Learn Polish: Ten samochód jest mały, ale drogi. - This car is small, but expensive.

Ten samochód jest mały, ale drogi.

This car is small, but expensive.

Breakdown of Ten samochód jest mały, ale drogi.

Questions & Answers about Ten samochód jest mały, ale drogi.

Why do we use ale here instead of the other word for 'but', a?

The word ale is used to show a strong contrast or an unexpected difference, exactly like 'but' in English. Here, it contrasts the car being small with it being expensive. The word a is used more for comparing two different subjects, like saying 'I am tall, while you are short'.

Is the comma before ale required?

Yes! In Polish, you must always put a comma before the conjunction ale, even in very short sentences like this one.

I usually see to jest for 'this is'. Why does this sentence start with ten?

When you are just pointing to something and saying 'This is a car', you use the fixed phrase To jest samochód. But when 'this' directly attaches to a specific noun (like 'This car...'), it has to match the noun's gender. Because samochód is a masculine word, 'this' becomes ten.

Why does mały end in -y but drogi ends in -i, if they both describe the same masculine car?