Breakdown of Jaki jest ten dom? — Nowy.
być
to be
dom
house
ten
this (m)
nowy
new
jaki
what kind of, what ... like (asks for an adjective)
Questions & Answers about Jaki jest ten dom? — Nowy.
Why does the sentence use jaki for "what" instead of co?
In Polish, co means "what" when asking for the identity of an object (like "What is this?" - Co to jest?). However, jaki asks for a description or quality, translating closer to "What kind of..." or "What is ... like?". Because we want to know about the house's qualities, we use jaki.
Why are we using ten instead of to for "this"?
Ten is the masculine form of "this", used here because the noun dom (house) is masculine. If we were talking about a neuter noun like drzewo (tree), we would say to drzewo, and for a feminine noun, we would use ta.
Does the word nowy change depending on the object?
Yes! Polish adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because dom is masculine, we use the masculine adjective form nowy. If we were describing a feminine noun, it would be nowa, and for a neuter noun, it would be nowe.
Why does the Polish answer just say nowy instead of a full sentence like "It is new"?
Polish conversational style is very efficient and often drops words that are already clear from context. Because the question already establishes we are talking about the house, you can naturally reply with just the descriptive word nowy.
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