Impersonal Sensory Predicates
In Polish, when you want to describe something you can see, hear, or smell as a general observation—such as "you can see the sky" or "smoke can be smelled"—you do not use a standard subject pronoun like "ja" or "ty". Instead, you use special impersonal predicates: widać, słychać, and czuć.
These words are invariable (they never change their endings) and they are followed by the Accusative case for the thing being seen, heard, or smelled.
Widać (can be seen)
Use widać to express that something is visible.
You can also use it with pronouns and location words to point things out in nature.
Słychać (can be heard)
Use słychać to express that a sound is audible. Notice how feminine nouns like rzeka (river) take their standard Accusative -ę ending.
When you use these predicates in the negative (to say something cannot be seen or heard), remember to add the negative particle nie, and any object will automatically switch to the Genitive case according to standard Polish negation rules.
Czuć (can be felt / smelled)
While czuć can mean "to feel" in general, in an impersonal sentence it is very frequently used to describe what can be smelled in the air.
