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Questions & Answers about W nocy śpię.
Why does w mean 'at' here? I thought it meant 'in'.
You are right that w usually means 'in' (like w domu - in the house). However, when talking about time, Polish uses w with certain words where English uses 'at'. For the night, Polish literally says 'in the night' (w nocy), which we translate naturally as 'at night'.
Why is the word for night nocy and not just noc?
After the preposition w (when talking about when or where something happens), Polish nouns change their endings. This is called the Locative case. The basic dictionary word is noc, but it changes its ending to become nocy here.
Where is the word for 'I' in this sentence?
In Polish, you usually drop the word ja (I) because the verb ending already tells you who is doing the action. The -ę ending on śpię makes it completely clear that 'I' am the one sleeping. Adding ja would sound unnatural unless you wanted to strongly emphasize it.
What is the dictionary form of śpię? It looks very different!
The dictionary form (infinitive) is spać (to sleep). This is a slightly tricky verb because the stem changes when you conjugate it. The letter 'a' disappears and the word softens when conjugated for 'I' (śpię) and 'you' (śpisz).