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Ten telefon jest tam.

Ten telefon jest tam.
This phone is there.
From Lesson 4:Demonstrative pronouns (ten, ta, to)·Polish

Breakdown of Ten telefon jest tam.

być
to be
tam
there
ten
this (m)
telefon
phone

Questions & Answers about Ten telefon jest tam.

Why do we use ten here instead of ta or to?
Ten is the masculine word for 'this'. We use it here because telefon (phone) is a masculine noun. You can usually tell it is masculine because it ends in a consonant. If the word were feminine, we would use ta, and if it were neuter, we would use to.
I learned that to means 'this'. Can I say To telefon jest tam?
No, you have to use ten. The word to by itself is often used to mean 'this is' or 'it is' (like in To jest telefon - 'This is a phone'). But when you attach 'this' directly to a noun to say 'this specific phone', you must match the noun's gender. Because telefon is masculine, it must be ten telefon.
Does the word tam change its ending like nouns do?
No, tam (there) is an adverb, which means it simply describes where something is. In Polish, adverbs never change their endings. It will always be tam whether you are talking about a masculine phone or a feminine book.
If tam means 'there', how would I say 'This phone is here'?
The word for 'here' is tu (or tutaj). To say 'This phone is here', you would simply swap the last word: Ten telefon jest tu.

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