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Questions & Answers about Ten większy telefon kosztuje więcej pieniędzy.
Why do we use ten before większy telefon instead of just saying większy telefon?
Ten is a demonstrative adjective (“this/that”) that points to a specific phone among others. In Polish you can say większy telefon (“a bigger phone”) in general, but when you want to single out one particular device—“that bigger phone”—you add ten, which agrees in gender, number, and case (masculine singular nominative) with telefon.
Why is większy used here instead of bardziej duży for “bigger”?
Polish comparatives of one-syllable or two-syllable adjectives (like duży) are usually formed by adding -szy/-niejszy (here duży → większy). You only use bardziej (“more”) with adjectives that don’t have a simple comparative suffix (e.g. bardziej interesujący, not interesującyszy). So większy is the correct built-in comparative of duży.
Why is pieniędzy in the genitive plural and not in the nominative or accusative?
After words expressing quantity like więcej (“more”) Polish uses the genitive case. Since pieniądze (“money”) is always plural, its genitive form is pieniędzy. In effect, więcej pieniędzy literally means “more of (the) money.”
What’s the difference between więcej and bardziej when making comparisons?
Use więcej for countable or uncountable nouns (“more money,” “more books,” “more water”). Use bardziej only with adjectives or adverbs that don’t form comparatives by suffixing -szy/-niejszy (“more interesting” → bardziej interesujący, not interesującyszy).
Why is the verb kosztuje used here, and how is it formed?
Kosztuje is the 3rd person singular present tense form of kosztować (“to cost”). You conjugate it according to the subject (telefon is singular), so on kosztuje = “it (the phone) costs.”
Could I say Ten większy telefon jest droższy instead of kosztuje więcej pieniędzy?
Yes, Ten większy telefon jest droższy (“That bigger phone is more expensive”) is perfectly natural. It uses the adjective droższy (“more expensive”). Saying kosztuje więcej pieniędzy (“costs more money”) places the emphasis on the action of costing rather than on the property “more expensive.” Both convey essentially the same idea.
Can I omit pieniędzy and just say Ten większy telefon kosztuje więcej?
Yes. In spoken or informal Polish you often drop the noun if the context is clear. Ten większy telefon kosztuje więcej is understood as “That bigger phone costs more,” with więcej implicitly referring to money.
Is the word order flexible? Could I say Więcej pieniędzy kosztuje ten większy telefon?
Polish has relatively free word order for emphasis, but the neutral, most natural order is [Subject] [Verb] [Object]: Ten większy telefon kosztuje więcej pieniędzy. If you start with Więcej pieniędzy, you’re foregrounding “more money,” which can sound odd or poetic in this simple statement. It’s grammatically possible, but not typical in everyday speech.