Questions & Answers about W styczniu i w lutym jest bardzo zimny wiatr.
Why does the word for January (styczeń) change to styczniu here?
To say 'in' a month, Polish uses the word w (in) plus the Locative case. For styczeń, we add the ending -iu. Notice that the letter e in the base word drops out, making it styczniu.
Why does luty (February) change to lutym instead of ending in -iu like January?
Luty is unique among Polish months because it is grammatically an adjective, not a noun! Because it acts like a masculine adjective, it takes the standard adjective ending -ym in the Locative case after the word w.
The English translation says 'there is', but the Polish sentence just uses jest (is). How does that work?
Polish doesn't have a separate phrase for 'there is' or 'there are'. You just use the verb być (to be). So, jest bardzo zimny wiatr literally translates to 'is a very cold wind', which means 'there is a very cold wind' in English.
Why is wiatr (wind) in its base form instead of taking a special ending?
Wiatr is the subject of the sentence (it is the thing that 'is' there), so it stays in the basic Nominative case. The adjective zimny (cold) matches it with the basic masculine ending -y.