Questions & Answers about Ten dom jest stary i mały.
Why do we use i here instead of a for "and"?
In Polish, i is used to connect two similar things that simply go together, like two adjectives describing the same house. The word a is used when you want to show a slight contrast or a change of subject, like saying "This house is old, and/while that one is new" (Ten dom jest stary, a tamten jest nowy).
Could we use ale (but) in this sentence instead of i?
Why is it ten dom instead of to dom?
Because dom (house) is a masculine noun, we must use the masculine word for "this", which is ten. You would use to if you were just pointing and saying "This is a house" (To jest dom), but when "this" directly attaches to a specific noun (like "this house"), it has to match that noun's gender.
Why do both stary and mały end with -y?
Adjectives in Polish change their endings to match the gender of the noun they describe. Since dom is a masculine noun (you can usually tell because it ends in a consonant, like m), both "old" and "small" take the standard masculine singular ending -y.
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