Breakdown of Dlaczego w kuchni śmierdzi niepokojąco?
w
in / on (a day)
dlaczego
why
kuchnia
kitchen
śmierdzieć
to stink
niepokojąco
disturbingly
Questions & Answers about Dlaczego w kuchni śmierdzi niepokojąco?
Why do we use the adverb niepokojąco (disturbingly) instead of an adjective like niepokojący (disturbing)?
This is the golden rule for sensory verbs in Polish! Verbs that describe how something looks, sounds, or smells, such as wyglądać, brzmieć, pachnieć, and śmierdzieć, must be modified by an adverb. While English uses an adjective to say 'it smells disturbing', Polish literally says 'it stinks disturbingly'.
What is the subject of the verb śmierdzi here?
There is no subject, as this is an impersonal construction. Just like we say 'it rains' in English, Polish uses the third-person singular śmierdzi to mean 'there is a bad smell' or 'it stinks' in the general environment, without using a pronoun like to or ono.
Could we use pachnie instead of śmierdzi to translate the word 'smell'?
Not in this context. Pachnieć specifically means to smell nice or be fragrant. If something smells bad or disturbing, you have to use śmierdzieć (to stink). Polish lacks a common, truly neutral verb for emitting an odor, so you usually have to pick between good and bad.
Earlier we learned that smelling verbs take the instrumental case. Why is kuchni in the locative case?
The phrase w kuchni simply tells us where the smell is located, requiring the preposition w followed by the locative case. You only use the bare instrumental case with these verbs to state what the specific source of the scent is, for example: śmierdzi dymem (it smells of smoke).
Learn Dlaczego w kuchni śmierdzi niepokojąco and more in Polish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free