To był miły weekend.

It was a nice weekend.

Breakdown of To był miły weekend.

• być: to be
• to: this
• weekend: the weekend
• miły: pleasant

Questions & Answers about To był miły weekend.

Why does the sentence start with To? What does To mean here?

In this sentence To is a neutral demonstrative pronoun that you can translate as “It” or “That”:

• To był miły weekend. → It was a nice weekend. / That was a nice weekend.

Polish often uses to + być (to be) in sentences like this, where English would just say “It was …”.
So to doesn’t literally mean “this” here in a pointing sense; it’s more like a general “it/that” introducing a statement about something that just happened.

Why is it był and not jest? What is był exactly?

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

• jest = is (present)
• był = was (past, masculine)
• była = was (past, feminine)
• było = was (past, neuter)

So To był miły weekend. literally: “It was a nice weekend.”
You’re talking about a weekend that is already finished, so you use był (past tense), not jest (present).

Why is it był and not było, if to looks neuter?

Good eye: to is formally neuter, but in sentences like this, the verb usually agrees with the real noun being described, not with to.

The “real” thing here is weekend, which is masculine. That’s why the verb is masculine:

• To był miły weekend.
  
  • weekend = masculine → był (masc)

Compare:

• To była miła wycieczka. – It was a nice trip.
  
  • wycieczka (trip) = feminine → była
• To było miłe spotkanie. – It was a nice meeting.
  
  • spotkanie (meeting) = neuter → było

So: agreement is with weekend, not with to.

Why is miły used and not miło?

Miły is an adjective; miło is an adverb.

• miły = nice, pleasant (describes a noun: weekend, person, evening)
• miło = nicely, pleasantly (describes a verb / situation more abstractly)

So:

• To był miły weekend. – It was a nice weekend. (miły describes weekend.)
• Było miło. – It was nice / It was pleasant. (miło describes the general feeling, no specific noun mentioned.)

Here we’re describing the weekend itself, so we need the adjective: miły.

Does miły mean exactly “nice”? When do you use miły?

Miły usually means “nice, pleasant, kind”, and it has a rather soft, polite, positive feel. You use it for:

• people:
  
  • On jest miły. – He is nice / kind.
• events/experiences:
  
  • To był miły weekend. – It was a nice weekend.
• situations:
  
  • To było bardzo miłe. – That was very nice (of you).

Other common “nice” words in Polish and their flavor:

• fajny – very informal, cool / nice / fun
• przyjemny – pleasant, enjoyable, a bit more neutral/formal
• ładny – pretty, good-looking (for appearance, not weekends)

So miły weekend is like “a pleasant, nice weekend”, with a warm tone.

Why is miły in this exact form? Is it agreeing with weekend?

Yes. In Polish, adjectives agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

• weekend is masculine singular, nominative
• therefore miły is also masculine singular, nominative

So:

• miły weekend – a nice weekend (masc sg nom)
• miłego weekendu – (of) a nice weekend (masc sg genitive)
• miłym weekendem – with a nice weekend (masc sg instrumental)

In To był miły weekend., the phrase miły weekend stands in the nominative, because with być (to be), both sides are in nominative.

Is weekend a Polish word or just English used in Polish?

Weekend is borrowed from English, but it is now fully integrated into Polish:

• It declines like a regular masculine inanimate noun:

  • weekend – (nom) the weekend
  • weekendu – (gen) of the weekend
  • weekendowi – (dat) to/for the weekend (rare in practice)
  • weekend – (acc) the weekend (same as nominative for inanimate)
  • weekendem – (instr) with/by the weekend
  • weekendzie – (loc) about/on the weekend

• It’s written with lowercase (like most common nouns in Polish): weekend, not Weekend.

So it’s an English loanword, but behaves grammatically like a normal Polish noun.

Why is the word order To był miły weekend, not To miły był weekend or something else?

The most natural, neutral order here is:

• To był miły weekend.

Typical pattern with to in such sentences is:

To + [form of być] + [adjective + noun]

You could sometimes shuffle elements for emphasis, but not every permutation sounds good. For example:

• Weekend był miły. – also correct, but slightly different focus (emphasizes the weekend as topic).
• Był to miły weekend. – correct, slightly more “literary” or formal, often used in storytelling.

Forms like To miły był weekend sound very unusual or poetic, not standard conversational Polish.

Is the noun weekend in nominative or accusative here?

It’s in the nominative.

With the verb być (to be), both the subject and the complement are in the nominative case in Polish. Here, to is the grammatical subject-like element, and miły weekend is the predicate noun phrase, which also stays in nominative:

• To był miły weekend. – nominative
• Compare: Lubię miły weekend. – I like a nice weekend.
  Here, miły weekend is the direct object, so it’s in the accusative, but for masculine inanimate, accusative looks the same as nominative, so the form doesn’t change.

Could I say just Był miły weekend without To?

No, that sounds wrong to a native speaker.

You normally need either:

• To był miły weekend. – using to as the “it/that”

  or

• Weekend był miły. – making weekend the clear subject

Był miły weekend. on its own lacks a natural subject-like element at the beginning and feels ungrammatical or very odd.

What’s the difference between To był miły weekend and Weekend był miły?

Both are grammatically correct and mean basically “It was a nice weekend.”, but the nuance and typical use differ:

• To był miły weekend.

  • Very common as a summary/comment right after the weekend ends.
  • Feels like: “That was a nice weekend (we just had).”

• Weekend był miły.

  • Feels more like a factual statement about the weekend, or part of a narrative:
  • e.g. Weekend był miły, ale krótki. – The weekend was nice, but short.

So To był miły weekend is slightly more natural as a standalone comment.

How would this sentence change with a feminine or neuter noun instead of weekend?

The verb and adjective would have to agree with the noun’s gender.

• Masculine (as in the original):

  • To był miły weekend. – It was a nice weekend.

• Feminine:

  • To była miła wycieczka. – It was a nice trip.
  • To była miła kolacja. – It was a nice dinner.

• Neuter:

  • To było miłe spotkanie. – It was a nice meeting.
  • To było miłe doświadczenie. – It was a nice/pleasant experience.

Notice how był / była / było and miły / miła / miłe all change to match the noun.

How do you pronounce To był miły weekend?

Approximate pronunciation (using English-like spelling):

• To – toh (short, like “toe” but without a diphthong)
• był – biw (like English “bill” but with a w at the end, closer to “bew”)
• miły – MEE-wih (stress on MI, final -y is like a relaxed “i”)
• weekend – WEE-kent (stress on the first syllable, like Polish words)

With syllable stress marked:

• TO był MI-ły WEE-kent

Polish stress is almost always on the penultimate (second from last) syllable of a word; weekend is treated as a two-syllable word: WEE-kend, stress on WEE.

Is weekend always masculine? Could it ever be feminine or neuter?

Weekend is fixed as a masculine inanimate noun in Polish. It does not change gender.

So you will always have:

• ten weekend (this weekend – masculine)
• miły weekend (nice weekend – masculine adjective)
• To był weekend. (It was a weekend – masculine verb form)

You would never say ta weekend, miła weekend, or To była weekend.