Ten płyn pachnie ładnie, ale proszek do prania stoi w łazience.

This liquid smells nice, but the washing powder is in the bathroom.

Breakdown of Ten płyn pachnie ładnie, ale proszek do prania stoi w łazience.

• w: in
• ale: but
• ten: this
• pachnieć: to smell

Questions & Answers about Ten płyn pachnie ładnie, ale proszek do prania stoi w łazience.

Why is it ten płyn and not ta płyn or to płyn?

Because płyn is a masculine singular noun, and ten has to agree with it in gender and number.

• ten = masculine singular
• ta = feminine singular
• to = neuter singular

So:

• ten płyn = correct
• ta płyn = incorrect
• to płyn = incorrect

This kind of agreement is very important in Polish.

Does ten mean this, that, or the here?

Literally, ten is a demonstrative pronoun, so it most directly means this.

So ten płyn is most literally this liquid / this detergent.

However, when English translates a sentence naturally, ten can sometimes feel a bit like the if the object is already known from context. Polish does not have articles like a and the, so learners sometimes notice that ten seems to “add specificity.”

Still, grammatically, ten is not an article. It is a word meaning this.

What exactly does płyn mean here?