Breakdown of Ten pies jest największy na świecie.
być
to be
pies
dog
ten
this (m)
duży
big
na
on, at / to (motion toward) / for (a meal) / for (waiting for)
świat
world
Questions & Answers about Ten pies jest największy na świecie.
How do we get największy from the word for "big"? It doesn't look like duży.
Duży (big) is an irregular adjective. Its comparative form (bigger) is większy. To make the superlative (biggest), you just add the prefix naj- to the comparative form, giving you największy.
Does the superlative adjective still change its ending to match the noun?
Yes! Even though it has the naj- prefix, it still acts like a normal adjective. Because pies (dog) is a masculine noun, we use the masculine singular ending -y, making it największy. If we were talking about a feminine noun, it would be największa.
Why does the sentence use na świecie instead of w świecie for "in the world"?
Some phrases in Polish just use different prepositions than English does. To say "in the world", Polish always uses the preposition na (which usually means "on"). You can think of it as saying "on the world".
Why does the word świat (world) change to świecie here?
The preposition na requires the Locative case when describing a physical location. For the noun świat, adding the Locative ending -e causes the final t to soften into a ci sound, resulting in świecie.
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