Breakdown of Matematyka jest trudna, ale ciekawa.
być
to be
ciekawy
interesting
ale
but
trudny
difficult
matematyka
mathematics
Questions & Answers about Matematyka jest trudna, ale ciekawa.
Why are trudna and ciekawa in the nominative case here instead of the instrumental?
When using the verb być (to be) to connect a subject directly to an adjective, Polish uses the nominative case for the adjective. You only use the instrumental case after być when connecting the subject to a noun phrase, like in the sentence Matematyka jest trudnym przedmiotem (Mathematics is a hard subject).
Is the comma before ale required?
Yes. Unlike in English where commas before "but" can sometimes be optional depending on the clause, Polish punctuation rules require you to always put a comma before contrastive conjunctions like ale (but), lecz (but), and więc (so).
Could I use the word interesująca instead of ciekawa?
Absolutely. Ciekawa and interesująca both mean "interesting" and are completely interchangeable here. Ciekawa is a bit more common in everyday, casual speech, while interesująca sounds slightly more formal.
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