Ta góra jest wyższa niż wszystkie budynki w naszym mieście.

This mountain is higher than all the buildings in our city.

Breakdown of Ta góra jest wyższa niż wszystkie budynki w naszym mieście.

• być: to be
• w: in
• nasz: our
• miasto: the city
• ta: this
• niż: than
• budynek: the building
• wszystkie: all
• góra: the mountain
• wyższy: higher

Questions & Answers about Ta góra jest wyższa niż wszystkie budynki w naszym mieście.

Why is it ta góra and not ten góra or to góra? What exactly does ta mean?

Polish has gendered demonstratives (roughly like this/that):

• ten – masculine
• ta – feminine
• to – neuter

The noun góra (mountain) is feminine, so you must use the feminine form ta.

Ta góra literally means this mountain (or that mountain, depending on context).
Polish does not have a separate word for the, so ta is not a real article like the; it's a demonstrative, used when you specifically want to say this/that mountain rather than just a/the mountain.

Why does góra end in -a? Does that mean it is feminine?

Yes. In Polish, many (not all) nouns ending in -a are feminine.

• góra – feminine, nominative singular
• It agrees with ta (feminine this) and wyższa (feminine higher).

So ta góra is a feminine noun phrase in the nominative case, acting as the subject of the sentence.

Why is it wyższa and not wyższy or wyższe?

Wyższa is the comparative form of wysoka (high/tall) in the feminine singular nominative:

• basic adjective: wysoki / wysoka / wysokie (m / f / n)
• comparative: wyższy / wyższa / wyższe

Wyższa must agree with góra in:

• gender: feminine
• number: singular
• case: nominative (because it’s a predicate describing the subject)

So: Ta góra jest wyższa... – wyższa matches góra.

Why is it wyższa and not something like bardziej wysoka for more high?

Polish has two ways to make comparatives:

1. Synthetic (built-in) comparative – change the adjective:

   • wysoki → wyższy (high → higher)

2. Analytic comparative using bardziej:

   • interesujący → bardziej interesujący (interesting → more interesting)

Common, short adjectives like wysoki almost always use the synthetic comparative (wyższy, wyższa, wyższe).
Saying bardziej wysoka is grammatically possible but sounds unnatural and is almost never used in this kind of sentence. Native speakers will say wyższa here.

What is the role of niż? Could I also use od instead?

Niż is a conjunction used in comparisons, similar to English than:

• Ta góra jest wyższa niż wszystkie budynki... – This mountain is higher than all the buildings...

You can often also use od (a preposition) in comparisons:

• Ta góra jest wyższa od wszystkich budynków w naszym mieście.

Differences:

• niż is followed by a phrase in the same case that it would have in a full clause:
  • (underlying: ...niż wszystkie budynki są → nominative)
• od requires the genitive:
  • od wszystkich budynków

Both versions are correct and natural; the sentence you gave just chooses the niż pattern.

Why is it wszystkie budynki, not wszystkich budynków?

Both are possible, but they belong to different comparison patterns:

1. With niż:

   • Ta góra jest wyższa niż wszystkie budynki w naszym mieście.
   • wszystkie budynki is in the nominative plural (non‑masculine‑personal).
   • Underlying idea: …niż wszystkie budynki (są).

2. With od:

   • Ta góra jest wyższa od wszystkich budynków w naszym mieście.
   • wszystkich budynków is genitive plural, required by od.

So in your exact sentence, wszystkie budynki is correct because it follows niż.
If you changed niż to od, you’d have to change wszystkie budynki → wszystkich budynków.

Why is wszystkie and not wszyscy or wszystko?

The forms of wszyscy/wszystkie/wszystko depend on what you’re referring to:

• wszyscy – “all” for people, masculine personal plural
  (e.g. wszyscy ludzie – all people)
• wszystkie – “all” for things / non‑masculine‑personal plural
  (e.g. wszystkie budynki – all buildings)
• wszystko – “everything” (neuter singular, mass/abstract)

Budynki (buildings) are things, not people, so you must use wszystkie budynki.

Why is it w naszym mieście and not w nasze miasto?

Because w (in) uses different cases depending on meaning:

• Location (where?) → w
  • locative
    • w naszym mieście – in our city (static location)
• Movement into (where to?) → w
  • accusative
    • wchodzę w nasze miasto – I enter our city (movement into)

Your sentence talks about where the buildings are (a location), not movement, so w naszym mieście uses the locative case:

• naszym – locative singular (masc./neuter), agreeing with mieście
• mieście – locative singular of miasto

Why does naszym end in -ym? Why not nasze or naszymi?

Nasz (our) declines to agree with the noun it modifies.
Miasto is:

• neuter
• singular
• here: locative case (after w = in, for location)

The correct form of nasz in neuter singular locative is naszym:

• nominative: nasze miasto – our city (subject/basic form)
• locative: w naszym mieście – in our city

Naszymi would be an instrumental/locative plural form; it doesn’t match a singular noun.

Why does miasto change to mieście?

Miasto (city) is a neuter noun. In the locative singular, many neuter nouns ending in -o change like this:

• miasto → w mieście
• miasto (N) → mieście (Loc)

The changes:

• ending -o → -e
• consonant st → ść (palatalization)

This is a regular pattern for some neuter nouns, so you just need to learn the locative form w mieście as part of the noun’s paradigm.

What cases and genders do the main nouns and adjectives have in this sentence?

Breakdown:

• ta – feminine, singular, nominative (demonstrative)
• góra – feminine, singular, nominative (subject)
• wyższa – feminine, singular, nominative (predicate adjective agreeing with góra)
• wszystkie – non‑masculine‑personal plural, nominative (or accusative in form; here matching budynki)
• budynki – non‑masculine‑personal plural, nominative (in the niż comparison pattern)
• w – preposition requiring locative for static location
• naszym – masculine/neuter singular, locative (agreeing with mieście)
• mieście – neuter singular, locative (object of w)

How would the sentence change if I said These mountains are higher than all the buildings in our city?

You would make the subject plural and keep everything else mostly the same:

• Te góry są wyższe niż wszystkie budynki w naszym mieście.

Changes:

• Ta góra jest → Te góry są
  • ta (this, fem. sg.) → te (these, non‑masc‑pers. pl.)
  • góra (mountain, sg.) → góry (mountains, pl.)
  • jest (is, 3rd sg.) → są (are, 3rd pl.)
  • wyższa (higher, fem. sg.) → wyższe (higher, non‑masc‑pers. pl.)

The rest (niż wszystkie budynki w naszym mieście) stays the same.

How do you pronounce góra, and what does the letter ó represent?

Góra is pronounced roughly like GOO‑rah:

• g – as in go
• ó – pronounced like u in rule (the same sound as Polish u)
• r – rolled/trilled
• a – like a in father

In modern standard Polish:

• ó and u are pronounced the same.
• The difference is historical and orthographic, not phonetic in everyday speech.

So góra sounds the same as if it were spelled gura, but gura would be incorrect spelling.