"So... that": tak..., że...
To express an extreme cause and its immediate result, use the correlative structure tak..., że... (so... that). Place tak before an adjective or an adverb to emphasize its intensity, and że to introduce the resulting event.
| The wind was so violent that it knocked down this old tree. | Wiatr był tak gwałtowny, że powalił to stare drzewo. |
| It blew so hard that nothing could be seen. | Wiało tak mocno, że nie było nic widać. |
"Enough... that": na tyle..., że...
To state that a condition was sufficient to trigger a specific outcome, use na tyle..., że... (enough... that). Like tak, na tyle is placed before an adjective or adverb, with że leading the result clause.
| The hurricane was violent enough that it destroyed the whole bridge. | Huragan był na tyle gwałtowny, że zniszczył cały most. |
| The warning came early enough that we drove out of the city. | Ostrzeżenie przyszło na tyle wcześnie, że wyjechaliśmy z miasta. |
Extreme Weather and Consequences
These resultative clauses are often used to describe dramatic natural events, such as a flood (powódź) or a severe freeze, and their immediate impacts.
| The flood was so big that water flooded the market square. | Powódź była tak duża, że woda zalała rynek. |
| The lake froze hard enough that it was possible to walk on it. | Jezioro zamarzło na tyle mocno, że można było po nim iść. |
If the intense cause is expressed with a noun phrase rather than just an adjective or adverb, use the appropriately declined form of taki (such/so) instead of tak.
| The wind blew with such speed that it destroyed the whole roof! | Wiatr wiał z taką prędkością, że zniszczył cały dach! |
Finally, you can use these structures to talk about emergency responses, like an evacuation (ewakuacja), or when assessing the severe consequences (skutki) of a disaster.
| The evacuation was fast enough that nobody died. | Ewakuacja była na tyle szybka, że nikt nie zginął. |
| The consequences of the hurricane were so terrible that evacuation was the only solution. | Skutki huraganu były tak straszne, że ewakuacja była jedynym rozwiązaniem. |