Nasze mieszkanie ma mały ogród, w którym rośnie mięta.

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Questions & Answers about Nasze mieszkanie ma mały ogród, w którym rośnie mięta.

Why is nasze used instead of nasz?

Possessive adjectives in Polish agree with the noun’s gender, number, and case.

  • mieszkanie is neuter singular.
  • The neuter form of nasz is nasze.
    If the noun were masculine you’d say nasz dom, if feminine nasza kawa, etc.
Why do we say ma instead of jest?

Polish expresses possession with the verb mieć (“to have”).

  • Nasze mieszkanie ma ogród literally means “Our apartment has a garden.”
    Using jest would force a different construction with the instrumental case—e.g. Nasze mieszkanie jest z małym ogrodem—which is grammatical but far less idiomatic.
Why does ogród remain unchanged after ma? Shouldn’t it change case?

The verb mieć takes a direct object in the accusative case.

  • For masculine inanimate nouns like ogród, the accusative form is identical to the nominative: ogród.
    Thus you keep the same form even though it’s the object of the verb.
Why is the adjective mały used, and why not małe or mała?

Adjectives must match the noun in gender, number, and case.

  • ogród is masculine singular (and here in the accusative, which looks like nominative).
  • The correct nominative/accusative masculine singular ending is -y (or -i after certain consonants).
    Hence mały ogród.
What does w którym mean, and why is który in that form?

w którym translates as “in which.”

  • który is the relative pronoun “which/that.”
  • After the preposition w (“in”), Polish uses the locative case.
  • The masculine singular locative of który is którym.
Can I use gdzie instead of w którym?

Yes, especially in speech you might hear:
“Nasze mieszkanie ma mały ogród, gdzie rośnie mięta.”
Difference:

  • gdzie = “where,” a general adverb.
  • w którym = “in which,” a precise relative clause tied back to ogród.
Why is the verb rośnie used here, and what nuance does it carry?

rośnie is the 3rd person singular present of rosnąć (“to grow,” imperfective).

  • It indicates an ongoing or habitual process: the mint is growing (or grows) there.
  • It agrees with a singular subject (mięta).
Why is mięta in the nominative case after rośnie, not another case?

In Polish, the subject of an intransitive verb is in the nominative.

  • Rosnąć has no direct object here; mięta is the subject performing the action, so it stays nominative.
How do you pronounce the nasal vowel ę in mięta, and where is the stress?
  • The letter ę in mię- is a nasalized e, similar to the French nasal in “un.”
  • Approximate phonetic: /mjɛ̃.ta/.
  • Polish stress almost always falls on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable.
    Here “mię-ta” has two syllables, so you stress mię.