Nie ma sensu się spieszyć, jeśli spotkanie zaczyna się dopiero za godzinę.

Literally, Nie ma sensu means There is no sense. In natural English, that becomes There’s no point or It doesn’t make sense.

In this sentence, Nie ma sensu się spieszyć means There’s no point in hurrying.

This is a very common Polish pattern:

• Nie ma sensu czekać. — There’s no point in waiting.
• Nie ma sensu kłamać. — There’s no point in lying.

So nie ma sensu + infinitive is a useful structure to learn as a whole.

Because after nie ma (there is not / there isn’t), Polish normally uses the genitive case.

So:

• nominative: sens
• genitive: sensu

That is why we say:

• Jest sens. — There is a point/sense.
• Nie ma sensu. — There is no point/sense.

This is a very common grammar rule in Polish: negated to have / there is structures often require the genitive.

Because spieszyć się is the normal Polish verb meaning to hurry.

The basic dictionary form is:

• spieszyć się — to hurry

So in the sentence:

• Nie ma sensu się spieszyć = There’s no point in hurrying

The się is part of the verb. You should learn it together with the verb, not as something optional.

Compare:

• Spieszę się. — I’m in a hurry / I’m hurrying.
• Nie spiesz się. — Don’t hurry.

Polish się is quite mobile. It often comes after the conjugated verb, but with infinitives it can also appear before the infinitive.

So both of these are normal patterns:

• zaczyna się — it starts
• się spieszyć — to hurry

In your sentence:

• Nie ma sensu się spieszyć
• spotkanie zaczyna się dopiero za godzinę

The placement is natural and idiomatic. As a learner, the safest approach is to learn common chunks:

• spieszyć się
• zaczynać się

Here jeśli means if and introduces a real condition:

• jeśli spotkanie zaczyna się dopiero za godzinę
  = if the meeting only starts in an hour

Other words are different:

• gdyby = if in hypothetical/unreal situations
  
  • Gdyby spotkanie zaczynało się wcześniej... — If the meeting started earlier...
• kiedy = when
• jak can sometimes mean when in colloquial Polish, but not as the standard choice here

So jeśli is the correct and neutral word for this sentence.

Polish often uses the present tense to talk about scheduled future events, just like English does in sentences such as The meeting starts at 5.

So:

• Spotkanie zaczyna się za godzinę. — The meeting starts in an hour.

This sounds natural because it refers to a planned event.

Using a future form like będzie się zaczynać would sound unusual here and would often suggest an ongoing process rather than a simple scheduled start.

Here dopiero means only, not until, or as late as, depending on the context.

So:

• zaczyna się dopiero za godzinę
  = it only starts in an hour = it doesn’t start until an hour from now

It adds the idea that the meeting is still relatively far away, which explains why there is no point in hurrying.

Compare:

• Spotkanie zaczyna się za godzinę. — The meeting starts in an hour.
• Spotkanie zaczyna się dopiero za godzinę. — The meeting only starts in an hour / not until an hour from now.

Za godzinę means in an hour — that is, one hour from now.

This is a very common time expression in Polish:

• za minutę — in a minute
• za tydzień — in a week
• za miesiąc — in a month

So:

• Spotkanie zaczyna się za godzinę. — The meeting starts in an hour.

Do not confuse it with:

• przez godzinę — for an hour
• o godzinie piątej — at five o’clock

Because after za in this time meaning (in ... time), Polish uses the accusative case.

The noun is:

• nominative: godzina
• accusative: godzinę

So:

• za godzinę — in an hour

More examples:

• za minutę
• za dobę
• za chwilę

But with some masculine or plural nouns, the form may look different:

• za tydzień
• za dwa dni

Spieszyć się is imperfective. It refers to the action in a general or ongoing way: to hurry.

That works well after Nie ma sensu... because Polish often uses the imperfective infinitive in general statements:

• Nie ma sensu się spieszyć. — There’s no point in hurrying.

You may also hear pośpieszyć się, which is perfective and means something like to hurry up / to do it quickly to completion. In this sentence, spieszyć się is the more natural, neutral choice.

So for learners, spieszyć się is the form to remember first.

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

The original sentence is very natural:

• Nie ma sensu się spieszyć, jeśli spotkanie zaczyna się dopiero za godzinę.

You could also say:

• Jeśli spotkanie zaczyna się dopiero za godzinę, nie ma sensu się spieszyć.

This puts the if-clause first and is also completely natural.

Polish word order often changes for emphasis or style, but the original version is a very standard, neutral sentence.

Yes. Spotkanie can mean:

• meeting — in a general sense
• gathering
• appointment
• sometimes date, depending on context

In your sentence, the meaning is probably meeting, but the Polish word itself is broader than English meeting.

Examples:

• Mam spotkanie z klientem. — I have a meeting with a client.
• To było miłe spotkanie. — That was a nice meeting/get-together.
• Idę na spotkanie z nią. — I’m going to meet her / I’m going on a date with her.
  (context decides)

A native speaker would usually stress the part that carries the important new information, especially dopiero za godzinę.

So the rhythm might feel like this:

• Nie ma sensu się spieszyć, jeśli spotkanie zaczyna się dopiero za godzinę.

The key idea is: there is no need to hurry because the meeting isn’t starting soon.

If you wanted to emphasize the reason more strongly, you could stress:

• dopiero
• za godzinę

That gives the sense of only in an hour, not yet, still plenty of time.