Word
To są moje buty.
Meaning
These are my shoes.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about To są moje buty.
Why do we use to for 'these'? Shouldn't it be a plural word?
When using the 'These are...' structure to point things out, Polish keeps it very simple. You always use to, whether you're pointing at one thing (to jest) or multiple things (to są). The verb changes to plural, but the word to stays exactly the same.
Why does the plural word buty end in -y?
The singular word for shoe is but, which is a masculine object. In the plural, masculine inanimate objects belong to the 'non-virile' (niemęskoosobowe) category. To make them plural in the nominative case, you generally add the ending -y. Therefore, but becomes buty.
Why is the word for 'my' spelled moje here?
Moje is the plural form of 'my' used specifically for non-virile nouns. You use it for plural groups of anything that doesn't include men (such as women, animals, and objects). Because shoes (buty) are objects, they take this non-virile form.
Could I just say To moje buty and leave out the word są?
Yes! When you use to at the start of a sentence to mean 'this is' or 'these are', you can often drop the verb są (are) or jest (is). Both To są moje buty and To moje buty are correct and sound completely natural.