Mama tuli małe dziecko.

Mom cuddles the small child.

Breakdown of Mama tuli małe dziecko.

• mały: small
• dziecko: the child
• mama: the mom
• tulić: to cuddle

Questions & Answers about Mama tuli małe dziecko.

Why is it małe dziecko and not mały dziecko?

Because the adjective has to agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

Dziecko is:

• neuter
• singular
• here it is in the accusative case

The adjective mały changes to match that, so:

• masculine: mały
• feminine: mała
• neuter: małe

So we get małe dziecko = small child.

Why is dziecko not changed in this sentence, even though it is the object?

Because some nouns have the same form in the nominative and accusative singular.

Here, dziecko is the direct object of tuli, so it is in the accusative case. But the accusative singular of dziecko happens to look exactly the same as the nominative singular:

• nominative: dziecko
• accusative: dziecko

So the case is different in function, even though the form does not change.

Why does małe stay the same too? Shouldn’t the accusative look different?

For neuter singular adjectives, the nominative and accusative forms are usually the same.

So:

• nominative: małe dziecko
• accusative: małe dziecko

That is why both words look unchanged, even though the phrase is functioning as the object.