Podszewka jest czysta.

to be

Breakdown of Podszewka jest czysta.

• czysty: clean
• podszewka: a garment lining

Questions & Answers about Podszewka jest czysta.

Why does czysta end in -a instead of -y or -e?

Because czysta has to agree with podszewka in gender, number, and case.

• podszewka is feminine singular
• the sentence is in the nominative
• so the adjective also takes the feminine singular nominative form: czysta

Compare:

• czysty = masculine
• czysta = feminine
• czyste = neuter

So Podszewka jest czysta is grammatically matched.

How do I know that podszewka is feminine?

A very common clue in Polish is the ending -a. Most nouns ending in -a are feminine, and podszewka is one of them.

Because it is feminine, any adjective describing it must also be feminine:

• czysta podszewka
• Podszewka jest czysta

As always, there are some exceptions in Polish, but in this case the -a ending really does signal a feminine noun.

What exactly is jest here?