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Questions & Answers about Mój pies jest mniejszy od kota.
Why is mój used instead of moja or moje?
Mój is the masculine singular nominative form of the possessive pronoun “my.” It must agree with the noun it modifies. Pies (dog) is masculine, so you use mój rather than the feminine moja or the neuter moje.
How is the comparative mniejszy formed?
- The adjective mały (small) undergoes an irregular stem change to become mniejszy (smaller).
- Many Polish adjectives form the comparative by adding -szy, -ejszy, or -czy to the root, sometimes with a stem change (e.g. dobry → lepszy, słaby → słabszy).
- As an adjective, mniejszy then agrees in gender, number, and case with its noun (mniejszy pies, mniejsza filiżanka, etc.).
Why is od used after mniejszy instead of another preposition?
In Polish comparatives, the common pattern is mniejszy od + genitive.
- od is the preposition for “than” in these constructions.
- You may also see niż
- nominative (e.g. mniejszy niż kot), but od + genitive is very frequent in everyday speech.
Why is kota in the genitive case?
Because od requires its object to be in the genitive case.
- The nominative singular of “cat” is kot, and its genitive singular is kota.
- So od kota literally means “than the cat” in this comparative structure.
Can we omit jest in this sentence, like some languages drop “to be” in the present tense?
No. In Polish, the copula jest (3rd person singular of być) is required in present-tense equational or comparative sentences.
- You cannot say Mój pies mniejszy od kota.
- The correct form is Mój pies jest mniejszy od kota.
How would you turn this into a question: “Is my dog smaller than the cat?”
Add the question particle czy at the beginning:
Czy mój pies jest mniejszy od kota?
In casual speech you can also rely on rising intonation and say simply: Mój pies jest mniejszy od kota?
Can I use niż instead of od in this sentence?
Yes. You can say Mój pies jest mniejszy niż kot.
- When using niż, follow it with the nominative (kot).
- Both od + genitive and niż + nominative are correct; od
- genitive tends to be more common in spoken Polish.
How do I pronounce pies and mniejszy?
- pies: sounds like pyes (phonetic: [pʲɛs]).
- mniejszy: sounds roughly like MN-yeh-shih (phonetic: [ˈmɲɛʂɨ]).
Focus on blending the m and n at the start of mniejszy, then pronounce -sz- as in English “sh.”