Proszę pana, czy może mi pan powiedzieć, dokąd jedzie ten tramwaj i którędy dojść stamtąd do rynku?

Proszę pana is a very common polite way to get a man's attention, similar to Excuse me, sir.

A learner often expects a direct address form like panie, but here proszę pana is a fixed expression. Grammatically, pana is the object of proszę. So it is not just the noun pan by itself; it is part of the whole phrase proszę pana.

If you simply called out Panie!, that would sound more like Sir!. In everyday polite interaction, Proszę pana is much more natural.

This is how polite address works in Polish.

When speaking politely to one man, Polish often uses pan plus a third-person singular verb:

• Czy może pan...
• Czy wie pan...
• Czy ma pan...

So czy może mi pan powiedzieć literally looks like can sir tell me, but in natural English it means can/could you tell me.

The two forms of pan have different jobs here:

• Proszę pana = attention-getter
• pan in czy może mi pan powiedzieć = the grammatical subject of the clause

That is why you do not get możesz here. Możesz would be informal you can, used with ty.

Czy introduces a yes/no question.

The main question here is not really where does the tram go? The main question is:

Could you tell me ... ?

That is why czy appears before może mi pan powiedzieć.

Without czy, the sentence could still work in speech if the intonation made it clear, but czy makes the question explicit and sounds neat and polite.

Mi and mnie both can mean to me, but they are used differently.

Here, mi is the normal short, unstressed form:

• czy może mi pan powiedzieć

Mnie is usually used:

• for emphasis
• for contrast
• after prepositions

So here mi is the natural neutral choice.

Because dokąd asks about a destination: where to?

The tram is moving, so the question is about where it is going:

• dokąd jedzie ten tramwaj = where is this tram going? / where does this tram go?

Compare:

• gdzie = where? in the sense of location
• dokąd = where to?
• skąd = where from?

In casual speech, many Poles might say Gdzie jedzie ten tramwaj?, but dokąd is more precise and more standard here.

Because a tram travels by vehicle, and Polish makes that distinction very clearly.

• jechać = to go/travel by vehicle
• iść = to go on foot

So:

• tramwaj jedzie
• autobus jedzie
• samochód jedzie
• człowiek idzie if the person is walking

This is one of the most important motion-verb differences in Polish.

Którędy means which way, by which route, or through where.

It asks about the path, not just the destination.

So:

• dokąd = where to?
• którędy = by which way?

In this sentence:

• którędy dojść stamtąd do rynku = which way to get from there to the market square

A similar, more general question would be jak dojść... = how to get...
But którędy is more specific: it focuses on the route.

Polish often uses question word + infinitive in places where English uses how to..., where to..., or how I can....

So:

• którędy dojść do rynku literally = which way to get to the market square

This is very natural after powiedzieć:

• czy może mi pan powiedzieć, którędy dojść...

You could expand the idea in other ways, for example:

• którędy mam dojść... = which way am I supposed to go...
• którędy można dojść... = which way can one get...

Also, dojść is perfective, which fits the idea of reaching a destination.

Stamtąd means from there.

Here it refers back to the place the tram goes to:

• dokąd jedzie ten tramwaj = where the tram goes
• stamtąd = from that place

So the speaker is asking two things:

1. where the tram goes
2. how to walk from that place to the market square

Because dojść do is a very common pattern meaning to get to / reach a place.

So:

• dojść do rynku
• dojść do domu
• dojść do przystanku

After do, rynek changes form:

• rynek → rynku

That is the genitive singular.

So do rynku means to the market square.

In this kind of sentence, rynek usually means the main market square or town square, not just a place where people buy vegetables.

In many Polish towns and cities, rynek refers to the central square, often a major landmark. So in travel or direction questions, do rynku usually means to the town square / main square.

Yes, na rynek is also possible in Polish, but the choice depends on the verb and the nuance.

• iść na rynek = go to the market square / go onto the square
• jechać na rynek = go to the square by vehicle
• dojść do rynku = get to the square, reach it

With dojść, do rynku is very natural and idiomatic. It emphasizes arriving at the place.

No, Polish word order is more flexible than English word order.

For example, these are both possible:

• Czy może mi pan powiedzieć...
• Czy może pan mi powiedzieć...

The version in your sentence sounds natural and polite. Short pronouns like mi often appear early in the sentence.

So the word order is flexible, but not random: some orders sound more natural or more neutral than others.

You can divide it into three main parts:

1. Proszę pana
   = polite attention-getter

2. czy może mi pan powiedzieć
   = polite main request: could you tell me

3. Two linked indirect questions:

   • dokąd jedzie ten tramwaj
   • i którędy dojść stamtąd do rynku

So the sentence is basically:

Excuse me, sir, could you tell me

• where this tram goes
• and which way to get from there to the market square?

Breaking it up like that makes it much easier to read.