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Breakdown of Mój zegarek jest mniejszy, ale lepszy od starego.
być
to be
mój
my
ale
but
zegarek
the watch
mniejszy
smaller
lepszy
better
od
than
stary
old
Questions & Answers about Mój zegarek jest mniejszy, ale lepszy od starego.
How do you form the comparative of adjectives like mały and dobry in Polish?
Adjectives in Polish have regular and irregular comparatives.
- Regular: you typically add -szy or -iejszy (depending on the adjective’s ending).
• cichy → cichszy
• prosty → prostszy - Irregular: some change their root vowel and get a special suffix.
• mały → mniejszy
• dobry → lepszy
Can you say bardziej mały or bardziej dobry instead of mniejszy and lepszy?
Grammatically you can combine bardziej (“more”) with many adjectives, but when an adjective has its own comparative form, that form is preferred.
- Correct: mniejszy (not bardziej mały)
- Correct: lepszy (not bardziej dobry)
Use bardziej only with adjectives that don’t have a well-established irregular comparative: e.g. bardziej interesujący (“more interesting”).
Why is there od before starego instead of niż to express “than the old one”?
Polish offers two ways to introduce the second element in a comparison:
- niż
- nominative (e.g. lepszy niż stary zegarek)
- od
- genitive (e.g. lepszy od starego zegarka)
With lepszy and some other comparatives (gorszy, młodszy etc.), using od+genitive is often more idiomatic.
- genitive (e.g. lepszy od starego zegarka)
Which case do you use after od and after niż?
- After od you always use the genitive case.
- After niż you use the nominative case.
In our sentence od starego is genitive singular (“of the old [watch]”).
Why is there a comma before ale and why isn’t jest repeated?
- Ale is a coordinating conjunction (“but”) joining two contrasting predicates, so you place a comma before it.
- Polish often omits the second occurrence of jest when it’s clear from context. So instead of …jest mniejszy, ale jest lepszy…, we simply write …jest mniejszy, ale lepszy….
Why is starego used alone—why not repeat zegarek?
Once zegarek (“watch”) appears, you can refer back to it with the adjective stary in the appropriate case. The full idea is od starego (zegarka), but the noun is omitted to avoid redundancy.
Why is the possessive pronoun mój spelled with ó?
Mój (“my”) always has the letter ó (pronounced like [u]). Writing moj would be a spelling mistake in standard Polish.
Why do mniejszy and lepszy end in -y here?
They agree with zegarek, which is masculine singular nominative. In other genders or numbers the endings change:
- Feminine: mniejsza, lepsza
- Neuter: mniejsze, lepsze
Could I reverse the clauses to say Mój zegarek jest lepszy od starego, ale mniejszy?
Yes, you can swap them: Mój zegarek jest lepszy od starego, ale mniejszy. You still keep the comma before ale and the same comparative forms.
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