Mój ojciec nosi ciemny krawat, a ja wolę szarą marynarkę bez krawata.

My father wears a dark tie, and I prefer a gray jacket without a tie.

Breakdown of Mój ojciec nosi ciemny krawat, a ja wolę szarą marynarkę bez krawata.

• ja: I
• mój: my
• a: and
• woleć: to prefer

Questions & Answers about Mój ojciec nosi ciemny krawat, a ja wolę szarą marynarkę bez krawata.

Why is it mój ojciec, not some other form of mój?

Because ojciec is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case. The possessive adjective mój has to agree with ojciec in gender, number, and case.

• ojciec = masculine singular nominative
• so: mój ojciec = my father

If the noun changed case, mój would change too. For example:

• Widzę mojego ojca = I see my father
• Pomagam mojemu ojcu = I help my father

So here mój is nominative because ojciec is nominative.

Why is it ciemny krawat after nosi? Shouldn’t the object change form?

It is the object, but krawat is a masculine inanimate noun, and in Polish the accusative singular of many masculine inanimate nouns looks exactly like the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: ciemny krawat
• accusative: ciemny krawat

That is why nothing appears to change.

Compare that with a masculine animate noun:

• nominative: dobry pies = a good dog
• accusative: widzę dobrego psa = I see a good dog

So krawat does take accusative after nosi, but the form happens to stay the same.

Why is it szarą marynarkę, not szara marynarka?