Learn Polish: To jest wesoły chłopak.

To jest wesoły chłopak.

This is a cheerful boy.

Breakdown of To jest wesoły chłopak.

the boy / the boyfriend

wesoły

cheerful

Questions & Answers about To jest wesoły chłopak.

Since this lesson is about making adverbs, how do we turn the adjective wesoły into an adverb?

To make an adverb out of wesoły (cheerful), we drop the -y ending and add -o. The adverb is wesoło (cheerfully). For example, you could say On wesoło śpiewa (He sings cheerfully).

I remember learning that the verb 'to be' usually takes the Instrumental case. Why are wesoły and chłopak in the Nominative case here?

When you use a personal pronoun like on (he), you use the Instrumental case, for example: On jest wesołym chłopakiem. However, when you introduce something or someone using the specific phrase To jest (This is), the noun and its adjectives must always stay in the Nominative (dictionary) case.

Can chłopak mean something other than 'boy'?

Yes! While chłopak means 'boy', it is also the most common word for 'boyfriend'. You will often hear sentences like To jest mój chłopak (This is my boyfriend). Context usually makes it clear which one is meant.

If I wanted to say 'This is a cheerful girl', how would the adjective change?

The adjective must match the noun in gender. Since dziewczyna (girl) is feminine, the adjective drops the masculine -y ending and takes the feminine -a ending. The sentence would be To jest wesoła dziewczyna.