Breakdown of Ten stary las jest duży, ale dzisiaj nie ma słońca.
być
to be
mieć
to have
nie
no / not
ten
this (m)
stary
old
duży
big
dzisiaj
today
ale
but
słońce
sun
las
forest
Questions & Answers about Ten stary las jest duży, ale dzisiaj nie ma słońca.
Why is it słońca instead of słońce?
Because of the phrase nie ma (there is no). In Polish, when you state that something is missing or doesn't exist using nie ma, the thing that is missing must take the Genitive case. The basic dictionary form is słońce (sun), and its Genitive form is słońca.
How do we form the Genitive for a word like słońce?
Słońce is a neuter noun because it ends in -e. To make it Genitive, we drop the -e and add -a, giving us słońca. This is the standard rule for neuter nouns ending in -o or -e (like piwo becoming piwa).
Does nie ma literally mean "does not have"?
Yes, literally it translates to "he/she/it does not have." However, it is used as a fixed phrase in Polish to mean "there is no" or "there isn't." Whenever it is used this way, it always forces the noun that follows into the Genitive case.
Why are ten, stary, and duży in these specific forms?
They are describing the noun las (forest), which is a masculine word. Because las is the subject of the first part of the sentence, it is in the basic Nominative case. Therefore, the adjectives ten (this), stary (old), and duży (big) must also be in their basic masculine Nominative forms to match.
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