Learn Hardcore Polish: Twój kot jest duży.

In Polish, possessive pronouns like Twój (meaning your) are typically written in lowercase unless they begin a sentence. Here, Twój is at the beginning, so it’s capitalized as any sentence-initial word would be.

Why do we say Twój instead of Twoja or Twoje?

In Polish, possessive pronouns agree in gender and number with the noun. Kot (cat) is masculine singular in Polish, so we use the masculine singular form Twój. For a feminine noun (e.g., kawa) you would use Twoja, and for a neuter noun (e.g., dziecko) you would use Twoje.

How can I distinguish masculine nouns like kot?

Many masculine nouns in Polish don’t end with the letter -a, and often end with a consonant (like kot). However, there are exceptions. Generally, the gender of a noun is learned together with the noun itself, but these patterns give you a useful hint.

Why does the sentence have jest right after kot?

In Polish, jest is usually placed after the subject (in this case, kot). It’s a standard way to form the sentence [Subject] + jest + [Adjective/Noun]. You could sometimes find different word orders for emphasis or stylistic reasons, but the most neutral one is: Twój kot jest duży.

Why is duży used and not duża or duże?

Similarly to possessive pronouns, adjectives in Polish must agree with the gender (and number, and case) of the noun they describe. Since kot is masculine singular, the adjective must also be in the masculine singular form: duży.