Learn Hardcore Polish: Ten pokój jest ładny, bo ma jasne meble i spokojny klimat. - This room is nice because it has light furniture and a calm atmosphere.

Many masculine nouns end in a consonant in the basic (nominative singular) form.
Here the basic form is pokój; it doesn’t end in -a, -o, -e, which are common for feminine or neuter.

You’ll often see pokój in other forms, e.g.:

pokoju – in the room (w pokoju) – genitive/locative
pokojem – with the room (z pokojem) – instrumental

But in Ten pokój jest ładny, it’s nominative masculine singular.

Why is it jest ładny and not something like jest ładnym?

With adjectives describing a quality (nice, big, small, red, etc.) after być (to be), Polish usually uses the nominative case:

Ten pokój jest ładny. – This room is nice.
Ta książka jest ciekawa. – This book is interesting.

You would use ładnym (instrumental) in structures like:

Ten pokój jest ładnym pokojem. – This room is a nice room.

Here you have room = a nice room, so both sides are nouns (with an adjective), and the second part goes into instrumental. In the original sentence, ładny is just a predicate adjective in nominative.

What’s the difference between ładny and piękny?

Both mean something positive:

ładny – nice, pretty, pleasant-looking; fairly neutral, everyday word.
piękny – beautiful, very nice; stronger, more “impressive” praise.

In everyday speech:

Ten pokój jest ładny. – This room is nice / pretty.
Ten pokój jest piękny. – This room is beautiful (sounds stronger, more enthusiastic).

Why is there a comma before bo?

In Polish, you normally put a comma before bo when it introduces a reason clause:

Nie idę, bo jestem zmęczony. – I’m not going, because I’m tired.
Ten pokój jest ładny, bo ma jasne meble… – This room is nice, because it has light furniture…

So , bo … is standard punctuation when giving a reason, similar to , because … in English.

What’s the difference between bo and ponieważ?

Both mean because, but they differ in style:

bo – very common in spoken and informal Polish; completely correct, just more casual.
ponieważ – more formal or “bookish”; used in writing, essays, formal speech.

You can usually replace bo with ponieważ without changing the meaning:

Ten pokój jest ładny, ponieważ ma jasne meble…

In everyday conversation, bo is more natural.

Why is it ma jasne meble and not something like są jasne meble?

Literally, ma jasne meble means (it) has light furniture:

ma – has (3rd person singular of mieć – to have)
jasne meble – light-colored furniture

Saying są jasne meble would be more like there are light pieces of furniture, which sounds odd if you’re describing the room’s features. In Polish, you very often say that a room has something:

Pokój ma duże okno. – The room has a big window.
Pokój ma jasne meble. – The room has light furniture.

Why is it jasne meble and not jasny mebel?

Two reasons:

Meble means furniture in general and is grammatically plural (there’s no singular mebel in this meaning in modern standard Polish; mebel exists but means a single piece of furniture).
Adjectives agree in number and gender with the noun, so:
- jasne meble – light furniture (plural)
- jasny mebel – a light (colored) piece of furniture (singular)

In the sentence, you’re talking about the whole set of furniture, so jasne meble.

What case are jasne meble and spokojny klimat in?

They are in the accusative case:

The implicit subject is pokój (the room).
The room ma (has) what? → jasne meble and spokojny klimat.

In Polish, the direct object of most verbs (including mieć – mieć) takes the accusative.

For masculine inanimate nouns like klimat, nominative and accusative have the same form:

Nominative: klimat jest spokojny
Accusative: ma spokojny klimat

For plural meble, nominative and accusative are also the same form here, so you only see the difference in function, not in the word shape.

Why is it spokojny klimat and not spokojna atmosfera, since the meaning is “calm atmosphere”?

Both are possible:

spokojny klimat – literally “calm climate”, but very commonly used metaphorically as calm atmosphere/mood.
spokojna atmosfera – calm atmosphere (slightly more literal).

Polish often uses klimat in a figurative sense:

Ten lokal ma fajny klimat. – This place has a nice vibe/atmosphere.
W domu jest miły klimat. – There’s a pleasant feeling/vibe at home.

So spokojny klimat is idiomatic for “a calm, peaceful vibe/atmosphere.”

What exactly does klimat mean here? Is it about weather?

No, here klimat does not mean weather or meteorological climate. It is used figuratively to mean:

atmosphere
vibe
mood
feeling of a place

So spokojny klimat is more like a calm, peaceful vibe of the room, not about temperature or weather.

Is the word order fixed, or could I say the sentence differently?

Polish has flexible word order, so you can rearrange parts, but you must stay natural. Variants like:

Ten pokój jest ładny, bo ma spokojny klimat i jasne meble.
Ten pokój jest ładny, bo ma spokojny klimat i meble jasne. (the last one sounds a bit more marked/emphatic)

The original order:

…bo ma jasne meble i spokojny klimat.

is the most neutral and sounds very natural. Putting ma (has) later (e.g. bo jasne meble ma…) is possible but gives a slight emphasis and is less basic for learners.

Could I say Ładny jest ten pokój instead of Ten pokój jest ładny?

Yes, but the nuance changes slightly:

Ten pokój jest ładny. – neutral statement: “This room is nice.”
Ładny jest ten pokój. – sounds more like “Nice, this room (is)”, with a bit of emphasis on ładny. It can feel a bit more stylistic or expressive.

For learners, Ten pokój jest ładny is the safest and most neutral pattern to use.