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Questions & Answers about To jest taki duży dom.
What does taki mean in this sentence and why is it used here?
Taki is a demonstrative determiner meaning “such” (or in some contexts “that kind of”). Here it qualifies duży dom (“big house”) by emphasizing the quality: “such a big house.” It agrees in gender, number and case with the noun it modifies (masculine, singular, nominative).
How is taki duży different from bardzo duży?
Bardzo duży simply means “very big,” focusing on degree of size. Taki duży means “such a big …” (or “so big a …”) and often carries an implication of surprise or comparison to something else: “I didn’t expect such a big house.”
Why is duży in this form (masculine singular)?
Because duży is an adjective modifying dom, which is masculine singular. In the nominative case (the default for subjects and predicate nominatives after “to jest”), the adjective takes the masculine singular nominative form duży.
Why is dom in the nominative case here?
In the construction To jest X, X is a predicate nominative. Polish uses the nominative after the verb jest (“is”), so dom remains in the nominative singular form.
What exactly is To jest? Can it be replaced by something else?
To is a neutral demonstrative pronoun (“this” or “it”) and jest is the third-person singular of być (“to be”). Together To jest means “This is” or “It is.” You could also say Ten dom jest taki duży (“This house is so big”), where ten dom (“this house”) replaces to jest + dom, but the nuance shifts from a neutral “here is an example” to specifically “this particular house.”
Could I swap the word order to Ten dom jest taki duży? Would the meaning change?
Yes, that is perfectly correct. Ten dom jest taki duży means “This house is so big.” The main difference is that ten dom pinpoints a specific house (“this house”), whereas To jest taki duży dom has a slightly more demonstrative or illustrative flavor (“This is such a big house”).
How do I pronounce taki duży dom?
A rough phonetic: [TAH-kee DOO-zhih DOM].
• ta- (like “ta” in “taco”)
• ki (like “key”)
• du- (like “doo”)
• ży (like “zhi,” with the “zh” as in “measure”)
• dom (rhymes with “Tom,” but with a shorter “o”).
Stress in Polish almost always falls on the penultimate syllable, so on TAH-ki, DOO-zhih, DOM is one syllable.
When would I use tak instead of taki?
Tak is an adverb meaning “so” or “thus.” You would say tak duży if you just want “so big” without immediately naming a noun: e.g. Ten dom jest tak duży (“That house is so big”). Taki is a determiner you place directly before a noun: taki dom (“such a house”).