chcę wam przeszkadzać. = I don’t want to bother you all

Yes, but the meaning becomes less specific.

• Nie chcę ci przeszkadzać = I don’t want to bother you
• Nie chcę przeszkadzać = I don’t want to bother / disturb

Without ci, the sentence can still make sense if it is obvious from context whom you mean. But if you specifically want to say you, keep ci.

Polish often omits things that context already makes clear, but in a polite sentence like this, including ci is very natural.

Yes, chcę is one of those forms that looks harder than it really is.

A rough guide:

• ch in Polish sounds like a hard h-like sound
• c sounds like ts
• ę is a nasal vowel, though at the end of a word many speakers pronounce it more simply, often somewhat like e with nasal coloring or as em/en-like depending on speech style

So chcę is approximately:

• h-tsen / hts-eh(n)

Do not worry if your nasal vowel is not perfect at first. What matters most is recognizing and producing the form consistently.

Also, Polish stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable. Since chcę is one syllable, there is no stress problem here.

A very useful pattern is:

• Nie chcę + [dative pronoun/noun] + [infinitive]

In this sentence:

• Nie chcę = I don’t want
• ci = to you
• przeszkadzać = to bother / disturb

So the structure is:

• I don’t want + to bother + you

You can build many similar sentences this way:

• Nie chcę cię martwić. = I don’t want to worry you.
• Nie chcę mu przeszkadzać. = I don’t want to bother him.
• Nie chcę wam przeszkadzać. = I don’t want to bother you all.

This makes the sentence a very useful model to remember.