Wczorajszy film był smutny, ale ciekawy.

Yesterday's movie was sad but interesting.

Breakdown of Wczorajszy film był smutny, ale ciekawy.

• być: to be
• ale: but
• film: the movie
• smutny: sad
• ciekawy: interesting
• wczorajszy: yesterday’s

Questions & Answers about Wczorajszy film był smutny, ale ciekawy.

What exactly does wczorajszy mean, and how is it different from wczoraj?

Wczoraj means yesterday and is an adverb of time.

Wczorajszy is an adjective built from wczoraj. It means yesterday’s / the one from yesterday. So:

• wczoraj = yesterday (when?)
• wczorajszy = yesterday’s (which one? from yesterday)

In the sentence:

• Wczorajszy film = the film from yesterday / yesterday’s film

You use wczorajszy directly before a noun, just like English yesterday’s or last night’s:

• wczorajszy mecz – yesterday’s match
• wczorajsza lekcja – yesterday’s lesson
• wczorajsze spotkanie – yesterday’s meeting

Why is it wczorajszy film and not something like film wczoraj?

Wczorajszy film uses an adjective (wczorajszy) to specify which film you’re talking about: the one from yesterday.

If you say film wczoraj, you’re mixing structures:

• film wczoraj – literally “film yesterday”, which is not a correct noun phrase in Polish.

To talk about the time of watching, you could say:

• Wczoraj film był smutny… – Yesterday the film was sad…
• Wczoraj oglądałem ten film. – I watched that film yesterday.

But to say yesterday’s film, you normally use the adjective:

• wczorajszy film – yesterday’s film, the film from yesterday

What grammatical form is wczorajszy here (gender, number, case), and why?

In Wczorajszy film był smutny, ale ciekawy, the word wczorajszy is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative case

It has that form because it must agree with film, which is:

• film – masculine singular noun, nominative (it’s the subject of the sentence)

In Polish, adjectives agree with the noun in:

• gender (masculine/feminine/neuter)
• number (singular/plural)
• case (nominative/accusative/genitive, etc.)

So for different nouns you’d change the adjective:

• wczorajszy film był smutny – yesterday’s film was sad (masc.)
• wczorajsza książka była smutna – yesterday’s book was sad (fem.)
• wczorajsze spotkanie było smutne – yesterday’s meeting was sad (neut.)

What does był mean exactly, and why this form?

Był is the past tense, 3rd person singular masculine form of być (to be).

So był corresponds to “was” (for a masculine subject):

• On był smutny. – He was sad.
• Film był smutny. – The film was sad.

In the past tense, Polish verbs change for gender in the 3rd person singular:

• on był – he was (masc.)
• ona była – she was (fem.)
• ono / to było – it was (neut.)
• oni byli – they were (masc. personal plural)
• one były – they were (non‑masc. personal plural)

So with film (masculine), you must use był:

• Wczorajszy film był smutny… – Yesterday’s film was sad…

Can I drop był and just say Wczorajszy film smutny, ale ciekawy?

No, not in standard Polish. You need the verb był.

In some languages, you can say something like “Yesterday’s film sad, but interesting” and drop “was”. In Polish this sounds incomplete or telegraphic.

Natural Polish needs the verb:

• Wczorajszy film był smutny, ale ciekawy. ✅

Without był, it sounds like a note or a headline, not a normal sentence:

• Wczorajszy film smutny, ale ciekawy. ❌ (only acceptable in very informal note-taking or a title, not neutral speech)

Why is there a comma before ale?

In Polish, you almost always put a comma before ale when it links two parts that are contrasted.

Here, ale connects two predicates about the same subject:

• (był) smutny – (was) sad
• (był) ciekawy – (was) interesting

So the correct punctuation is:

• Wczorajszy film był smutny, ale ciekawy. ✅

Writing it without the comma is considered incorrect in standard Polish:

• Wczorajszy film był smutny ale ciekawy. ❌

Why is it smutny and ciekawy, not smutno and ciekawie?

Smutny and ciekawy are adjectives; smutno and ciekawie are adverbs.

Here we are describing a noun (film), so we need adjectives:

• smutny film – a sad film
• ciekawy film – an interesting film
• Film był smutny, ale ciekawy. – The film was sad but interesting.

Adverbs like smutno, ciekawie usually describe verbs (how something is done) or sometimes entire situations:

• Było mi smutno. – I felt sad. (literally: It was sad for me.)
• Opowiadał ciekawie. – He was telling it in an interesting way.

So in this sentence, because we describe film, adjectives (smutny, ciekawy) are required.

Why do smutny and ciekawy end in -y here?

They end in -y because they agree with film, which is masculine singular nominative.

So both adjectives are:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative case

They match film:

• (ten) film – this film
• smutny film – sad film
• ciekawy film – interesting film

If the noun changed, the endings would also change. For example:

• wczorajsza książka była smutna, ale ciekawa. (feminine)
• wczorajsze opowiadanie było smutne, ale ciekawe. (neuter)
• wczorajsze filmy były smutne, ale ciekawe. (plural)

Can I change the order and say ciekawy, ale smutny instead?

Yes, you can say:

• Wczorajszy film był ciekawy, ale smutny.

Grammatically it’s fine. The difference is in nuance/emphasis:

• był smutny, ale ciekawy
  → Core idea: it was sad, but still interesting. You acknowledge the sadness first, then “rescue” it by saying it was interesting.

• był ciekawy, ale smutny
  → Core idea: it was interesting, but sad. You highlight its interesting side first, then add sadness as a drawback.

So word order can slightly change what you’re highlighting, but both are correct.

Are ciekawy and interesujący the same?

They are very close in meaning, and often interchangeable:

• ciekawy film – an interesting film
• interesujący film – an interesting film

Subtle differences:

• ciekawy is very common, short, and neutral; you’ll hear it a lot in everyday speech.
• interesujący can sound a bit more formal or “bookish”, and sometimes suggests more intellectual interest.

In this sentence, you could say:

• Wczorajszy film był smutny, ale ciekawy. ✅
• Wczorajszy film był smutny, ale interesujący. ✅

Both are natural.

Could we change the word order to Film wczorajszy był smutny, ale ciekawy or Film był wczorajszy, smutny, ale ciekawy?

Film wczorajszy był smutny, ale ciekawy sounds unusual or poetic. Adjectives in neutral Polish usually come before the noun, but this specific adjective (wczorajszy) placed after the noun feels stylistically marked, like in literature or special emphasis.

Film był wczorajszy, smutny, ale ciekawy is grammatically possible but odd in meaning. It sounds like “The film was yesterday’s, sad, but interesting” – as if you are listing properties of the film: “yesterday’s, sad, but interesting”. It doesn’t sound like what a native speaker would naturally say in this context.

The most natural version is:

• Wczorajszy film był smutny, ale ciekawy. ✅

Another neutral option (changing the topic order) could be:

• Ten film z wczoraj był smutny, ale ciekawy. – That film from yesterday was sad but interesting.

How should I pronounce wczorajszy and ciekawy (especially the tricky consonants)?

Key points:

wczorajszy – [f‑t͡ʂo‑RAI‑shih] (approx.)

• wcz – pronounced together, roughly like fch:
  • w sounds like English v or f depending on position; here it blends into cz.
  • cz is like English ch in church, but a bit harder.
• ra – like ra in radar (short a).
• j – like y in yes.
• sz – like sh in ship.
• Final y – a short, hard “i”, between English i in sit and e in bed.

ciekawy – [chye‑KAH‑vih] (approx.)

• cie – soft ć
  • e, sounds like chye (like tch
    • y).
• ka – ka as in car, but short.
• wy – w ~ v, y like in smutny/wczorajszy.

Stress in Polish is almost always on the second-to-last syllable:

• w-czo-RAJ-szy
• cie-KA-wy