Czytelnia jest cicha.

Czytelnia means reading room: a quiet room, often in a library or archive, where people sit and read or study.

It does not usually mean the whole library.
For library, Polish normally uses biblioteka.

Jest means is.

So:

• Czytelnia = reading room
• jest = is
• cicha = quiet

Together: The reading room is quiet.

Unlike Russian, Polish often uses the verb być (to be) in the present tense in normal, careful sentences like this.

Usually, for a standard neutral sentence, you should say:

• Czytelnia jest cicha.

Leaving out jest can happen in headlines, notes, very informal speech, or stylized language, but it is not the safest default for learners.

So if you want to sound natural and correct in ordinary Polish, keep jest.

Because czytelnia is a feminine noun, and the adjective must agree with it.

Polish adjectives change to match the noun’s:

• gender
• number
• case

Here:

• czytelnia is feminine singular
• so quiet becomes cicha

Compare:

• cichy pokój = a quiet room (masculine)
• cicha czytelnia = a quiet reading room (feminine)
• ciche miejsce = a quiet place (neuter)

A very common clue is the ending -a.

Many Polish nouns ending in -a are feminine, including czytelnia.

That is why the adjective also takes a feminine form:

• czytelnia jest cicha

Be aware that there are exceptions in Polish, but -a = often feminine is a very useful beginner rule.

It is an adjective.

It describes the noun czytelnia:

• cicha czytelnia = a quiet reading room
• czytelnia jest cicha = the reading room is quiet

If you wanted the adverb quietly, Polish would use a different form:

• cicho

Example:

• Tu jest cicho. = It is quiet here.
• Mówi cicho. = He/She speaks quietly.

It is in the nominative case.

This is because czytelnia is the subject of the sentence:

• Czytelnia = the reading room
• jest cicha = is quiet

The nominative is the normal case for the subject of a sentence.

Polish does not have articles like a/an and the.

So Czytelnia jest cicha can mean:

• The reading room is quiet
• or, depending on context, A reading room is quiet

In real use, context tells you which meaning is intended. In a simple sentence like this, English often translates it as The reading room is quiet.

Yes. Polish word order is more flexible than English, although not completely free.

The neutral order here is:

• Czytelnia jest cicha.

You may also hear:

• Cicha jest czytelnia.
• Jest cicha czytelnia. (much less neutral)

Different word orders can add emphasis or sound more literary, but for learners, the best default is:

• Czytelnia jest cicha.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• chi-tel-nya

More carefully:

• czy sounds roughly like chi in English, but with a Polish sound that is a bit different from normal English ch
• tel sounds close to tel
• nia sounds like nya

And cicha is roughly:

• TSEE-ha

So the whole sentence is approximately:

• chi-TEL-nya yest TSEE-ha

This is only an approximation, but it can help you get started.

It can describe both, but the meaning changes slightly depending on context.

For a place:

• cicha czytelnia = a quiet reading room

For a person:

• cicha dziewczyna = a quiet girl

So cichy / cicha / ciche can describe someone or something that is quiet, silent, not noisy.

The dictionary form is usually the masculine singular nominative:

• cichy = quiet

From that base form, Polish changes the ending:

• cichy = masculine
• cicha = feminine
• ciche = neuter

So if you look up cicha in a dictionary, you will usually find it under cichy.

Yes, but it is not exactly the same.

• cicha = quiet, not noisy
• spokojna = calm, peaceful

For a reading room, cicha is the most direct and natural choice if you mean there is little noise.

Spokojna is possible, but it feels more like calm or peaceful than simply quiet.