Word
Bank jest obok poczty.
Meaning
The bank is next to the post office.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Bank jest obok poczty.
Why does the word for post office end in -y (poczty) instead of -a (poczta)?
The preposition obok (next to) requires the noun that follows it to take the genitive case. For most feminine nouns ending in -a, like poczta, you drop the -a and add -y to make it genitive.
Does obok always change the word that comes after it?
Yes! In Polish, prepositions demand specific grammar cases. The word obok always requires the genitive case. Other location words like blisko (near) also use the genitive case, so this is a great pattern to remember for directions.
I learned that 'is' can sometimes be translated as to. Why do we use jest here?
You use to when defining what something is (for example, stating 'This is a bank'). However, when you are talking about the physical location of something, you must use the verb być (to be). Here, jest is the correct form for 'it is'.
Why is there no word for 'the' before Bank?
Polish does not use articles like 'a', 'an', or 'the'. The word Bank by itself can mean 'a bank' or 'the bank'. You just rely on the context of the conversation to know which one is meant.