Word
Dookoła jeziora jest piękny las.
Meaning
There is a beautiful forest around the lake.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Dookoła jeziora jest piękny las.
Why is it jeziora instead of the dictionary form jezioro?
The preposition dookoła (around) requires the noun following it to be in the Genitive case. For neuter nouns ending in -o like jezioro, the Genitive ending is -a, which turns it into jeziora.
Where is the word for "there" in this sentence? Why does it just say jest?
Polish doesn't have a direct equivalent to the English "there is" or "there are" structure. You simply use the verb jest (is) or są (are). So jest piękny las literally means "is a beautiful forest", which we naturally translate as "there is a beautiful forest".
Why don't piękny and las change into the Genitive case too?
A preposition only affects the object connected directly to it. Dookoła affects the lake, so only jeziora takes the Genitive case. The phrase piękny las (beautiful forest) is the subject of the sentence—it is the thing that exists—so it stays in the basic Nominative case.
Could I change the word order and say Piękny las jest dookoła jeziora?
Yes, you can! Polish word order is very flexible. However, putting Dookoła jeziora at the beginning of the sentence is a great way to set the scene by establishing the location first, which sounds very natural when describing a landscape.