Questions & Answers about Kuchenka jest nowa.
Kuchenka is a stove / cooker – the appliance you cook on (with burners/hobs, sometimes with an oven attached).
Common related words:
- kuchnia – kitchen (the room), but also in everyday speech can mean a stove/cooker in some regions or contexts.
- piekarnik – oven (the baking part only).
- kuchenka mikrofalowa – microwave oven.
So in this sentence, kuchenka is not the room; it’s the cooking appliance.
Because adjectives in Polish must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
- kuchenka ends in -a and is feminine singular.
- The nominative feminine singular form of nowy is nowa.
Compare:
- stół jest nowy – the table is new (stół = masculine)
- kuchenka jest nowa – the stove is new (kuchenka = feminine)
- okno jest nowe – the window is new (okno = neuter)
So nowa is chosen because kuchenka is feminine.
Both are in nominative singular feminine.
- kuchenka is the subject, so it is in nominative singular feminine.
- nowa is a predicate adjective describing the subject, so it also appears in nominative singular feminine to agree with kuchenka.
Pattern:
[subject in nominative] + jest + [adjective in nominative]
In standard Polish:
- After być (jest, jestem, są, etc.)
- adjective, you normally use the nominative, not the instrumental.
- Kuchenka jest nowa. – correct (adjective in nominative)
- adjective, you normally use the nominative, not the instrumental.
The instrumental after być is mainly used with nouns that say what someone/something is (role, profession, function):
- On jest nauczycielem. – He is a teacher.
- Ona jest lekarką. – She is a doctor.
But with adjectives that describe a quality, you say:
- On jest zmęczony. – He is tired.
- Ona jest gotowa. – She is ready.
- Kuchenka jest nowa. – The stove is new.
Kuchenka jest nową sounds wrong or at best very odd in modern standard Polish.
In your sentence, the structure is:
[subject] + jest + [adjective]
→ Kuchenka jest nowa.
To jest works differently. It’s used mostly like this is / that is / it is before a noun:
- To jest kuchenka. – This is a stove.
You normally do not say To jest kuchenka nowa to mean The stove is new. Instead you would say:
- To jest nowa kuchenka. – This is a new stove.
So:
- Kuchenka jest nowa. – The stove is new. (describing an already known stove)
- To jest nowa kuchenka. – This is a new stove. (introducing a stove as new)
They are close in meaning, but the focus is different: description vs introduction.
Polish has no articles like English a/an or the.
Kuchenka jest nowa can mean, depending on context:
- The stove is new.
- A stove is new.
The definiteness (whether it’s a or the) is understood from context, situation, or previous conversation, not from a specific word.
Yes, grammatically you can, but the meaning changes slightly.
- Kuchenka jest nowa. – The stove is new. (you name the object)
- Ona jest nowa. – She/it is new.
Ona is a feminine pronoun (she / it for feminine nouns). You would use Ona jest nowa only when it’s already totally clear from context that you’re talking about the stove (or some other feminine noun).
Typical natural sequence:
- Ta kuchenka? – This stove?
- Tak, ona jest nowa. – Yes, it is new.
In the original single sentence, Kuchenka jest nowa is clearer for a learner.
You can, but the nuance changes.
- Kuchenka jest nowa. – neutral, most typical word order.
- Nowa jest kuchenka. – marked, sounds like emphasis or contrast:
- something like It’s the stove that is new (maybe other things are not new).
Polish allows flexible word order, but:
- Subject–verb–complement (Kuchenka jest nowa) is the most neutral and common here.
- Moving elements to the front usually adds emphasis or contrast.
Make both the noun and adjective plural:
- kuchenka (sg) → kuchenki (pl, feminine)
- jest (sg) → są (pl)
- nowa (sg fem) → nowe (pl non‑masculine‑personal)
Result:
- Kuchenki są nowe. – The stoves are new.
Two common ways:
Add czy at the beginning (neutral, textbook style):
- Czy kuchenka jest nowa? – Is the stove new?
Use only intonation (common in speech):
- Kuchenka jest nowa? – The stove is new? / Is the stove new?
Both are correct. With czy, it’s clearly a yes/no question in writing; without czy, you rely on spoken intonation.
Formally, kuchenka looks like a diminutive (ending -enka) of kuchnia, but in modern usage it’s a normal, neutral word for a stove / cooker.
It does not normally feel like little kitchen or cute kitchen in everyday speech. It’s simply the standard word for the appliance.
If you wanted a real diminutive of kuchenka (for a toy stove, for example), you might hear:
- kuchenka zabawkowa – toy stove
or another explicit phrase, not a special cutesy form.