Breakdown of To miły gest i wszyscy uśmiechają się, bo jesteśmy szczęśliwi.
być
to be
miły
kind
to
this
i
and
Questions & Answers about To miły gest i wszyscy uśmiechają się, bo jesteśmy szczęśliwi.
What is the function of to in To miły gest?
In this sentence, to is a demonstrative pronoun meaning “this/that” and it also plays the role of the copula (“is”). So To miły gest literally means “This (is) a nice gesture.” Polish often omits the verb jest after to, because to itself carries the “is” meaning.
Why is jest omitted between to and miły?
In Polish you can drop jest in a simple nominal sentence with to. The structure to + noun/adjective already conveys “this is + noun/adjective,” so adding jest would be redundant.
Why is gest in the nominative case?
Because gest is the predicate noun (a subject complement) in a clause built with to, and in Polish both the subject (here to) and its complement take the nominative case.
What does the conjunction i do here, and could we use a instead?