Learn Polish: Ten film jest niezły. - This film is pretty good.

In Polish, niezły is often an understatement used as a genuine compliment. While it literally translates to "not bad," in everyday conversation it means "quite good" or "pretty good." If someone says a movie is niezły, they definitely enjoyed it!

Why is niezły in the nominative case instead of the instrumental case after jest?

You use the instrumental case after jest (to be) when you connect a noun with another noun, like Ten film jest hitem (This film is a hit). However, when you describe a noun with only an adjective after the verb, that adjective stays in the nominative case.

Why is niezły written as a single word rather than nie zły?

In Polish, the negation particle nie (not) is attached directly to basic adjectives to form a single word. You only write them as two separate words if you are making a direct, strong contrast, such as nie zły, ale tragiczny (not bad, but tragic).

I sometimes confuse ten and to. Why can't I say To film jest niezły?

When "this" points to a specific noun in the sentence (like "this film"), it acts as an adjective and has to match the noun's gender. Since film is masculine, you use ten. You only use the neutral to when saying "This is..." generally, as in To jest niezły film (This is a pretty good film).