Learn Polish: Czy to stare krzesło jest dobre?

Czy to stare krzesło jest dobre?

Is this old chair good?

Breakdown of Czy to stare krzesło jest dobre?

Questions & Answers about Czy to stare krzesło jest dobre?

Why do the adjectives stare and dobre both end in "-e"?

They end in "-e" because they are describing krzesło (chair), which is a neuter noun. In Polish, when you describe a neuter noun in its basic form (the Nominative case), the adjectives must take the neuter "-e" ending.

Why do we use to here for "this"?

The word for "this" has to match the gender of the noun. Because krzesło is neuter, we use the neuter word to. If the noun were masculine, we would use ten, and if it were feminine, we would use ta.

I see the word jest means "is", but what is Czy doing at the beginning?

Czy is a special question word used to ask yes/no questions. It doesn't translate directly into an English word here, but it acts like a signal that turns the statement To stare krzesło jest dobre (This old chair is good) into a question.

Can adjectives appear in different places in a Polish sentence like they do here?

Yes, just like in English! The adjective stare (old) is right before the noun it modifies, making stare krzesło (old chair). The adjective dobre (good) comes after the verb jest (is). Even though they are in different places in the sentence, both adjectives still have to match the neuter gender of krzesło.